[SallyintNorth]

A bit of advice please folks.

We are thinking we might get geese, not sure yet if purely meat birds for Christmas or an egg-laying flock with a brood each year for meat, or what.

What I'm trying to establish at the mo is how to estimate how much land they will use / how many we could have on the land available.  And what to expect in terms of how much feed we would need to buy in to augment the grass they eat.  Birds per acre or bird equivalents to sheep would be equally useful!  lol.  (Our sheep are Shetland crosses, in size I guess similar to Swaledales.  Quite a bit smaller and lighter on the ground than Ryelands or commercials, but definitely not as thrifty as pure Shetland or other northern short-tailed primitives.)

As a general rule, we like our animals to be happy, free-ranging, fed as natural and close to organic a diet as possible, as far as is realistic and practical on a smallholding where the output is for our own use.  We are not registered organic and do not intend to be so, but do try to minimise chemicals etc.  We do select feeds for non-GM, non-imported if possible, and farmed with environmental sensitivity.  (So we use Smallholder Range products for our chickens, ducks and pigs.)

We do have a slight / occasional fox issue, so the geese would be nearest the farm village with a stock fence between them and the foxes' preferred duck-snatching grounds.

We would probably let the chickens, peacocks and ducks range the same area in practise, but I am just wanting to do a basic "have we got enough ground / how many birds of what type we can have" analysis at present.

Any other advice or insights also very much welcomed.  Geese virgins here! 

[SallyintNorth]

Found some government figures.  4 geese per commercial breeding ewe, that sound about right?

[harmony]

Found some government figures.  4 geese per commercial breeding ewe, that sound about right?

That was my thought. My geese (6) have 10 acres but they don't go very far.

[Anke]

We gave up on our geese last year - unreliable in the fertility department(the male), 8unreliable in the hatching department (the female kept crushing the eggs), unreliable in the rearing goslings department (both).... we also struggled to incubate successfully (even running the incubator dry in a modern dry house wasn'tenough to prevent "dead/drowned in the shell")... so we have now got ducks and hopefully they are a bit more successul.


If you have a source of day-olds within reasonable distance you have a much better chance of getting your Xmas dinner raised...


Sorry that doesn't answer your question at all.

[SallyintNorth]

Sorry that doesn't answer your question at all.

But it's very useful input!  Thanks.  My gut feel was start with rearing a few for the table and see how that goes.  We already have ducks and hens for eggs, but no meat birds.

[Anke]

Sorry that doesn't answer your question at all.

But it's very useful input!  Thanks.  My gut feel was start with rearing a few for the table and see how that goes.  We already have ducks and hens for eggs, but no meat birds.

When we managed to hatch goslings, (or removed from the goose as soon as they hatched) we raised them easily - under lamp with greens (dandelions) bought in from day two or so onwards and as soon as possible outside in an ex-kiddy/baby play pen (with wire mesh round the sides and above - crows!) on grass, back into house/under lamp overnight. When I was growing up my auntie raised batches for Xmas from day-olds . they got fed on finely chopped nettles/dandelions/mashed bread in milk all mixed up when young, then moved onto grass and wheat (in the afternoon) as soon as they were too big (fully feathered up) for the crows to eat. Buckets of water to dunk their heads in. We have raised our more recently on duck/poultry grower plus grain in the field, moving electric poultry netting every few days.


It is the incubating and hatching that is difficult, raising them is fairly easy.

[macgro7]

Found some government figures.  4 geese per commercial breeding ewe, that sound about right?

Something like that - 4-6 geese per sheep.
But of course that is only in summer if you feeding them hardly anything else than good short grass.
I have around 0.5 acre of grass (most of it is lawn really. And at one point I had 9 geese and never had to mow the grass for the season.  Thats in summer. In winter they would try to dig out the roots.

[bj_cardiff]

I usually have around 6 on an acre, but that also has goats, horses and/or sheep on too (not at the same time) and lack of grass has never been an issue.

I have also had big problems hatching them. I have an elderly pair of Embden that are fantastic parents and will foster any 4 week old goslings and rear them. The fertility of that pair has always been suspect though, only half eggs were fertile. The goose had a habit of crusing the eggs as they hatched, then didn't move off the nest so the few goslings that did hatch had to find the food by themselves or starve.. Its pretty impossible trying to top up food and water right next to the nest when you have an angry gander protecting it..

I gave up in the end!

[Womble]

Found some government figures.  4 geese per commercial breeding ewe, that sound about right?

Yes, from my experience that sounds there or thereabouts. Perhaps four per small ewe and six per big ewe with lambs?

We ate all our geese prior to the last bird flu lockdown  . The plan had been to hatch their eggs and raise goslings on good grass all summer, and then put them in the freezer in the Autumn, but despite good fertility we always had truly awful hatch rates (don't know why). The geese themselves had even worse hatch rates though, so I'm blaming them!

In the end, the whole thing just became a non-productive farce, (and nobody liked the taste of the eggs either) so when faced with lockdown a few years ago we decided enough was enough. If it were me in your situation Sally, I'd keep turkeys instead!

[doganjo]

I was attacked by a goose owned by a friend of my Grandpa, when i was four, and I have never forgotten it.  The unfortunate thing is when my daughter was born I completely forgot it's name when we named her Sarah 


I have no idea why anyone would want to keep geese at all.  They are horrible nasty things and chase me anytime I get within half a mile of any.  I  hate them. 

I ;ove all animals and birds, even ugly ones. But I HATE geese!!! 

[Richmond]

Nooooooo - geese are lovely, intelligent and inquisitive. Goslings are the best babies ever - fluffy and adorable for weeks unlike chicks. I always hatch them in an incubator and hand rear them and they are a delight to have around.

[Womble]

"Good morning sheep"
"Baaa. Good morning Womble!"
"Good morning ducks"
"Quack quack - a muddy puddle! how terribly exciting!"
"Good morning hens"
"Cluck cluck, superb scratching weather, ain't it?"
"Good morning geese"
"F*** OFF, WE HATE YOU, AND WE HOPE YOU DIE!!!"

[SallyintNorth]

"Good morning sheep"
"Baaa. Good morning Womble!"
"Good morning ducks"
"Quack quack - a muddy puddle! how terribly exciting!"
"Good morning hens"
"Cluck cluck, superb scratching weather, ain't it?"
"Good morning geese"
"F*** OFF, WE HATE YOU, AND WE HOPE YOU DIE!!!"

 

[harry]

Start with table birds. If you want eggs save a couple of them if not kill them all. Grass is good in spring, summer.  winter is low quality so kill in December restock in spring. Couple of bags of growers pellets in first few weeks then just grass till November them finisher pellets till killed, good luck plucking them. My geese are big they hiss etc but never go for me, I think they can smell fear, (I think they can detect doganjo s fear) be dominant get a Shepard’s Crook. Only a bit more aggressive defending their goslings but you won’t have any in the first year. Not good mothers until they are about 3 year old. Low disease no spider mite etc. I think you will loose them all if you don’t electric fence.  No need for electric net use horse white tape. 3 strands at different heights another  one a foot away to stop fox getting near the other 3. I think it’s difficult to sell for profit use for own consumption. In my area I can buy a 3 month old gosling or adult  for £10 at auction Get some

[macgro7]

"Good morning sheep"
"Baaa. Good morning Womble!"
"Good morning ducks"
"Quack quack - a muddy puddle! how terribly exciting!"
"Good morning hens"
"Cluck cluck, superb scratching weather, ain't it?"
"Good morning geese"
"F*** OFF, WE HATE YOU, AND WE HOPE YOU DIE!!!"

Are you nit a fun of geese then?