will geese gaurd my flock

[MMPoultryFarms]

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The only thing the geese is gonna guard is the water area feed dish and your visitors. and if the drake is hot on you then he might attack your hubby other then that get some mean turkeys from the kennedys.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

We had a Chinese Goose growing up with a couple of chickens and she was a total guard goose. She was constantly cocking her head to look up at the sky and would honk to alert the hens to a hawk. We never lost a hen to a hawk.

She was totally vulnerable to other types of attack such as racoons, possum or skunk. But they came out a night and she was safely locked up.

She made very different honking sounds based on what was going on. There was the Hawk Alarm honk. There was a honk for when a guest arrived that she knew vs. someone she didn't know. And there was a very special honk for when you set a bucket full of snails down for her to enjoy.

She was a real joy to have. The neighbor's cat used to stalk her and sneak up on her. She would just reach her long neck out and nip at the cat. This went on for a good year before they finally all became best friends and used to hang out together along with the chickens.

 

[GarlicEater]

They will hiss and let me know if something serious is out there creeping around. Mine spend the night outside of my trailer here, I swear they like to listen to the radio, but in reality it's the light and I think they feel safe around me. There's a little alarm call they give but when there's a possum or something around they' ll hiss and it's not their normal hiss, they mean it.

They are blustering bullies and if you don't know they're the biggest wusses in the world, you can indeed train them to be "bad birds" who will chase, bite, etc. To me my 14 geese are wuss-covered with a creamy wuss center but they chased a friend of ours, a guy much bigger than me. Too bad I didn't get to see it, I'd have laughed so hard!

This place is 5 acres and it's a pretty "busy" 5 acres, it's a lot to expect geese to patrol. It's more than a lot of dogs could patrol.

They will pick on smaller birds, we had chickens just kind of running wild here and of course they wanted to take part when I was giving the geese their corn, and the geese would try to grab the chicken, naturally I thought this was hilarious and would tell them, "get that chicken"

For a smaller place, maybe an acre or two and less clutter, they could be really good watch-birds.

 

[edgroger]

Quote:
Awwwww......

such a lovable little bugger. Who knew gooses can turn out to be such great predator alarms

But wouldn't their honking disturbed a lot of neighbors in the night?

 

[Country Parson]

I currently have one of my nice laying hens with a broken leg (and possibly more damage) from a "protective" gander. They will protect the flock in the sense that they are big and make lots of noise if something comes in their area. But, as has been noted, they can be bullies to chickens and ducks. Also, I notice the chickens and geese don't really hang around each other when free ranging (the ducks seems to hang with the geese, however), so their protection value is limited IMHO.

 

[Diamond Wire Farms]

I use my geese as more of an alarm system, than guard animals. Nothing creeps in the barnyard without the geese talking it over for a few minutes. They do end up fenced away from the chickens during the breeding season. They trashed a broody hen earlier this year. Bad geese!