Who Uses Weeder Geese?

[redhen]

so..if i let my ducks in the garden..they wont eat my veggies?...just the weeds huh?.....i want to try it..but....

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Ahhhhh....an update on the down harvesting? Tell me more! I am getting a small flock of Toulouse this spring from the hatchery and plan to do the same, as well as using them for grazing my orchard. I hope to have some breeding pairs and raise a few for selling.

Tell us more?

 

[conny63malies]

Quote:
more than likely they'll go right for the tomatoes and peppers. mine were reduced to stumps. Oh the weed is still there.

 

[babalubird]

My knowledge is not first-hand--only absorbing what I've been reading, so take it with a grain of salt.

But as far as I know, it is the geese, not ducks, that are used for weediing. They do have some different dietary preferences. Ducks are good for bug control though whereas the geese are primarily vegitarians.


There is also a "science" with the geese of knowing the right time to put them in crops, i.e., not when they're developing fruit or just emerging out of the ground, etc., as well as which crops you can use them in and which ones you can't.

Geese prefer grass-like plants and don't especially like a lot of broad-leafed plants etc. That's what you're trying to take advantage of to get them to eat the weeds, not your broadleafed veggies, etc.

In my research, I've gotten the gammet of success and failure, but I think it's a matter of knowing the plants and timing to use them with, which I am trying to learn.

 

[Omniskies]

Gah, lots to answer. If I forget anything let me know

And Conny, there is a big emphasis on training the geese from a young age. The good news is that geese live to be 20-30+ years of age. Once you go through the initial training, even if it takes all spring and summer, you will have a reliable weeder for the next couple of decades. That's more than enough incentive for me to keep a trained flock around. The average backyard gardener wouldn't need more than 2-5 geese to weed the garden. It's more than worthwhile.

Ducks and geese are totally different. Geese graze, ducks munch. Geese are usually used to weed an orchard - they will happily eat the weeds and leave the trees alone. You can use them to weed a field and, with the right training, get them to weed a garden.

Weeder geese used to be extremely common and it's a shame they aren't used as often these days. Cotton Geese were used down south to weed cotton fields. Today there are virtually none left, it's almost impossible to find any.

Chinese geese are perfectly fine for the garden but aren't the best eating goose out there. There is very little meat on them - especially breast meat which is the best part. I highly recommend going with a small to medium sized goose that still has some meat on them. Here are my recommendations in no particular order (and totally biased

1. Tufted Romans. These are small, chatty geese with nice round bodies. They are much less aggressive than your Chinese but don't have the long neck. Still, they are friendly and tolerant of others while still having enough meat to be worth butchering. If you want to harvest down they have the added benefit of pure white feathers.

2. American Buffs. These are a medium-sized goose that grows rapidly. It's larger than the Tufted Roman but much, much quieter. You won't hear an American Buff blasting the alarm for every little thing. You also won't have to worry about them hissing at company. They have light pin feathers so they dress out clean. When you harvest the down it is a soft, faint buff color.

3. Pilgrims. My absolute favorites, and what I raise. Pilgrims were developed by the same breeder who perfected the American Buffs. They are an extremely docile, medium-sized breed that doubles as a fantastic meat goose. The best part? They're an autosexing breed. The males are born yellow and grow up to be white, the females are born grey and grow up to be grey. They will put on ten pounds in as many weeks and won't hiss.

All three of these breeds are listed as critically rare by the ALBC. Chinese aren't. Romans also make decent watch dogs, but your American Buffs and Pilgrims are usually too laid back to be too terribly effective at protecting a homestead. And Romans, for all their guff, are still going to be a little too small to fend off whatever it is they're being huffy toward.

Any of the breeds, Chinese included, can be taught to accept anything in a yard, especially if they are raised around the animal. They will still be wary of anything new, which I like. Just because one dog in the yard is fine doesn't mean the neighbor's dog is, too.

I'm in the middle of writing up an article about weeder geese. I'll try to rush through it and get at least something posted. There's a bunch of information I've collected and jotted down over the past year and rather than write it all down twice I may as well just post a link

As for live harvesting, I'm beginning to think that it's best to just collect the down under the wings. From what I found out, it grows back every 6-8 weeks. The down under the wings is _pure_ down without a single pin feather. Once the weather warms up I'm going to try to live harvest throughout the summer months and see how easy it is when the goose isn't going through a molt.

Each goose provides 0.5-1oz of down per harvest, which is enough to fill a single patch on a quilt. I've decided to make a goose down quilt with pictures of our geese on it throughout the year. In theory, when winter rolls around again we'll be snuggling under a new quilt

. When the weather turns cold again we won't bother harvesting. That means each goose should be able to make three patches on the quilt.

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
first off, you did say geese..
I don't know where ducks came from..

and I think the geese will eat your peas.. If you are planning to plow the peas under, hen it wouldn't matter if the geese did eat it..they will each give you about 3 pounds of fertilizer each day..

buckwheat is a good cover crop to plant for improving your soil also..

My geese seemed to leave the buckwheat alone..

 

[redhen]

Quote:
first off, you did say geese..
I don't know where ducks came from..

and I think the geese will eat your peas.. If you are planning to plow the peas under, hen it wouldn't matter if the geese did eat it..they will each give you about 3 pounds of fertilizer each day..

buckwheat is a good cover crop to plant for improving your soil also..

My geese seemed to leave the buckwheat alone..

excuse me..i was the one that asked about the ducks...because her original heading said "ducks"...not geese...

..

 

[greyfields]

They work, with a lot of caveats.

First of all, you cannot just let geese loose in your garden plot. They will eat all your leafy greens while 'weeding'. They'll also eat tomatoes off the vines and do somewhat eat peas. However, they don't harm peas as they can only reach the lowest few feet.

They work very well with row crops like corn and potatoes. However, the corns needs to be at least 2-3' high before you let them in. Otherwise they'll eat the corn, too. If they get bored, I have watched many times in amazement as 2-3 geese pull down 6' cornstalks just for the fun of eating the leaves. So, you cannot leave them in the corn for hours on end unattended. They don't touch poatoes leaves, so that is the best use I've found for them.

Since deer also dno't eat potato leaves I grow them outside the fenced garden. The geese go up and down the rows as part of their regular ramble around the farm. I had 50 running over my potato plot htis year which was about 1/2 to 3/4 an acre. They did not keep up with the weeds and I still had to regularly till and mound.

If you want to control insects, slugs and snails you need ducks, too.

One day this summer my father left the garden gate open. The geese ate every last collard green, brocolli, lettuce, cabbage, salad greens, etc. and they did it in just a few short hours.

 

[Omniskies]

I've heard geese can't be left alone with corn. I assumed it was because they'd eat the tasty ears. It never dawned on me that they'd tear things apart.

I don't know why, I can easily picture them tearing the plants apart just to hear the noise and feel the stalks tear. They're like toddlers on a sugar high sometimes

 

[greyfields]

I imagine they're more like dinosaurs pulling down trees and cackling in delight! They really only resort to such pastimes when they're bored, though. From what I recall they only ate the stover and not the ears themselves. I can't be totally sure as I cut teh corn, stalks and all, and just chuck it to the pigs who gain very well on it. We grow very little corn for ourselves as it's difficult to ripen it in our climate; but it makes the most wonderful fodder for the livestock.