The Geese are Home...Now What

[jtn42248]

Well, I bit the bullet and drove the 300 mile round trip to Burnet, TX and got three SR Toulouse Geese, about 3.5 weeks old. The same age as my ducks. They seem to have made the trip fine and are only a little stressed. Right now they are in their confined area withing the duck coop where they will live (with the ducks) until they are about 10-12 weeks old. Then they will be moved out to their own area with a hutch to live in at night, secured from both ground and air predators, plenty of grass to forage and the nearby and sometimes shared forage area with 6 ducks and 25 hens. They are wandering around when no one looks but if they see you they all run to the back of the pen area and snuggle together until you are out of sight again.

At this age I did not know if they should have the sugar water/electrolyte cocktail or not so they have only fresh clean water and a dish of food. Later, I will bribe them with a bowl of peas and some chick grit and tomorrow they will hopefully be ready to go outside and play in the duck area/pool.

Any suggestions and/or advice on integrating geese into a family of ducks and chickens will be greatly appreciated.

 

[livininbrazil]

Well, I bit the bullet and drove the 300 mile round trip to Burnet, TX and got three SR Toulouse Geese, about 3.5 weeks old. The same age as my ducks. They seem to have made the trip fine and are only a little stressed. Right now they are in their confined area withing the duck coop where they will live (with the ducks) until they are about 10-12 weeks old. Then they will be moved out to their own area with a hutch to live in at night, secured from both ground and air predators, plenty of grass to forage and the nearby and sometimes shared forage area with 6 ducks and 25 hens. They are wandering around when no one looks but if they see you they all run to the back of the pen area and snuggle together until you are out of sight again.

At this age I did not know if they should have the sugar water/electrolyte cocktail or not so they have only fresh clean water and a dish of food. Later, I will bribe them with a bowl of peas and some chick grit and tomorrow they will hopefully be ready to go outside and play in the duck area/pool.

Any suggestions and/or advice on integrating geese into a family of ducks and chickens will be greatly appreciated.

Hi jtn. Just go with the flow. looks like you have a lot of space there, so it shouldn´t be a problem keeping the 3 different types of bird together in general. keep an eye on them, though, as they grow older, as geese can get a bit bossy when they´re bigger. I have geese, muscovies and chickens all together free-range and have very few problems. They can get a bit silly coming into the breeding season.