Trying to decide what type of goose to get ?

[jasonak]

Hi
Wanting to get a pair of geese that are quite and not aggresive I was on the fence of either turkeys or geese but think im going with geese as they shoudl be hardier.
Ive been looking at tuffted roman,brown/white chinese and pilgrim.I want one thats a good layer/mother but most important is temperment one that will get along with my chikens and hopefully is not to loud.
Was also curious are geese like chickens just pipe of when ever or is it only when someones comes into the yard ?
thanks

 

[TriciaHowe]

If you want something quiet don't get chinese! My white china is very loud, very social and a very nosey goose. I am rehoming him now because the kids are afraid of him (he also bit my 12 year old and my father-in-law). He does get along well with my chickens and ducks. He's going to a home with some female geese

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

I am getting some geese this spring, and I am leaning towards the American Buffs, from what I have read they are very gentle and are not noisy. I currently have a Brown African male, his mate died 2 yrs. ago...he is and she was also. Very quiet and gentle..I might even go with that breed again..who knows. As a child we had the china geese and they were the loudest things on the farm next to the tractor..

 

[Olive Hill]

Of those three breeds roman and pilgrim will be your best choices for what you want. Chinese are known for being more aggressive and louder, compared to other breeds. There will be exceptions in any breed, but generally speaking they don't fit your needs well at all.

With any breed the more you have the louder they will likely be. They're social so when one honks, they all honk and then because everyone is honking everyone continues honking to get their say in. I have Americans and they are not loud all the time, but when they get going they can wake the dead and they get going several times a day -- and by day I do not just mean daylight hours, they also get going in the middle of the night usually at least once.

 

[jasonak]

Hi
Thank you for your replys.
Bummer about the chinese as I really like the look of them espeically the browns.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

Well a few will not hurt you, you have been warned. lol..they are however, "among the most prolific layers of any geese," and that is right out of the pages of Storey's Poultry Breeds

 

[jasonak]

thanks for the waringing lol
I ended up ordering the pilgrims,was going to get romans as well but amazingly I talked myself out of getting them,im very bad at trying to get some of everything,think i must be related to Noah.Ideally id have trios of all of them

but for right now ill try the pilgrims and see how I like geese have never raised them before so pretty excited about it.

 

[Hillbilly_Curt]

If you like the look of the Chinese, you may want to look at the Africans and get just a single pair.

 

[jasonak]

Are africans not as loud ?

 

[ozark hen]

A bit late here but I have four Pilgrims who are wonderful. They holler when something is amiss and are very gentle. I have one gander who will come to be pet when he is in the mood. They come when I call them...I call them "goobers"

They have laid eggs twice for me this winter but dh decided to move the eggs and they then abandoned the nest. That was ok as I really didn't want goslings during the winter. They come when I call in the evenings and go right back into the run each night. They free range during the daytime. They don't need a large pond, either. Mine use a kiddie pool but it freezes during the winter so they use a small waterer and do fine. Plus they are beautiful birds.