Gotta love Geese

[Blynn91]

Who else loves their geese. I am completely obsessed and definitely want more what breeds do you guys have and what is your favorite?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I started with three, and am up to 20 with a batch hatching now. I used to be terrified of geese, now they are my favorite poultry species. I like buff American, pilgrims, and embden. I tried African, but they didn't work out. Too loud and aggressive towards other geese. I don't handle mine, but do have conversations with them. They are more reasonable after the breeding season is done.

 

[Goosebaby]

I have American Buffs, French Toulouse, a Classic Roman, and crosses between these breeds. Currently I have 11 geese, in total I’ve had 20 geese.
I love all of my ducks and geese but my 11 geese “which include several ganders” are far easier to deal with than my two drakes

 

[RoosterHeavy]

I have three bantam chicken coops and am considering geese this Summer. I would love some French Toulouse and would raise them from hatching. Do they get along with your chickens? Should I do a pair of females or a trio with one male and 2 females??

 

[judyc]

I've got three pairs of American Buffs, some goslings, and a few eggs left in the incubator. I've been battling infertility, so am going to put in a deeper pool in an effort to improve on that.

 

[Goosebaby]

I have three bantam chicken coops and am considering geese this Summer. I would love some French Toulouse and would raise them from hatching. Do they get along with your chickens? Should I do a pair of females or a trio with one male and 2 females??

The best you can hope for with combining geese with other birds is tolerance. In certain situations geese can bond closely with other bird species, but that’s usually a situation where a lone goose is in a mixed flock and it’s usually a one sided relationship born out of desperation. Geese really do better with their own kind.

You can keep geese with chickens if they’re in a large enough run that they can have their own personal space, geese don’t like their personal space invaded by other birds, especially zippy flighty ones which stress them out. A duck or chicken that can’t get away can get easily injured or killed by geese.

Geese get hormonal in winter/spring for breeding season, this makes them quick to anger and less rational. Ganders can consider anything or anyone who doesn’t spend a lot of time with him as a rival and won’t tolerate them near who he has bonded with.

From my own experience geese tend to be the ones that actually get bullied by smaller bolder birds, the problem is that when a goose has finally had enough even a small female can destroy a duck or chicken.
You can keep geese with chickens but making sure they have enough space to keep out of each other’s hair…or feathers, is key. I have geese and ducks and as long as the ducks don’t pester the geese or invade their personal space everyone gets along fine.
I strongly recommend having the geese in their own separate hutch or kennel at night for safety reasons but also sanitary reasons, geese sleep on the ground so they’ll inevitably have chicken droppings on them if chickens are roosting above them in a coop.

You can have a pair of females or females with one gander. From my own experience it doesn’t change the females behavior if they have a gander or not, the only difference is you’ll get a fertile eggs or not and your female will or won’t have their personal bodyguard.

 

[AgnesGray]

We have cotton patch and sebastopol geese. They’re amazing. The cotton patch flock was larger last year at 24, but I split it and sent some to a friend so we got down to a reasonable number. They’re great though.

The sebbies I haven’t had long. They hatched this year. They’re great though do seem very sweet though also so far.