?'s New to Geese

None of our geese go over the fences. Not even the very obnoxious African Gander. Our Africans could get air born if they wanted, they choose not to. Wing clipping isn't hard and if you have Scovy I am guessing you do it to keep them inside the fence. Every goose is different, we have ducks that free range around the various geese with out issue. We did a Pekin drake who would harass the geese so he found a new home.

 

I have two american buff females and they get along great with all my ducks, my fence is only 3ft tall and that keeps everyone in including my buffs and none of thier wings are cliped

good luck

 

Geese aren't hard on fences. The only fence problem with geese is if their bill goes somewhere the goose will follow it. So if they are nibbling grass and get their bill under the bottom of the fence, the entire goose might end up on the other side. So fences have to be tight to the ground.

 

We sold our turkeys a while ago for the main reason that dogs were getting onto the land and enjoying early morning killing sprees. Now, my wife is interested in getting a couple of 6 week old goslings. She think that they will make good guard dogs and might produce eggs from time to time. All that she can tell me is that they will be white in colour and eat grass but not leaves and shoots.

I'm hesitant about her idea but would like some basic advice before making up my mind. If someone here would help, please, I'd be grateful.

We live in a hot climate with a rainy season. It's Thailand but Florida has a similar climate. We can offer plenty of rough grazing and a lawn that's lush during the rains. I would like the ornamental bushes and fruit and bamboo shoots left alone. There are two coops left from when we had turkeys and chickens. We have catfish a pond and a sump for rainy season run-off.

The boundaries are secure so far as geese are concerned but, if dogs kill geese, I would have to add some better fencing in a few places. Are dogs a problem?

From what I understand so far, feeding is easy. We can add to the grass rice and restaurant vegetable waste.

Information about these issues and any others that I ought to know about would be very helpful, please.

 

Dogs that are use to killing poultry will go after the geese. I have a Chinese gander and as aggressive as he is a dog could and would kill him. My fence is 4 foot and none of my geese even attempt to fly out and all can get airborn. I also free range my geese in my goat pasture with sheep fencing and a strand of barb wire. Again none of my geese have ever gone over these three foot fences. Because we have several large dogs that roam the area all of my livestock go inside when the sun goes down and back out when I get up in the mornings. For the past year that has worked for me and I haven't had any issues with the dogs in the day time. The only way I know of to stop a dog that has killed poultry is to catch the dog and restrain it while you let a mama goose or a ruffled gander peck it until the dog is crying for it's life. I couldn't go with that approach myself but others have done it and it does work. I can tell you that when I was a child my dad took buckshot out of his shotgun shells and loaded them with salt and shot strays with salt. That didn't work at all as they came back and he had to get rid of them with real shells. Geese will set up a racket as soon as something comes into their territory which will alert you to the dogs presence.

 

I have 7 American Buff geese -- they do fly over my 4 ft fence, but so far I haven't had to clip wings. They can fly for short distances when excited, especially when there are strong steady winds for them to lift off on. Several of my buff geese flew easily to 7 / 8 ft at least while I was watching them, and flew probably 20 or 30 feet. I did tell them they were supposed to be too heavy to fly, but they don't listen. However, this was in a strong wind, they had a large flat open space, and it was in late winter at the start of their breeding season, so they were more excitable. It is possible it happened when the ganders were fighting and then the rest of the flock just got excited and took off. It happened several times over a month, but it has been at least a month since they have done it. They hang out next to the fence because their friends are still inside, so it wasn't hard to put them back in. If they had done it repeatedly, I would have clipped a wing, but wing clipping always makes them look so undignified, so I use it as a last resort. As far as standing next to the fence like a chicken, looking at it, and then flying over it -- I've never had them do that.

I've never had my geese crawl under my fence, but it is electrified netting. They don't touch it once they learn that it can bite back. However, if I forget to turn on the charger, they will start nibbling on it after a few days, and then they can get tangled trying to reach through to the better grass on the other side. Use rigid fencing with small holes, or wood, if you aren't going to electrify it. I

A flock of geese might intimidate some dogs. But the dog would ALMOST always win if it chose to attack. A group of geese might have success against a smaller dog, but since you can't predict what kind of dog would stray into your yard, you'd be better off using fencing.

The geese do do a great job of letting me know if anything strange is happening outside. They also have great personalities, much better than turkeys, in my option!

And don't necessarily believe that geese will not eat leaves and shoots. It depends. My geese have eaten bark off the small apple branches, leaves, and chewed up small fir trees -- all of which are not on their menu. I wouldn't trust them around anything important until you are sure they aren't going to chew on it. Some of it is just that they like to chew on random things, like a toddler, to try to figure out what they are, or just to play.

 

Many thanks for your replies.

I think that we need to close up gaps in hedges where dogs can get in but, from your replies, I think that the geese would be unable to fly out. It's disappointing that they might eat shoots and leaves so we'll have to watch that closely.