Trying again for an answer to choosing geese and housing them...

[Eggnonymous]

I'd like to get 2-3 geese and I am thinking either Embden or Toulouse (2 geese and a gander) - I am mainly interested in friendliness. Thoughts?

Now for the goose quarters which may also play into the breed questiion...
I don't really want to have to pen them up at night since that chore would fall to my DH when I have to be gone (often). Does anyone keep theirs in a pasture with goats (we have 2) and/or donkeys (we have one). I thought I might be able to put a "house" for them in the feeding area - cattle paneled-off area where my goats can eat in peace but the donkey can't enter (he's not mean, just a pest at times). The pasture is about 2 acres fenced-in with horse fencing and we've never had a coyote/stray dog or fox get in there that we know of and this pasture is very near our outdoor dogs (2 large boys) pen - they go ballistic when anything moves about at night! We have a pond (outside the fenced area) and I'd like to let them out to it on occasion as well.

One more thing, how old should they be when we begin to transition them from the "brooder"?

Thanks!

 

[LaBaze]

I have geese on a half acre completely fenced in. If you want to let geese out by the pond I reccomend fencing in the pond. The geese will stay in the fence knowing that that is THEIR area that is why they are chosen as "guard dogs". They wont attack you if you raise them right and they understand that humans should be in the yard. But if you get a male and female, the male will most likely hiss at you.

My geese live with goats and chickens and turkeys without a problem. Emden geese is the kind we have. I reccomend getting two, a male and female because they have lifelong mates and getting three could rise problems. It would be best to have a small area for them to get out of weather and for the female to nest if you want the eggs or for her to hatch them. The geese are very good guard dogs we had stray cats sleeping the nesting boxes for our chickens and we havent seen those cats in our yard since we got those geese.

Hope this helps.

 

[Eggnonymous]

Thanks LaBaze. So geese can't be trios (or multiple geese to a gander)? How old were your geese when you transitioned them to outside? Unfortunately, fencing the pond is not is not in the $ picture any time soon, so they'll have to be content to be escorted to "the country club pool".

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Geese may pair for life (Like humans "until death do we part") is more of an ideal than a fact. Pairs work best with heavy class geese, When you get down to lights like Chinas it is more like college kids on spring break! I had 2 pairs of True Africans, that worked. When one gander died leaving a trio, that worked too. When the gander was in the pool looking to mate there was no big hassle if the 'widow' joined him rather than his 'wife'. When the first goose went broody the other took care of his needs. When both had hatched it was still one flock that did everything together.
When to go outside is a function of weather and feather. In my NC weather it varied from 2 days to 2 weeks ( I am talking about goose raised goslings whose mama will provide warmth when needed (mostly at night or rainy days) for incubated birds it was later when they started to have true feather coverage.

 

[Eggnonymous]

Okay, Goosedragon let me see if I understand. I should either get 2 pairs of Embden or go with a lighter breed? How about production Toulouse? As friendly as Embden? Our goslings would be brooder raised of course and we live in WNW GA (west of ATL). I want to get them in about 2 weeks so it will be pretty warm with cool evenings in early - mid May when I guess they would be ready to go out?

 

[LaBaze]

I got my geese as adults but I would imagine that it's about the same is chickens. Wait till their feathered and fairly big. We dont have a pond for the geese we got one of the little blue kiddie pools from a place like walmart. They like it even though its small. Lol.

 

[roboboy]

You can keep embdens as a trio. I actually hate pairs and would always due trios. Just because I've never had a gander who took only one mate if there was others availabe to him and I often have two ganders of every breed, in which case having at least one gander as part of trio is good because if kept in pairs one gander usually dominates the other and ends up with both hens.

 

[Eggnonymous]

Thanks everyone!
Well, I ordered 3 Emdens yesterday and 10 (am I nuts?) Welsh Harlequins from Cackle, so things are gonna be a quackin' and honkin' around here before long. Someone I spoke to on the phone seconded Roboy's thought that it's multiple ganders that causes problems. This will be my first order from Cackle (my chicks came from Ideal a year ago). I hope it will be a good experience since my main reason for ordering from them was that I could get my order during my vacation and and it would be weeks before I could get both from Metzer.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Gee I don't think that is what I said! What I ment was that a pair of embdem would work, a gander and two females would work. 2 ganders and two females is likely to promote fighting etween the two ganders Unless you keep them as pairs. Lighter geese tend to be more "active" and one gander can service more females (and more than one gander is even more likely to fight)
I am a firm believer that friendly behavior is more a product of upbringing than breed. Inprinted geese are friendly until they start to mature then they are LIKELY to pick fights with you because they think you are in their pecking order and of course they want to advance. When you win these fights,They will remember and not be friendly again. Far better never to be included in the pecking order and let them be raised by geese. When you MUST start with day olds let them bond with each other rather with you. First win their trust and friendship usually follows as they grow up. BTW I see you are ordering ducklings at the same time, if you brood them together keep an eye on the goslings, they are bigger and tend to bully ducklings (at least mine did, I finally had to seperate them) your timing on the geese sounds reasonable.

 

[floridaquilter]

I have three full grown dewlap toulouse. built them a very nice shelter..which they snub..they prefer walking around the outside of the chicken coop to protect the hens. I bought them as adults since we have a predator problem around here. they will need protection until they are big enough to protect themselves.
I love the embdens and hope to buy some in the near future. my toulouse are quiet most of the time but I have one that has to honk whenever the rooster crows. One pair of toulouse has coupled off and the lonely third seems quite satisfied to pair off with the rooster

They fight in the spring. scares the bajeebers out of me. but all seems to be quiet around here now. The fighting only lasted about 3 weeks or so. Florida had an early spring, I guess.
Enjoy your geese. They offer so much more entertainment and companionship then any other feathered friends that I can think of.