Housing for Geese

[LoneOakChickens]

I would love to get information on how you house your geese. I will have them locked up at night, and was wanting to get ideas. Near your pond and letting them free range during the day? If you have them locked at night away from the pond, do you herd them every night or do they "go to roost" on their own? (I know they don't roost, just an expression.) Thanks for any input.

 

[Pinckney]

I only House my geese in my horse barn in the winter. The rest of the year they are outside 24/7 in electric netting. To get them to go into the barn and their stall is easy, especially if they are used to a routine.
They prefer to be outdoors but have a place with cover during the day (they walk into the barn to nap).
They are a pain to move during the warm (grass) months as they seem to remember where the netting was. They don’t like narrow paths.
What critters are you needing to lock them up from? What about daytime? Stray dogs or foxes for example.

 

[LoneOakChickens]

We have coyotes, foxes, etc. around at night. We have ducks on our pond that stay there 24/7. We have a floating duck house in the middle of the pond, but did have a raccoon swim out and killed a duck that was sitting on eggs. I rarely see any stray dogs around our place at all.

 

[Pinckney]

What you have for your ducks should work for geese. If you can convince them to be on land at night I’d put them in electric netting. If they know that is where their dinner is and you train them you should be good with minimal prodding.
I did have a fox get tangled in netting but no experience with coyotes trying to get in. We have lots of them but I think they are avoiding my donkey.
I would not put them in something sized proportionally like people use with chickens. Too small. I did leave them outside all winter once (MI) with straw windbreaks and a 3foot tall chicken tractor deeply bedded that was under mature evergreens, and they almost always hung out under the trees. They refused to use the tractor when a bad storm (sub-zero temps, snow, wind) was coming and I added clear plastic to the sides. So now they spend most of their time in my barn during the winter. I leave the door open for them during the day but they caught on that staying inside was more comfortable. But it is a big space. And the 10x10 stall has bars at 4 ft which makes it more open.
Watch P Allen Smith geese videos for a nice setup if you want a building.

 

[LoneOakChickens]

Thank you so much for your input!

 

[donkeydew2farms]

Hi Pinckney I didn't think anyone watched P Allen Smith but me .

 

[Miss Lydia]

I like P Allen Smith

 

[Coocoo4Goosey]

I let mine free range and I have a huge pond where they sleep at night to stay safe. and only put them in a pen for the winter because the embdens couldn’t navigate the ice so well.
If you have protection like a pond or electric fence I suppose they could be out all night.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I only have 2 geese but they are put up every night in their secure house we haven't a pond and even then I would never be able to sleep knowing the predators we have so they get locked up every night.

 

[NorthernChick1]

hi @Miss Lydia. i know this is an old post. But ive been wanting to get geese the moment i started with chickens (over a year now). I dont know where to start though... what do they need for housing? How much square feet do they need? can/should they live with the chickens in the chicken coop. Do they need the same as a duck? (water, food and a roof)? do they need nesting boxes? should they be housed with ducks? I have no clue! i currently have a 8x7ft insulated coop with 9 chickens and 2 ducks attatched to a 16x16ft run.