[cuckoo]

I would like some geese to help keep the grass down in the orchard and paddock. They would graze with goats.  What would be the best breed - not needed for meat but eggs might be nice.  Dont want anything too big.  I have an incubator and things needed to hatch out and rear some goslings or could buy some young ones.  Does anyone have anything suitable? We are in East Yorks
Thanks

[Beewyched]

We kept Embden geese - lovely natures, but they do get quite big.  Kept the grass down really well (& my flower borders when they got into the garden    ) & also made good alarms if we had any visitors!
 
They do make a fair bit of mess behind them (poo) so not sure how much your goats will enjoy sharing their grazing?

[HesterF]

I love my West of England which are medium sized and in the case of mine, very friendly. Having said that, I don't think mine are great grazers. They'll have a go but they're far more excited by worms. Tend to lay 20-30 eggs a year (I got a few more this year). The biggest downside is that they're rare breed so hard to source (in fact really hard to source) and more expensive than your regular hybrid goose.

This website http://www.ashtonwaterfowl.net/index.html is a useful overview of keeping geese (and some breeds) if this helps. Her book 'Keeping Geese' is really helpful too. I think most geese can be tame if they've been hand reared but ganders will be aggressive in breeding season.

I imagine most geese will be at the end of their laying season (mine stopped three weeks ago) so if you want hatching eggs, you'll need to get a move on. Otherwise sourcing young birds is a great call because I think they are quite hard to rear.

H

[graham-j]

Hi,my embdens make excellent grazers and also lay lots of eggs.Mine have laid right round from the end of January until now,I am still getting one egg a day.
They are considered to be one of the larger geese though,but they are nothing to worry about they are easy to handle and soon become used to you especially if you get them young.I can lay down in my field and they will come and lay down around me.
I currently have gosling's for sale from a week old upwards.
They keep my orchard in the pic bellow grazed.

Graham.

[goosepimple]

We keep Steinbachers but there just aren't that many about and they go for a high price.
 
Maybe check out the RBST website or Country Smallholder mag to see what breeds are considered rare breed and maybe you can give them a bit of support.  Some of the ads in the back of CS mag do day old delivery.
 
Let us know how you go.  Geese are fab even if the ganders get a bit  in springtime 

[Beeducked]

New to geese but I would put a vote in for anything rare breed as they are all struggling a bit. I have brecon buffs and they are a complete delight although still goslings. Good grazers although do have a reputation for barking trees. I have not seen any evidence of that and in fact they are great little weeders!

[Beewyched]

Ah - yes Beeducked - I'd forgotten about that 
 
Our Embdens de-barked 2 of our crab apples & then finished them off by ripping the lower branches 

[cuckoo]

Thanks all - spoke toAshton Waterfowl - I have ordered a pair of Czech geese - collect next month.   

[goosepimple]

Oooh, don't know what they are like - give us some piccies please!  Good luck with them cuckoo 

[Bodger]

Thanks for starting this thread, I went to the Ashtons at the end of last year and saw some super stock. I too am thinking about keeping geese again. The Ashtons had some beautiful stock including some extemely friendly African geese. I didn't realise that geese could be tame. In the past, all the geese that I've had have been hissy beggars and now that I'm considering getting some geese, thats definately a breed I'll be trying to get. Has anyone on here kept Aficans and if so, how did you find them?

[darkbrowneggs]

I had some Africans but I didn't' get on with them.  I found them slightly hysterical. 


I got them as a young pair and even though I kept them for over a year whenever I went in to the pen or anywhere near them they ran off or piled into a corner for no reason I could ever work out.  I had kept geese before and never had that problem.  They might have been different if I had hand raised them from goslings maybe, but no-one will ever sell those or hatching eggs.  I had tried for several years before getting that pair. 


Afterwards I got a pair of Pilgrim Geese as a replacement, and they have been pleasant and easy going to keep, pretty fair layers, good parents and not aggressive though the gander gets a bit hissy round the nest barrel once they start to lay, especially when I was running two ganders with the flock, once he had gone everything seemed to settle down a lot.  I have 5 geese with him and everything they laid has been fertile, though annoyingly I didnt have incubator space to set them all when they were laying a lot.


I currently have one young female Pilgrim which I intend to sell, and there may be more later in the year, depending on how many of the latest hatch I decide to keep.

[ferretkeeper]

I would like some geese to help keep the grass down in the orchard and paddock. They would graze with goats. 

Cuckoo, I wouldn't recommend having goats in the orchard unless they can't reach any branches, or you don't like apples  in fact goats may go for the bark too, like my sheep do, but geese would work!

[Bodger]

If you read the books on geese, they say that the trunks of the apple trees have got to be thick enough so that the geese can't get their beaks around them. Having spent hours and hours over the last few days mowing the orchards here, I wish that i could come up with something that was compatable. Goats are murder on trees, I've also discounted sheep and basically come up with nothing.

[goosepimple]

my goats eat their own house on occasions, how about a couple of wee ponies or maybe they'll like scratching their bottoms on the trees, won't eat them though 

[Beeducked]

If you read the books on geese, they say that the trunks of the apple trees have got to be thick enough so that the geese can't get their beaks around them. Having spent hours and hours over the last few days mowing the orchards here, I wish that i could come up with something that was compatable. Goats are murder on trees, I've also discounted sheep and basically come up with nothing.

My ducks and now geese run in my orchard and they keep the grass down brilliantly. I have just planted some new trees (2-3 year old saplings) and the geese took a couple of the lower branches / buds off. I did decide to put those plastic spiral protectors round them but really haven't had problems to speak of.


Love the geese and they make grass management so easy. Would never be without them again.