Good Weeders? Toulouse & American Buff

[Bleenie]

I am familiar with Toulouse geese but don't know if they're good weeders? I have an established garden that is full of weeds needing to be eaten/pulled. I am trading a friend some jam for a female Toulouse goose, I am hoping she will take well to the runner ducklings i have and teach them they won't die if they leave the coop, and also teach them how to forage!

Just in case she doesn't like the ducklings, I found some American Buff goslings on CL for a fair price and am thinking of getting one just in case but I know Nothing about this breed. Do they forage well? are they calm? noisy? or are they just big piggy lumps like Embdens?

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

runner ducks are just naturally nervous ducks. They are also omnivores where as the geese are herbivores so their foraging techniques will be greatly different. The geese will graze off and on all day long (should be the largest part of their diet), and will eat a wide variety of green vegetation. They wont discriminate between garden plants you want and weeds though. As an average American geese and Toulouse are quieter than say Africans.

 

[kristen2678]

I was hoping to use my runners and toulouse in the garden too. The geese are way to big and are stepping on everything. They love peppers and the plant part of the eggplant. Same goes for the ducks. While they don't trample everything, no pepper or cherry tomato is safe. I'd love to hear from someone who is using them successfully.

As far as temperament goes they are pretty laid back. They get vocal when they are asking for food, but otherwise really wonderful.

 

[larkflying]

I've only heard of using them in large fields of one crop that geese really don't care for. Potatoes were mentioned for sure, as was corn when it gets larger. Ideally you would feed them piles of the weeds found in your garden as goslings, and then they would be all primed to eat as soon as they were old enough to go outside. Then you fence them into the patch - it has to be big to supply all their food. The key is to put them into the field when the crop was large but the weeds were small, so they would still eat them. (I can see them not liking potatoes, but corn seems a lot like goose food to me. I can see all the leaves clipped short)

I gave up on the idea as soon as I saw the geese foraging. They don't like broad leaved weeds, which then go to seed creating more weeds. We have a lot of thistles, and they don't eat those. They are great for grasses and clovers, but will eat all their favorite bits out of the pasture, and prefer grasses that are on the shorter side. They do a great job if you also mow, but otherwise the pastures end up being kind of odd looking, with clumps of weeds here and there, and very short grass. Plus, they have a random habit of just nibbling on things. I don't trust them with garden plants. They ate the new growth off of my fir trees, which they are supposed to not like, and some tops off of the raspberries. I shudder to think of them loose in the main garden . . . Plus, it wouldn't exactly be pleasant to work in the garden with goose poo all over the ground . . .

Now, I still have the geese -- love them and their personalities. They do eat a LOT of grass and they save a bit on mowing in our fallow pastures -- we just have to mow every now and then to keep the thistles and weeds down. The geese take care of the grasses, and fertilize next years fields at the same time. My American Buff are calm, pleasant geese with great personalities, and they are very active in foraging around for grass . . .

As far as teaching the ducks -- ducks are born knowing how to forage. They are more successful in the gardens because they don't eat as many plants, and they so love bugs and slugs. They will eat some garden plants though, so you'd have to supervise until you know what they like and don't like.

 

[Bleenie]

Okay well, being herbivores, will the geese help with the slugs at all? That's why I finally ended up getting the runners because I sold all my Muscovy then realized the yard was going to be riddled with slugs again. I can nix the garden idea but it'd be nice if the goose could help coax the little boogers out into the yard. If it doesn't work I will have to get a different breed, just liked that the runners don't eat a ton of feed.

 

[larkflying]

My ducks are Welsh Harlequin, and they don't need coaxing to go into new slug areas -- when I move their fence they are right there hunting for goodies. I don't have any experience with runners though. It is possible that if they are raised with the geese that they will follow them about . . .

The slugs are why I have the ducks . . . they just love them so much, and I love seeing them get eaten!