Toddlers & geese

[cottontail farm]

I finally ordered geese! I have 4 Super Africans coming next month and am super excited. Will only be keeping the sexed pair over the winter.
I also have a toddler. For those of you with little ones what is the best way them safe around geese?
Lots of socialization? I wasn't planning on making pets out of these and am pretty hands off with my other poultry.
Keep them penned during breeding season?

 

[givengrove]

Woah there, geese are NOT safe unless you have tamed them. If you have them as chicks and get them socialized (very much) then you should be fine but in any condition you should never leave a small child alone with poultry.

 

[cottontail farm]

Yeah, I wouldn't leave him with a hen unsupervised so that goes without saying. sorry if my first comment sounds naive and starry eyed.
What I ment is, birds here chickens, quail, turkey, ducks) have always been for fun and meat - not pets. Therefore they're NOT petted, snuggled, given names, whatever.
Obviously I would never let him harass them etc.
I guess I was looking for some people with small kids to chime in with what worked for them.

 

[givengrove]

I apologize I couldn't be more help.. if you're raising the geese for meat then I'd say be on the watchout

 

[Sristi]

Some of it has to do with the kid. I raised geese one summer when my kids were 2 and 4. The older one is more assertiv, and she quickly learned to get a stick to make herself bigger, walk confidently, and move past or even herd the geese no problem. The younger one, in addition to being physically smaller, doesn't act "big." The geese picked up on that right away, even as quite young goslings, and started pinching her. I ended up keeping them penned or fenced until processing time in the fall. My geese were friendly (to everyone but the little one!), but not pets. I wanted to keep a Breeding pair, but between my kid and my destroyed garden, i couldn't manage it without significant infrastructure changes.