The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: davet on September 21, 2016, 03:25:57 pm
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Hi,
We recently bought three geese (him 'n' her, plus grown-up-looking gosling). They go away at night into a ~20'x15' shed, and wander around a ~3.5 acre field during the day (which currently also has our eight sheep in it, and the geese like the company).
The lady we bought the geese from has a pair remaining, and she said she had to separate the ganders at night or they'd fight. If we wanted to expand the flock a bit in future, how would we do this without fighting? The shed is totally "open plan" at the moment; would creating a few divisions with e.g. pallets give them sufficient separate territory at night?
I've also read that geese (as opposed to ganders) can fight each other, so it wouldn't be a question of making Him a hareem, like the chickens.
Thanks for any advice,
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Our neighbour had exactly this situation and after a lot of fighting one gander became an outcast and was always trailing behind the rest of the flock and was last into the shed at night. That's probably why he ended up being dinner for the fox.
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They shouldn't really fight at this time of the year but wait till February!
During the breeding season (february-june) genders are veeery aggressive to each other and anyone else! Lol
During that time even female geese can be very touchy and like to have a separate space to nest. You can separate the shed in which they sleep into two with a pallet. That way you can keep two pairs.
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Thanks for the replies. I have some pallets so I'll keep an eye out for some more geese :^) The wife's very keen on Brecon Buffs.
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maybe the best way to build up your flock would be to breed them yourself.
our geese always took care of the incubated goslings and stayed together in a flock of 12 or so.they had a large barn to sleep in as they would accept the purpose built goose house.
we had embdens.
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But wouldn't that mean only the original parents raising goslings each year, or inbreeding the siblings?
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They shouldn't really fight at this time of the year but wait till February!
During the breeding season (february-june) genders are veeery aggressive to each other and anyone else! Lol
During that time even female geese can be very touchy and like to have a separate space to nest. You can separate the shed in which they sleep into two with a pallet. That way you can keep two pairs.
We have two pairs of toulouse and never had the ganders fight...until.....this week! They have never been aggressive to each other or us in the breeding season or when they have goslings. A bit of hissing and that's it.
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My ones were only fighting on breeding season. Especially with the muscovy drake!
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My ones were only fighting on breeding season. Especially with the muscovy drake!
But you think separate territories/divisions in the shed would be sufficient? Or much chance of coming out in the morning to a dead gander?
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I don't know if they would kill each other...
They were bleeding though.
Now I only have a pair. Depends how many you want to keep really. From one pair you can get about 7 to dozen or more with just natural incubation. Do you think you would want more geese than that? I bought goslings in spring, sold most of them for christmas dinners.
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Perhaps it is better to see how they get on next season first. They just look a little lost in the field, and more so once the child gets eaten :)
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But wouldn't that mean only the original parents raising goslings each year, or inbreeding the siblings?
only keep the eggs from the birds you want to breed. let the parents breed and raise their goslings, who will grow v quick. eat the boys by xmas.
eat the daughters eggs then theres no issue over inbreeding.
if you have a flock of homebred geese and want a new gander then introduce fertile eggs for natural or incy hatching. just mark the egg or gander as it grows up. they should accept him no bother this way.
what are the aims for keeping geese?
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Introducing new (unrelated) egg(s) is a good plan, thank you.
The original aim was another animal grazing, partly to help manage any sheep parasites and partly because there's more than enough grass. Eating goslings (once they've grown) follows on from that.