Opinion on letting my geese roam a little outside of our garden?

[JRies]

Thank you, I really do appreciate the advice. I ended up leaving the server that criticised me as instead of being normal about advice they let one of their mods openly mock and belittle everything I said and then they claimed I was being too defensive for explaining my situation even got to the point where apparently I was abusive for not having wire boxes around every bird because a sparrow might poo in my garden or something lol

Some of it is just crazy. I would be up shits creek if sparrows were a problem. After all there every were. the good news is they are not carriers of AI. Do what you think is right for your geese just know the risks. All I was saying... My geese Have 2 acres to run so they are not locked in pens.

 

[Goosebaby]

Like everyone else has mentioned the obvious concern with free ranging is predation, ”I take it you’re in England?” so the only predators you should really be concerned about are feral/ unleashed dogs and foxes. Mink are tenacious little demons but they’re usually a concern more for goslings and chickens, geese are too big for them, mink can harass them though.

I do like to warn new goose owners about the dangers of free ranging or about the misconceptions about “guard geese” as geese are more fragile and vulnerable than they seem, but geese generally like to keep to familiar areas and from what it sounds like yours are sticking to common areas that you frequent that tend to be fairly safe due to it also being more rural, it’s not a situation like mine where I rely on my dogs to keep an eye on my geese and ducks when I’m not because I have bob cats, bears, and coyotes that frequent the area because I live in the sierras. It sounds like you have a great setup for your geese and I can guess they’re as happy as can be, everything comes with some risk, but you can’t live in a bubble and it would be inhumane to force an animal to live that way.
The only thing I would suggest if you’re not already doing it is to have a shed for them for night time.

HPAI has unfortunately become a serious concern but short of keeping your geese under permanent quarantine in your house it’s going to be pretty difficult to protect them from it.
Technically you could house them like poultry farms do in a large shed or in an open sided but roofed enclosure with fine mesh avian netting along the sides to prevent wild birds from interacting but the cost of creating a large enough run to keep them comfortable is going to be prohibitive and won’t necessarily prevent them from contracting the disease.

There are other potential diseases that can be encountered in nature, but just as many that can be encountered if they’re kept in a coop full time, and keeping them confined raises the risk of contracting other diseases as fecal buildup will breed bacteria As well as attracting rodents and possibly wild birds. Point is disease can’t be completely avoided no matter what you do. Open space and fresh water are generally lower disease risks than overused runs.