Need experienced geese opinions! =)

[greyfields]

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Absolutely. Management is identical.


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Not gonna answer. You can find charts in books; but it's reletaive information. How long do you need them to stay sheltered? just overnight? for days while you're away at work? It all changes the calculation radically.

All my shelters are made 8' wide by 4' long to make easy use of plywood. When I am growing ducks/geese, I could get 20 into that area comfortably. As they mature, I no longer lock them up at night. I imagine 8 would be pushing it for fullgrown geese.

 

[Riocotesei]

I want to make them a large pen with some "ponds" made of kiddie pools.
The pen will be around 30'x 30-40'ish (is that big enough?)
I mostly want a 3 sided house for them to be protected from the elements.
Your idea sounds good though. I could take 3 plywood sheets and make 2 8'x4' homes for them. One for Ducks and one for geese. Oh wait...you said that may be to small... should it be taller, or wider? Both?

To answer your questions though, most of the time someone will be home during the day. I'm not worried about predators, and since its Texas, not worried about the cold either.

As babies, I was thinking about a wire bottomed cage and one area have solid floor with a heatlamp. The wire area would have the water and food over there so it wouldn't make a mess.
Those are my ideas, what are your thoughts on it?

 

[raindrop]

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They are calm but active foragers. When they are hungry, the drakes let me walk right up and pick them up. The girls are a bit more wary. The only time they really quack is when the geese leave them or when they get separated from each other. Georgina is not that bright, sometimes she gets left behind on the pond when the others follow me back to the pen for dinner and the drakes come with me to go back to get her. I had 3 hens last fall and got 2 eggs per day until they stopped laying in late October. I found one hen dead last fall, not sure exactly what happened but I used to get many soft-shelled eggs and since she died all eggs have been good. I think she may have had an abnormality of her reproductive system.
I have really enjoyed them. From the pictures I have seen online, I don't think any of them have enough of a hook-shaped bill to be anything but pet quality. As of now I have no aspirations for hatching eggs but maybe when my kids can all dress and feed themselves we will work on them for 4-H or something. The only other duck breed I have know were runners, and these guys are much calmer and a little bit goofy.
Mrs. Holderread told me they were little clowns when I picked up the babies last spring, and they do make me smile every time I watch them.

 

[raindrop]

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The pools will be filthy and need to be changed frequently. I really like my movable electric net fencing. Keeps them in and predators out. The garden will to in the spring, I having them help me make a huge compost pile!

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You really just need shade I imagine, waterfowl are very cold and rain hardy compared to chickens.

 

[Riocotesei]

I know id have to change the water often because I have 2 duck now and I change it maybe 4 times a day possibly more.
The kiddie pools are temporary cause we do have the land to get a pond for them.

 

[Cottage Rose]

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They are calm but active foragers. When they are hungry, the drakes let me walk right up and pick them up. The girls are a bit more wary. The only time they really quack is when the geese leave them or when they get separated from each other. Georgina is not that bright, sometimes she gets left behind on the pond when the others follow me back to the pen for dinner and the drakes come with me to go back to get her. I had 3 hens last fall and got 2 eggs per day until they stopped laying in late October. I found one hen dead last fall, not sure exactly what happened but I used to get many soft-shelled eggs and since she died all eggs have been good. I think she may have had an abnormality of her reproductive system.
I have really enjoyed them. From the pictures I have seen online, I don't think any of them have enough of a hook-shaped bill to be anything but pet quality. As of now I have no aspirations for hatching eggs but maybe when my kids can all dress and feed themselves we will work on them for 4-H or something. The only other duck breed I have know were runners, and these guys are much calmer and a little bit goofy.
Mrs. Holderread told me they were little clowns when I picked up the babies last spring, and they do make me smile every time I watch them.

They sounds really cool!
Do you sell/ship hatching eggs or ducklings?

 

[raindrop]

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Not yet. Maybe this spring, but I have never tried to hatch any myself, mine were just hatched last spring. I am pretty sure the one male that I have with no hook to his bill should not be a daddy, we will see if I figure out a way to separate them.
Realistically, probably not until next spring.