I totally agree, You Want Geese. I'm getting 5 toulouse (4 hens and a drake) I'm going to be getting a pair of Saddleback mix towards the middle of April.
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What kind do you have?? How many and is gender an issue?
I have a Sebastopol pair and I have Gus the Goose (Brown Chinese or African Grey). Gus is from a hatchery. I purchased a African Grey female (1.5 months old right now) for Gus and they all get along. They have free run of a 1 acre pasture and live with chickens, ducks, goats and hoarses.
I love them because they alert when anything strange is going on outside.
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So? Ducks are still the cutest things on earth!
Sometimes you just don't need a brain to be adorable and ducks fit right in there.
Oh I'm sure there are lots of great and awesome duckies out there but from my personal experience and preference if I was only able to keep one from my barnyard birds it would be geese.
But to each his own hey?
Geese! Geese! Geese! i love mine - i have a embden gander, a toulouse goose as our mated pain and then 3 half toulouse and half romans (my goose is a little..er.. wayward.. but the gander took them as his own) hatched last year.
i love them - really. if only because i'll never have to mow again. last year, aside from a little corn and feed, i didnt even have to feed them as they free range. they are so easy - they come in at nite, they dont fly away (darn ducks!), they are helpful, funny, extremely cold hardy, and lovely.
on the other hand -- that gander is nothing short of a demon at mating time. i dont worry about predators with them b/c my big ol' 6'3" 260lbs red neck husband is hardly a match for him. i personally have had hand to hand combat with that gander and i wasnt exactly winning if you know what i mean. we eventually reached an understanding....but just heads up that they can be aggressive.
but i wouldnt change a thing. we were SUPPOSED to dress the 3 that hatched last year during our fall 'harvest' but neither of us could do it... the geese are always looking at you like they know exactly what you're thinking. so we kept the little ones and now well.. everyone is laying!