Sticking my toe in the water

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Theresa R

In the Brooder
Jul 12, 2019
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we are buying a new home in PA am interested in raising a few geese. I’ve read a lot but would like to have some interaction with people experienced with having these pets. Want to learn all I can before maki g decision. Pens, feeding, how to ha doe vacations everything! Thanks for welcoming me and I hope to meet new friends with common interest
 
Theresa R said:
we are buying a new home in PA am interested in raising a few geese. I’ve read a lot but would like to have some interaction with people experienced with having these pets. Want to learn all I can before maki g decision. Pens, feeding, how to ha doe vacations everything! Thanks for welcoming me and I hope to meet new friends with common interest
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Hi Theresa, welcome!! We used to have 2 Chinese geese when we lived in upstate New York. We had a few acres on the edge of a forest and the geese made really good watch dogs. They'd make noise if anyone stopped by. They were beautiful and large too! Long graceful necks... we really enjoyed them. They were agressive with strangers though. And would chase people hissing at them. We gave them away when we sold our house. I know there are other types of geese not so agressive. You might look into those. Good luck. And welcome to this forum! Great help and advice on her! Bye!
 
I have four American Buffs, a mid-sized breed supposed to be the friendliest, least aggressive of geese. I couldn’t easily spend a lot of time socializing with them when small since it was ridiculously, perpetually, unseasonably cold this “spring.” Geese are extravagantly messy, so playing inside wasn’t an option. They’re not into being touched and never were from the day I picked them up (ordered through Runnings Farm & Fleet) but they follow me around when I let them, and I truly enjoy them. They’re so funny!

They’ve only been around me and my husband and the other poultry so I don’t know how they’d be with children. I think they’d be fine if exposed to nice kids from early on. They sometimes torment my chickens, but not so the chickens are hurt or perpetually harried.

People get automatic feeders and waterers for convenience and vacations. You can make some kinds yourself. (Do a web search—lots of clever ideas out there!) You can buy solar automatic coop doors. Geese are really messy though, so if they’re going to be confined to a run for very long, you’ll probably want something sandy that can be scooped like kitty litter. If they’re left in the same grassy yard (they’re grazers, primarily), they’ll kill all the grass with their copious poops. You’ll want someone to check up on them while you’re gone. Stuff happens even though they’re pretty good at handling themselves.

Ideally you’d rotate them into different areas so the nitrogen load in any one place doesn’t become too much for the grass. They need water deep enough to dunk their bills (a 5-gallon pail works) and they get it dirty very quickly. You can control where they graze by moving the water around, but I use electric poultry netting because of coyotes, wildcats and our pet doggies.

For in-depth goose knowledge you could not do better than Dave Holderread’s The Book of Geese. I got mine from Meyer Hatchery. It’s only available in hard copy and is the definitive guide to all things geese. Have fun. Geese are a hoot!
 
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