Guard Geese?

[NYchickenMama1215]

We incubated eggs from our geese last year and ended up with 5 extra ganders.
I didn't want to eat them and I didn't know how I felt about selling them individually as guard ganders. I sold one to a loving home. He adapted really well and is doing great. I felt better about selling him by himself that I went ahead and sold the others. All have adjusted, but they were raised with chickens, ducks, and turkeys.
Now a few of the new owners want to add more geese.

That’s good to know, It would definitely have lots of company that’s for sure. I am planning to raise the goose/geese with the chickens so it would always have company, if I get any. What breed of geese do you have?

 

[SkyeT]

I too would like to know about breeds. We are preparing land to move into the country and was looking into 1 or 2 guard geese. We would hand raise whatever we got, and then introduce them when they were old enough to our 7 crazy ducks who they will be guarding and living with. I researched and the recommended guard geese were tufted roman, saddleback and chinese tufted roman, but good luck finding any of those anywhere around me! And I have had such horrid experiences with mail order babies that I will never ever do that again.

I have a few farms within driving distance here in Texas (4-5 hours for me) that have geese. So, knowing the best breeds would be helpful.

 

[NYchickenMama1215]

I too would like to know about breeds. We are preparing land to move into the country and was looking into 1 or 2 guard geese. We would hand raise whatever we got, and then introduce them when they were old enough to our 7 crazy ducks who they will be guarding and living with. I researched and the recommended guard geese were tufted roman, saddleback and chinese tufted roman, but good luck finding any of those anywhere around me! And I have had such horrid experiences with mail order babies that I will never ever do that again.

I have a few farms within driving distance here in Texas (4-5 hours for me) that have geese. So, knowing the best breeds would be helpful.

The tufted Roman is what I would like to get. I’m just waiting until spring and hoping that someone near me will have goslings for sale. Because I only want 1-2 I cant order goslings from anywhere. We live out in the country so I’m hopefull. I’ve always had good success in selling baby chicks that I’ve hatched myself. Lots of people have various poultry and waterfowl in our area.

 

[Cindarelly]

We have pilgrim and chinese mixes. I read somewhere that Chinese were the least likely to bother other poultry. I don't know it it's true, but our Chinese gander does tend to ignore the others, but the head gander, our Pilgrim gander is the deputy and keeps everyone in line...ducks too.

 

[NYchickenMama1215]

We have pilgrim and chinese mixes. I read somewhere that Chinese were the least likely to bother other poultry. I don't know it it's true, but our Chinese gander does tend to ignore the others, but the head gander, our Pilgrim gander is the deputy and keeps everyone in line...ducks too.

Haha that’s so funny! That’s good to know, I’ve been trying to do some research into different breeds but I have to say I just love the white and yellow combination of some of the breeds. They are just too cute.

 

[Cuccoosnest]

Hello, I have never had geese before but have been doing some digging into the idea of getting guard geese for my flock of chickens. We are increasing our flock this spring and was thinking of adding 2 geese to help watch over the flock. I’ve gathered that it is possible to have only 1 but it’s not advised. I’ve also read that if you get a male and female pair that they may just bond to each other obviously and do their own thing and not stay with the chickens. My question is would getting 2 females or 2 males be a way around that? That way they do have a companion that is like them but would hopefully keep their attention on the flock of chickens rather than a mate. Hope that makes sense and not cruel to deprive them of an actual “mate”. Like I said I have never had geese before so I’m just trying to understand what is best for them to see if they are an option for our family. Thanks!

Hello and welcome. We have three geese, one Sebastopol and a pair of Embdens. It has been said that geese are mostly defenseless against predators (they are), but you can't tell them that! Finnick (our Embden Gander) is amazing at running off pesky little predators and has chased off a couple of 'yotes already in the 8 or 9 months or so that he's been with us. We adopted he and his mate Katniss as a three year old mated pair back in the spring of last year.

 

[NYchickenMama1215]

Hello and welcome. We have three geese, one Sebastopol and a pair of Embdens. It has been said that geese are mostly defenseless against predators (they are), but you can't tell them that! Finnick (our Embden Gander) is amazing at running off pesky little predators and has chased off a couple of 'yotes already in the 8 or 9 months or so that he's been with us. We adopted he and his mate Katniss as a three year old mated pair back in the spring of last year.

Oh wow! that’s impressive! He’s definitely a keeper haha! I wonder if he’s bolder because he has his female to protect? I’m undecided if I should go with 1 or 2 and if they should be the same sex or one of each. This is my first toe into water fowl. Would be fun to maybe get ducks and more geese down the road.

 

[NYchickenMama1215]

Does anyone in the Tioga or Broome county NY area have Tufted Roman Geese and sell hatching eggs or goslings?