How do geese winter?

[phoenix_rising]

Hi all!
We live in NE Washington in the mountains and our local feed store has chinese white and brown geese. They are so adorable I want a pair! We've never had geese and my hubby is really worried about how well they'd winter. (mind you this is the man who bought an acordian heater for the hen house so it stayed above 70)
Our chickens live up in our attached garage during the winter in a hen house that we created in that space. We don't have enough space up at the house for another house for the geese...at least I don't think so. We do have a three sided metal garage that we're planning on putting the goose house in. I'm putting them in the corner so I only need to build two walls. The place isn't insulated, but I planned on lining the metal walls with plywood so there's at least dead space between the metal wall and the geese...is there anything else I'll need to do? I plan on having a heat lamp in there and I'm not going to make it too big so their body heat and the heat lamp should be enough right?

Or is my husband right and we shouldn't get geese because the winter will be too much. I'd hate to get them and then tortour them with winter! That'd be awful....

 

[Eastins Eggs]

We have White Chinese geese here in Nebraska. They stay outside all winter long. It can get down to -20 here and they do just fine. Just make sure they have access to unfrozen water.

 

[phoenix_rising]

We get lots of snow (or at least we did this winter) and we get as low as -40. Do you get much snow in Nebraska? I can't imagine anything wanting to be outside in our winter! Our chicken's outright refuse to set foot outside until the snow is gone, but then again we have auracanas and they're kinda skinny and small even for their breed

 

[Eastins Eggs]

Ducks and Geese are better suited to deal with cold weather. If you are worried about snow build them a simple 3 sided shelter to get under. I have seen our Ducks and Geese outside buried under snow. They would rather be outside than inside even in bad weather.

 

[Wifezilla]

My ducks have a covered pen. Inside that pen is a large hutch with a door, complete roof, and dry deep litter. Where were they during our recent snow storms?

Out in the back yard in the snow

Knuckle-heads!

 

[goosedragon]

Well if you were born with a Down jacket (instead of paying big money for one) You would be Ok with the snow too. Those big webbed feet tend to act like snowshoes for light geese and ducks. There only two things that tend to bother them, high winds and a lack of open water.

 

[catnip]

I live in Nebraska too and it was cold and snowy this past winter. My geese did fine. They have an extra large dog house filled with straw they would would go into at night. During the day, they were out even when it was below zero and the wind was blowing 30mph or better.

I made sure they had places to get out of the wind, good quality feed and open water. It was cold enough this past winter that when they would take a quick bucket bath the water would bead up, and freeze on their backs. During those few weeks where it was below zero constantly, I could tell my goose wasn't as happy. But, she still would go out during the day and hunker down on the snow. She was happier when the temps finally got above zero and stayed that way. The gander didn't seem to mind the fridged temps at all.

 

[Pretty Pony]

My geese all stayed mostly outside all winter long. I have a dog house with straw in each pen and have a heated water bucket for them. They were just fine. I worried more about the winter blizzards we got but if they wanted to get out of the wind, they just went to the other side of the dog house. I did give them a flake of alfalfa hay and extra cracked corn on the very cold days.

 

[vinoo cameron]

My geese all stayed mostly outside all winter long. I have a dog house with straw in each pen and have a heated water bucket for them. They were just fine. I worried more about the winter blizzards we got but if they wanted to get out of the wind, they just went to the other side of the dog house. I did give them a flake of alfalfa hay and extra cracked corn on the very cold days.

I am excited, I see Amish white geese live out all winter, They feed them hay grass, pumpkins , greens , potatoes and vegetable scraps, apples, and some grain may be. They get water from the horses barn. I get snow piles I wonder if their feet would sink in. I got myself three Roman tufted chicks now as I retire at age 70, I like their warrior type personality , they walk straight , heads up , and they do not whine . I come from a British Army type Military family from India, so I like the geese . They are vigilant.. I would hate to have chicken, their personality is wishy washy to me although, others may disagree

 

[Bluechick2u]

Geese seem to love the snow, they refuse to take shelter in the barn, they insist on running around in it even when there's 2 feet of snow and its -20 farenheit. I tried to offer them the same hot squash soup I gave my chickens, but they refused it, they only wanted orchard grass and their flockraiser pellets. They lost their mind with happiness when I put out a tub of hot water for them though, as it let them bathe for an hour before freezing solid. The only time all winter they went in their barn was when large hail fell, they ignored the tiny hail though