Newbie in many ways!

[livininbrazil]

A pair is good, and some even keep trios but sometimes one of the geese will get left out if the gander decides he only wants one mate then you have the decision of getting another gander for the lone goose which isn't always bad if you have the property for it. and of course you may even be blessed with lil gosling down the line too. And goose eggs are very tasty.
I think ya'll thinking this through and getting prepared is a thumbs up.

x2
Regarding a trio, in my experience the gander is totally besotted by one female. He´ll mate with others, too, and they can make their own nest, but it´s his favourite that gets his attention. The favourite shouts, and he goes running, etc... the trouble with mine is when the less favourite female has her little gozzies and the gander takes them off to his favourite female. I´ve lost gozzies that way, they got cold at night, as they didn´t have their mom, as she was kept away, and the favourite female was still incubating, and didn´t want to brood them. I now have two females sitting on eggs. One is the favourite female, and the other is one that only the 'taken' gander wanted to mate with, so she has eggs, but when she´s close to hatching them out, I shall put a fence around her so the gander can´t steal her babies.
Crazy birds! I have the older gander with his Mrs, and his bit-on-the-side, both sitting. The second goose doesn´t have her own gander, although there are enough to go round for the breeding females this year, but two of my ganders are too busy keeping company with each other, and another young gander just walztes around, making a non-conventional trio, with his eye on a cross-bred female that has already paired off with his brother, not what I actually wanted, but it was a 'love' thing through the fence, so I let them stay together. (too soft, me!) Result, out of 4 young auto-sexing ganders to breed form this year, only one is doing his bit, although that´s with a goose I didn´t want him to do his bit with! Never mind, I have 18 Pilgrim- or Normandy-type eggs under birds from matings that I´m happy with, so we´ll see how it all pans out...

The pieds still haven´t got serious yet, just mating so far.

We seem to be leaving like flocks of geese!

Made a start clearing the patch of land today, lot of bramble and acacia tree but we can see the ground/grass now, another half day at it tomorrow and it should be looking pretty good, just gotta decide how many terraces to go up, we think we only need a pair? Or should we be considering two geese to one gander?

The more you dig the more complicated it seems, i'm sure a lot of folk just dive in but we want to do this properly.

Thanks again all, nice to see a busy thread

You´ll be fine with just a pair. They´re not like chickens or ducks that need lots of females per male. And make sure your grass is nice and short for them, as long grass is not good for geese.
Well done on your hard work.

 

[Numero182]

Blimey! sounds hard work but totally rewarding, geese sound like real characters! can't get the place ready quickly enough now.

 

[livininbrazil]

Blimey! sounds hard work but totally rewarding, geese sound like real characters! can't get the place ready quickly enough now.

I have about 20 at the moment, love them.

 

[Numero182]

20 cripes!? Not sure we'll get to those heady heights, a pair is going to be work enough I think but can see it being addictive, can't wait now.

 

[livininbrazil]

20 cripes!? Not sure we'll get to those heady heights, a pair is going to be work enough I think but can see it being addictive, can't wait now.

Some folks on these threads have more than I do.
And they´re breeding again, so later I´ll have a lot more!

totally addictive.

 

[Numero182]

So I thought i'd give you an update by way of a couple of photos of the cleared space for the geese and see if you had any advice for me before i continue, this area was 8 feet high with bramble and ivy so has taken some effort but we're there now, not full of green luscious grass either but beggars can't be choosers.

as you can see our land is terraced so we'll be putting in some ramps so that they can move about the terraces, a 2mx1m house? somewhere in the middle and chicken wire around the chestnut fence posts, plastic coated or galvanised?

any other advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks all.

 

[Miss Lydia]

So I thought i'd give you an update by way of a couple of photos of the cleared space for the geese and see if you had any advice for me before i continue, this area was 8 feet high with bramble and ivy so has taken some effort but we're there now, not full of green luscious grass either but beggars can't be choosers.

as you can see our land is terraced so we'll be putting in some ramps so that they can move about the terraces, a 2mx1m house? somewhere in the middle and chicken wire around the chestnut fence posts, plastic coated or galvanised?

any other advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks all.

Looks great. Is the chicken wire just to keep the geese in their space? because it won't keep out predators. Coated would look nicer if your wanting to keep it looking good for your guests but reg would be fine too.

 

[livininbrazil]

So I thought i'd give you an update by way of a couple of photos of the cleared space for the geese and see if you had any advice for me before i continue, this area was 8 feet high with bramble and ivy so has taken some effort but we're there now, not full of green luscious grass either but beggars can't be choosers.

as you can see our land is terraced so we'll be putting in some ramps so that they can move about the terraces, a 2mx1m house? somewhere in the middle and chicken wire around the chestnut fence posts, plastic coated or galvanised?

any other advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks all.

We have a steepish bank here, which they go up if they want to, so that shouldn´t be a problem for yours.
Seems great! You´ve worked hard. Any chance of smoothing out a slope along the fence? You know, taking the edge off the terrace to make it easier for them to get up and down, as it was before it had a terrace there? I expect the geese would use this. They prefer more level ground, as they have such short legs, but they manage slopes too no problem.

Plastic coated may get brittle and they could nibble of bits and swallow them. I use galvanised here.
The size of the night-time house will be fine for two. Of course, if there´s a chance you´ll have, be better to build a bigger one to start with.

 

[Numero182]

Thanks for the comments!

So if chicken wire won't keep the foxes out do i need a fencing with larger holes and heavier gauge wire?

Good point on the house size, think there is enough land space for more than two though?

Wouldn't want to flatten off the terraces as the soil here is very loamy and as terraces will help with water run-off it can only help with land slides which are a bit of a problem here, long wooden ramps would be ok though?

Do i need to bury the fence if i get electric too? And how high to keep out mr fox?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks for the comments!

So if chicken wire won't keep the foxes out do i need a fencing with larger holes and heavier gauge wire?

Good point on the house size, think there is enough land space for more than two though?

Wouldn't want to flatten off the terraces as the soil here is very loamy and as terraces will help with water run-off it can only help with land slides which are a bit of a problem here, long wooden ramps would be ok though?

Do i need to bury the fence if i get electric too? And how high to keep out mr fox?

We have 4'high no climb fencing with 1 strand of barb wire around the top. We didn't bury since our ground is so rocky. Haven't had anything including foxes try to dig under. some do run a hot wire around bottom and top of their galvanized fence to keep out preds.We live on the side of a mountain and our geese do fine going up and down many times during the day. Great exercise for them. I think the only breed that may have a problem here would be the heavy weight dewlap Toulouse.