Need info on American buff geese

[Silver Spring Waterfowl]

JRooster, do you have any pictures of your Blues? I'd love to see them!

 

[daze333]

Thank you again Kathy!

That is what I was thinking too. To separate them for the breeding season, then together for the rest of the year.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

Kathy,
I think that Awesome information..I want some American Buffs and that is exactly what I needed/wanted to know.

 

[Kiery1105]

Is it okay to only get one Buff gosling to grow up with ten ducklings or do I need to get another gosling?

 

[Silver Spring Waterfowl]

DinahMoe, I would just bet that you have had some experience with the Goose and Expensive Taste in Flora. Do tell!

 

[Silver Spring Waterfowl]

Kiery1105,
Never get just one goose. They really need the interaction with their own kind. If you already have some, that might be okay, but you may have to separate them at some point, even with two.

You've got a better shot at integrating them if you don't raise them wth the ducks. They'll imprint on the ducks, and that might be great when they're small, but they'll think of themselves as ducks, not geese. They need to learn how to be geese before they learn to get along with ducks. Once they grow larger than the ducks, you could have a real problem with the geese bullying the ducks. Same goes for chickens and other small birds.

They are far more likely to get along if they're raised in sight of each other, but not in the same flock. They can be the same sex, but you really need 2 minimum. Mine seem to be most comfortable in a minimum group of three. I've also raised guineas with goslings and chicks with goslings. It was fine for the sibling geese, but both the guineas and chickens grew up thinking they were geese. We finally had to dispatch both the Guinea Mafia and the Roosters. The guineas ran the younger geese so badly (one month younger) that they nearly killed one young goose and permanently crippled my biggest gander in that group. They were my original Buff geese. The young roosters hit puberty and actually killed 1 gosling the was 2 months old. We thought it was a racoon, but on broad daylight in the afternoon? I caught them in the act with their second victim. I really wouldn't recommend it. They're not like kittens or puppies. They imprint and it sticks for life. We don't always think through all the ramifications of future behavioral problems when we put them together. Better safe than. Oh, sold geese to someone who abandoned them to her chickens. They had serious problems. Ruined those geese permanently and lost several chickens in the process.

 

[MsMelvin]

 

[The goose girl]

Quote:
You should really, really get two goslings.

A lone gosling may imprint on the ducklings and initially be fine. If the gosling doesn't imprint on the ducks, it will be miserable. And if it does imprint, you may get all sorts of problems later on, as they are different species with different behaviour. The goose may bully the ducks, or the ducks bully the goose.

 

[sianara]

Lots of great info here. I'm also thinking of getting two female pilgrim geese in the spring. My thought was to raise them within the existing 6 ducks run. I was planning to keep them seperate (but still visible to) from the ducks until they were the same size as the ducks and then letting them integrate. Now I'm thinking this might NOT be such a good idea according to your #16 post above Kathy?

 

[MsMelvin]

Quote:
You should really, really get two goslings.

A lone gosling may imprint on the ducklings and initially be fine. If the gosling doesn't imprint on the ducks, it will be miserable. And if it does imprint, you may get all sorts of problems later on, as they are different species with different behaviour. The goose may bully the ducks, or the ducks bully the goose.

If I can chime in here and recommend you get three goslings...incase something happens to one. In my case one of my two died at a couple weeks of age. Then here I was scrambling to find another (late in the season) to keep Lucy company...ended up with a duck (I never wanted a duck). Luckily the goose was larger than the very young duck so she still acts like a goose.

Now I have to find two buff female goslings this spring and find a great home for the male Pekin...he's nice and all but I wanted geese. Besides he's trying to get fresh with Lucy and she is definately not happy about it. I just hope she can tolerate him until I can get a couple more geese...

Luckily; she was human imprinted well before the duck came into the picture. She honks really loud, once, when she sees me coming out in the morning....quacks me up!!!!