I need a guardian!

[enm0125]

I am having a problem with stray cats attacking my chicks and chickens! So Im thinking about getting a pair of geese to protect them. I had a friend tell me that he had a goose that would protect his chickens if anything that shouldn't be there came around! Is this true?? If so what is the best breeds? Also they can't be too mean, don't want them to run the kids off! Lol

Elisabeth

 

[The goose girl]

Sometimes geese will protect chickens - sometimes they will regard the chickens as "anything that shouldn't be there" and try to chase them away. Geese will always alert you loudly when they find something is off.

Grown geese generally don't care for children, but there are exceptions.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Don't buy geese to save your chickens. Build your chickens a safe and secure place to be that the cats can not get into. Our geese ignore the chickens and spend all of the time as far away from the chickens as possible.

 

[larkflying]

I agree that the geese might not protect the chickens . . . mine wouldn't purposefully. On the other hand, they don't like small, furry, animals. My cats used to follow me into the chicken yard, but after dealing with the geese following them around with their heads down and hissing the cats gave it up as a bad idea. That wasn't during breeding season. Now, I think the gander would have done more than hiss, and I would be either short a cat, or have one with less fur and a reformed character. Since the cats already know that chickens are yummy, you might need a stronger deterrent . . . you can usually get live traps from the Humane Society to get rid of feral cats . . .

My geese are American Buff geese, and during the non breeding season most of my children can go in and the geese ignore them. During the breeding season -- no way. My 12 year old who feeds them is the only one that can go in reliably. Even my 9 year old gets a little intimidated by the big ganders rushing and hissing. A fence might be a good first step and then you can see . . .