I have been thinking about getting some geese. I am just worried that they will be very messy like ducks are. Do geese make as big of a mess in the water and make a muddy mess out of everything? I am thinking specifically about the Buffs.
Don't have a answer for you but I just ordered my first 2 pairs of Buffs from Metzer. This will also be my first year with geese, so I am anxious to here what the more experienced members here will tell you ;-)
im VERY excited about this spring. march third will be one year after getting my first geese. i can tell you right now, if you keep them confined, they make a MUCH bigger mess than any other domestic poultry (including ducks). geese and ducks are pretty similar, though geese are much bigger. they eat more, which gets a bit more feed wasted on the ground. they expel more waste, which gets smeared even more into the ground, which they get water all over (after they eat the grass away it makes a huge mess and water pockets start forming if you dont move the cage). as you see, waterfowl in general are quite messy to begin with. bigger waterfowl mean bigger messes. however, if you dont confine them and give them access to a decent swimming area, they will be much cleaner and easier to manage!!! i can only speak from my own experience!!!
Ducks are messier than geese. Ducks tend to haul all food items to water and consume them there, whereas geese usually eat and drink separately. My friend's two runner ducks turn their kiddie pool into a mud bath within a day. If I didn't know any better, I'd suspect them of doing it on purpose; deliberately carrying dirt to the pool. It's really amazing how much dirt those two small ducks are able to dispense into the water. Geese don't do that. They do poop in their water, and growing goslings poop a lot. Geese are bigger than ducks, they grow really fast, and to reach their size they have to consume a lot of food - and dispense a lot of waste. My gosling ten-doubled her size in less than three weeks! As geese are vegetarians and primarily eat grass, their poop isn't generally as smelly as duck poop. I'm not saying geese aren't messy. They're big, they're waterfowl, and they're vegetarian; sooner or later they'll turn any confined area into a soggy toilet. But given adequate space it's really not that bad.
