Space requirements for geese and ducks

[goosedragon]

Quote:
There used to be a lady on another board that boasted that her enclosurers were preditor proof, then along came a bear and destroyed every one of them in one raid. She lost no birds because they ran and flew away. It took her more than a week to round them all up again and I still think she was very lucky.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Consider a battery powered one, it is a P.I.T.A. to keep the battery charged but you are defenceless (pun intended) if the power should fail. I lost a lot of birds when one of those herricanis moved inland a few years back. You probably have more problems with ice storms taking down lines.

 

[snowydiamonds]

BirdBrain, I have six geese in Nome. Their barn is 10x12 so they have a lot of room for the winter. The pen is chain link panels I used to have set up for my dogs and I give them quite a bit of space most of the year but for deep winter, they don't need much room at all outside. I think it stays cleaner this way, too. My two eldest are an Ebden and a Toulouse (girls) and the four younger are a year and a half old American Buff's (2 each of goose/ganders). I know things will change this Spring because of the two ganders so I have room to section off the barn and the run because the smaller gander will not tolerate the bigger gander once they decide to really pair off. I'm going to eventually butcher the smaller gander because everything I've read says to keep the nicer geese for good temperments and the bigger gander is always good with me. The geese won't tolerate the ducks in their area either. They are housed/penned side by side and the nosey geese are always talking about it...("come here, lemme eat your feed, come here, lemme show you who's yard this is..."

I don't like housing the ducks w/chickens cause the ducks love water way too much and empty it out while making a mess and then the drakes chase off the chickens when they are on the ground- stress. I like having ducks and geese, the Cayuga's and the Magpies (one crested and one not) are HUGE in their second year, people think my ducks are "geese" and my geese are ???

I don't worry about predators at the edge of the tundra/town because the geese can be very loud when they announce something and the dogs then become alert and can be loud, too, in the house so I have time to run to a window or run outside, night or day. Its a different story at my cabin though, I have a "roll around coop" built on a trailer that I either shut them in at night or again, the loud announcement, the dogs in the cabin alert me, too, and if there is no moon or no sun

I drive down in the vehicle with the dogs since the cabin is on a small hill and the pond down below. We have fox, bear, moose at the cabin but so far no problems I think because I've got four weimaraners and 2 golden retrievers, a wolfx and an Australian Cattle dogx to help me out.

 

[BirdBrain]

Snowydiamonds, I love the pictures. Your geese are do pretty. Where did you get them? I have been looking at Metzers and they have what I am looking for but don't know how many to start with. Have you ever eaten any of your geese? I am in Anchorage on a one acre parcel so I would like to have geese that can't fly, are mild mannered and not noisy. My biggest concern in the preditor department is dogs but bears might become an issue.

 

[snowydiamonds]

I got the four Buffs from Triple D and mine are noisy when they want to announce special moments. One gander does fly over the chain link fence, seems he has caught on to what two of my young hens used to do all summer, fly over and come to the house. Two days ago he stayed right by the pen and called for me, loudly! I could cut their feathers so they couldn't fly but so far I haven't had to. They are not always noisy and my neighbors love them, Thankfully. I love goose, dark meat like that of the turkey but I haven't eaten any of these yet, once they begin raising goslings, I plan to put extra's in the freezers. I started w/the two girls who sat on eggs for most of their lives annually (7-9 years before I got them) with no gander to fertilise the eggs. The day their eggs were due to hatch the first Spring I owned them, I had Triple D send four American Buff goslings and the girls thought their eggs finally hatched. I didn't have enough straw so I put a layer of straw down and used shredded paper on top of that. It was a fun time for us three "women" (the goose girls and I) and it helped us bond raising those goslings together:

When I do butcher chickens and ducks I make sure they don't see me, I go around the back of the house! I can hold them and they've always be very kind, never a mean moment except that smaller gander was hissing at me for a few weeks last September- I'd left the state for a week to attend second son's wedding so SIL fed the birds. That hissing will show up again in the Spring when he tries to claim which females he wants and if he's aggressive as in biting me, he's the first I'll butcher (behind the house, of course). They have long memories but he's probably going be called Napoleon if he stays...the fun hasn't stopped since I got all of them. Feed costs will prohibit more than six and I really should only carry four over the winters or cut down on chickens...

Not too sure on how quiet you need the birds to be, geese can be and will be loud when they want. Female ducks are loud, too, but my Cayuga drakes "whisper"- you might do well in the quietness and meat department if you raised drakes annually and the Cayuga's or Magpies (crested or not) are very good sized ducks. I grew up on wild duck/goose meat.

 

[SweetPromise]

I know this post is really old, but I really enjoyed your photo and description of your geese and your life with them