Roman vs Toulouse

[maskedburito]

Hi,

I want to get a pair of geese to add to my duck coop, rather large with a pond. It’s for my enjoyment but also be nice if the geese acted as guardians and will honk if predators are near. Also very important that they get along with my ducks.

I have the opportunity locally to either get tufted romans or Toulouse. With your experience which ones would be better guardians and safer to House with ducks?

 

[Goosebaby]

I have one Classic Roman “Delphi” so it’s hard to judge all romans on just my expierience with her, but she tends to be calmer than most of my Toulouse, that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have a spicy side to her though, I call her Delphi Dragon for a reason.
The Toulouse can be less level headed than she is, though they aren’t more or less “opinionated” I’d say than she is. I have a few Toulouse who are absolute mellow sweethearts, but geese are geese and even they get carried away if one of the other geese starts drama.

I can’t say either breed is necessarily safe around ducks. Some can be very friendly, other times they can be aggressive towards ducks, sometimes they can be too friendly to the point of drowning a duck while trying to mount it.
Geese are often friendly to ducks when raised with them, or if the geese raise the ducklings, goslings though are not safe around adult ducks, ducks from what I’ve seen do not like babies of other species, especially drakes.

Maybe my flock dynamic might summarize what’s more common in the relationship between ducks and geese.

I have quite a few geese and 4 ducks. Two of my geese lived with two of my ducks fine for a few years. Everything was peaceful until it wasn’t. “My mellowest gander Thor couldn’t stand the nightly duck porn fest going on next door and I had to separate them.” Currently the geese and ducks tolerate each other. They go about their business and ignore each other unless the ducks get too close and then the geese chase them away. The welsh harlequins are quick and get away just fine, Olaf the jumbo pekin has short legs and Henry has arthritis so I have to make sure they aren’t around them, especially in spring when Olaf is hormonal and tries to pick fights with my biggest gander Leo.
They do inadvertainly look out for each other, if the geese see something scary they set up an alarm and the ducks dive for the brush, the size of the geese seemed to be a deterrent for hawks, but that may not be true for all hawks. The geese can’t actually defend themselves or ducks from ground predators like foxes a larger.
The ducks will also raise an alarm if they see something which also helps the geese.

To put it in simple terms, they tolerate each other to a point and all the extra eyes benefits everyone.

 

[RubyDog55]

I have a Roman Tufted goose named Abigail who is a guardian to my duck flock. She has completely solved my hawk problem. She can't actually protect the flock from predators, but the way she struts around looking intimidating is a good deterrent. She will chase domestic cats, but I think she would run from any real threat. She's good at keeping an eye out for predators, and more accurate at identifying threats than my drakes. One of my drakes gives mostly false alarms and everyone ignores him. My other drake is a good watch drake, but he will also alert to the horse down in the pasture, the domestic cat passing by, and the person working in the yard. The girls heads will snap up and they will look around for the threat while they gravitate towards him. When Abigail sees a threat she gives a quick quiet honk and all the ducks, including the drakes, go scrambling to the pond without hesitation because they know she only alerts to real danger.
Abigail was raised with ducks from the time she was a day old, and she thinks she is a duck. She is respectful towards my drakes and good friends with my more dominant ducks. She also has a soft spot for the ducklings(now ducks) she was raised with as a young gosling. She can be a bit of a bully to my smaller and more submissive ducks, but she doesn't actually try to hurt them, she just harasses them. During the day, the ducks have enough space to stay out of her way, and she doesn't go out of her way to bother them. At night the whole flock(2 drakes, 7 ducks, and Abigail) go into their 4'x12' duck house. I made a divider that the ducks can fit through but Abigail can't, so that the ducks can get away from her if she's being cranky. It works great and I haven't had any problems.
Abigail is shy and reserved with strangers, but not aggressive. She is very sweet and friendly with me. When I'm working in the yard, she likes to come see what I'm doing and hang out. She is louder than the ducks and very vocal about any conflict between ducks. I can tell if I need to separate the drakes and give the ducks a break, just by how often I hear Abigail.