Keeping Chickens Free Range

[jtn42248]

Come on guys. I have 23 chickens that free range, have destroyed their range with scratching and poop huge globs of poop. I also have 20 ducks that poop volumes and have rutted their range area into something that resembles a lunar landscape in a cheap science fiction movie. And I have three geese that are incredibly clean in comparison.

There is a simple truth to any sort of poultry...or other bird for that matter right down to finches and parakeets...what goes in will come back out within 20 minutes max.

I would not part with any of my birds but I have said before, if I knew then what I know now, instead of a 62 bird mixed flock I would have 5 hens for eggs and 62 geese anytime.

 

[Free Feather]

The pros of having geese:

1. they will assure you of not getting company and being left alone

The Cons of having geese:

1. they poop every 3rd step.
2. they poop approximately 2 pounds of poop for every pound of body weight per hour.
3. they prefer sitting on front steps and sidewalks to any place else.
4. They poop every 3 minutes while sitting
5. Their poop is sticky green and everywhere
6. They will occasional go to their "swimming" area where they will wear the bank/edge down to mud and slide in and out of the water making a mess of the shoreline
7.They will drag their wet muddy bodies back to all chicken waterers and make them completely unusable with mud
8. They can make clean mud stink
9. They will poop in chicken feeders for fun
10. They will tip over chicken feeders and waterers if given half a chance
11. They will chase other birds (turkeys, chickens and guineas in my case) away from all feeders
12 they will follow chickens as they free range and harass them
13. they will poop where the chickens are trying to graze making the land unusable
14 they are noisey
15 they are dirty
16 every other step you take will be like stepping on a land mine of poop
17 their poop is slippery when you step on it
18 stepping on goose poop will cause you to fall down and roll in ,ore goose poop
19 They will destroy a garden in ways chickens only dream of
20 flowers are not exempt from their eating them
21 Flowers make good goose poop
22 If you have a hydrant they will camp by said hydrant making walking to it dangerous and smelly
23 Trying to chase a goose to an area you want them in is nearly impossible, one will always break free
24 Trying to round up geese requires knee high boots
25 When a goose poops the poop will fly up to 3 yards from the gooses butt
26 Goose poop will splatter and hit your ankles if they are near you
27 Geese require a fence rivalling fort knox to stay inside it



The list goes on, I suggest you buy a couple geese just to see what they are like

I think I want a thousand of them!

My Muscovy ducks used to shoot crap like five feet from their body, especially when you scared them. It was disgusting and hilarious and cute all at once.

 

[lazy gardener]

Oh now, come on, You forgot the plus side of geese: I've never had one, unless you count the Canada goose that showed up alone early one December when I was a kid. I lured it into our garage with some cracked corn, and kept it there for about 2 weeks, where it decided the perfect place to roost was on top of my mom's car. I bet you know what it did there every night, all night long? But, from what I've seen in the aftermath of geese grazing the lawns at the lake, goose poop would be the PERFECT soil amendment!

 

[K Epp]

The only place they have torn up the grass is were the coops used sit. I throw their good and snacks out there. They have free range of three acres. I for wish they would do their business in the grass and not on the sidewalk. Leaf blower cleans that right off though. Its my goats I either have to contain or get rid of. They eat every plant they can reach.

 

[blkjak]

Just about peed my pants duluthralphie! Too funny! So true but I still love my geese. The thing I hate the most is that they seem to take the most offence to my grandkids. The smaller you are the more they want to chase you!

 

[sunshynertc]

I was free ranging my hens and pullets in my quarter acre -- in the recent storms the fence between the back neighbor and our yard was blown down. I have to confine them so that they do not wander into the neighbors yard. I miss looking out of any of my back windows and seeing my hens or pullets.

 

[vpatt]

I was free ranging my hens and pullets in my quarter acre -- in the recent storms the fence between the back neighbor and our yard was blown down.  I have to confine them so that they do not wander into the neighbors yard.  I miss looking out of any of my back windows and seeing my hens or pullets.  

Can you bribe the neighbor with eggs?

 

[sunshynertc]

The house development is such that if they get out of his yard I have to drive for eight minutes to got to the front of my neighbors house. Yes I can bribe him, but it is not a good thing for them to get into his yard.

 

[duluthralphie]

The house development is such that if they get out of his yard I have to drive for eight minutes to got to the front of my neighbors house. Yes I can bribe him, but it is not a good thing for them to get into his yard.

You can't follow the chicken path to his house?

I am so glad I live in the middle of nowhere and my chickens can go wherever they want without upsetting anyone, but on the downside I get tired of them being chomped on by birds of prey.

 

[sunshynertc]

The new neighbors moved in a few months ago. I have spoken to them twice. I wish I lived on a larger parcel of land, but I have what I have. At least I live in the unincorporated part of the county so I get to own more hen than those in the "city." They are limited to two hen.