how big of a pen do i need for 2 sebastopols?

[hdowden]

RURU how big are those kennels? they would be aloud to free range under super vision for part of the day and put up at night

 

[Cottage Rose]

AS BIG AS POSSIBLE. Down falls to being penned all the time...
Geese do not like to be penned up and they will eat/kill off the grass/trees in no time flat and then all you will have is dirt, mud/manure covered pen which will breed disease and parasites. Geese love to graze on grass and will be bored to death in a pen unless its very large. My smallest pens are 30 x 30 and they are only utilized during the breeding season for one trio. My other main pens are 50 x 100.
I rotate my geese so they all have opportunities to free range. If penned all the time you will need to give them hay and twigs daily to eat and play with.
You might want to look into electric poultry netting which is portable and can be easily moved around and will allow your geese access to grass and prevent boredom. If you have a dog problem you will need to have them enclosed some place at night. Dogs and wild predators can dig under a fence and so if you have a pen you will need to bury some wire in the ground around the pen so dogs or wild predators cannot dig in. Also for climb over and owl issues a secure top will be needed as well. Coons will grab necks heads thru the fence and kill.
When its dark at night geese might as well be blind so if ones too near to the side...its a sitting duck, er goose. Good luck!

 

[RURU]

I have the pen 12' x 12' for them to sleep in at night only. They free range during the day.

 

[ChristineR]

In that case, make the pen as big as possible or portable, or you will have them in a mud pit pretty quickly.

I would not give them dog food. Geese do not need the animal by-products that dog food has, or all that corn either. I still don't understand why people think dogs should eat that much corn.

Most geese are not tropical, so they are built to make it through winter pretty easily with just additional grains, grassy hay and whatever vegetables you find they like. Mine are particularly fond of turnip greens and carrots, both of which I keep in the garden all year. Its amazing how the greens survive even under snow. If you can utilize some of that acreage to start them little food plots, you'll be in good shape.

x2 I keep my Seb pair in a portable 10' x 10' pen (chain link dog kennel) at night and I have to move it pretty much every day (at least in the winter, during the summer I can get away with every other day), otherwise it turns into a mud pit. Obviously, this isn't an option if you aren't strong enough to move a pen that big.

Geese are primarily herbivores, way different than dogs, so you don't want to feed them like omnivores or carnivores.

I have our sebastopols in big dog kennels the larger the better. We have welded wire on the top and all around the bottome of the whole kennel so racoon fingers can not get in there to them.Tarps across the top, back and two sides. Use ties to keep the tarps in place. My husband made the tops like a roof with the tarps.

Mine are set up the same. Racoons have climbed on top of my duck pens and tried to rip the wire off the top. They are very enterprising little critters!

 

[hdowden]

i have never seen a coon around here no matter what time of day it is its just the dogs and owls that hang around that tends to be a problem. i free range most of my chickens and have paid the price for it to lost over 15 of them to dogs -__- haven't lost anything to anything else although the owls are out there and i have seen them they haven't seemed to mess with the chickens yet so have *knock on wood*

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

coyotes, coons, possums, fox, dogs, bobcats, minks, fisher the list goes on and on. You will be surprised what predators are around the second you add an open air pen with waterfowl in it.

 

[hdowden]

that's my biggest fear with getting them, the predators. i don't want to get them just to have something turn around and kill them a few months later. i have had enough of that with my chickens and with them its always the pullets/hens so it leaves me with more cockerels/roos than ladies for them