Treat geese like the graziers they are! Genius!

Just want to share a bit of an Aha moment that I recently had. Geese can be so overbearing with my ducks, don't need grain, and just kind of don't fit in to the bigger picture of what I'm doing on our property. However, Asian style goose cooked over a bed of butternut squash and potatoes will always fit nicely with what I'm doing. Then I heard a voice say, "Treat them like the graziers they are!" Aha! Yes! Sooooo, they now go into electric netting on the pasture WITH my dairy sheep and are brought in with the sheep at night to bed down. This fits well because they don't need the tastiest bites of grass and herbs in the pastures, so it's fine that they go in with the sheep and eat some lower and some highest quality bites.That kills two tasty birds with one stone, so to speak. They used to go into a perfectly beautiful, ready-to-graze pasture of all their own with the ducks only to make a mess and eat all the dairy quality goodies, lay a thick layer of manure down over the plants, and smash it all down with their flat feet. Yes! Now the ducks and turkeys are in tractors on pasture and the chickens have their compost-making fortress. I love when it all fits together.

I know that this is not the point of the thread...

Thats a pretty nice livestock guardian dog you got there!

Thanks for sharing

Thanks Timothy. She's an old lady who gets to retire a little closer to home now. She used to guard our meat sheep flock on the property but she has her puppies who took over for her. She has quite the spoiled life now and deserves every second of it.

Permaculture Motto: The Problem is the Solution!

My geese are supposed to be "guard geese" protecting the chickens and Muscovy from aerial predators during the day. It's not working in the spring, because they get too interested in producing more geese and become too territorial.

I'm wondering if I can try moving the males and females that I want mating to another area of our farm and just leave a pair of female geese to guard the chickens/ducks. If I leave one or more Ganders behind, they may try to mate with a Muscovy (yes, it's been an issue in the past), which can hurt the Muscovy. Leaving just one female behind might be mean to the Goose as they're groupies.

They are good at mowing the grass. For 10 geese, I do give a ration of about 4 cups of chicken pellets at bedtime, but that's more to "reward" them for going safely to bed than because I think they need it.

@Brieanne - do your geese eat hay when they have not access to grass (like when we got a foot of snow)?

Jay Angler wrote:Permaculture Motto: The Problem is the Solution!

My geese are supposed to be "guard geese" protecting the chickens and Muscovy from aerial predators during the day. It's not working in the spring, because they get too interested in producing more geese and become too territorial.

Jay, I wish mine would make more of themselves. They lay eggs but never set. Alas. Also, I didn't mention this but it seems like my geese try to drown my ducks when they're competing for water in the water trough. I realized they don't guard my ducks after that. Haha.



@Brieanne - do your geese eat hay when they have not access to grass (like when we got a foot of snow)?

Yes, they eat the hay with the sheep when they can't be on the pastures, like when it rains or I'm too busy to move the electric fence.

Brieanne Rice

Jay, I wish mine would make more of themselves. They lay eggs but never set. Alas.

So far mine have only laid also, but my Muscovy live to breed and I can't handle too many of them, so I give them 3 goose eggs to set. They usually only manage to get 1 or 2 to hatch, but I still ended the year with 8 more geese than I started with. I'm hoping that some of the geese that were "mothered" by Muscovy, will get the idea. Humans have a lot to answer for, but people who are doing this according to the "business model" make more money if they use an incubator. I'm concerned that someday, incubators may be hard to come by, but in my area, Muscovy aren't!

And wrote:

Yes, they eat the hay with the sheep when they can't be on the pastures, like when it rains or I'm too busy to move the electric fence.

That's got me wondering if there is any sort of tree hay geese will eat. Hay is expensive on my Island, and hard to get.

That's got me wondering if there is any sort of tree hay geese will eat. Hay is expensive on my Island, and hard to get.

We experimented last year with locust trees and the geese went crazy. I have hybrid willow, lacebark elm, and white mullberry for them and I know they will eat it wholeheartedly. It's little right now but when it's big enough I'll let them graze it and post about it here on Permies.

Brieanne Rice wrote:Just want to share a bit of an Aha moment that I recently had. Geese can be so overbearing with my ducks, don't need grain, and just kind of don't fit in to the bigger picture of what I'm doing on our property. However, Asian style goose cooked over a bed of butternut squash and potatoes will always fit nicely with what I'm doing. Then I heard a voice say, "Treat them like the graziers they are!" Aha! Yes! Sooooo, they now go into electric netting on the pasture WITH my dairy sheep and are brought in with the sheep at night to bed down. This fits well because they don't need the tastiest bites of grass and herbs in the pastures, so it's fine that they go in with the sheep and eat some lower and some highest quality bites.That kills two tasty birds with one stone, so to speak. They used to go into a perfectly beautiful, ready-to-graze pasture of all their own with the ducks only to make a mess and eat all the dairy quality goodies, lay a thick layer of manure down over the plants, and smash it all down with their flat feet. Yes! Now the ducks and turkeys are in tractors on pasture and the chickens have their compost-making fortress. I love when it all fits together.

I love your post. Would you be willing to share a pic of your chicken compost area and your duck and turkey tractors? We're not doing well with the egg layers in tractors, so we're thinking about a permanent structure and getting ducks for the tractors.  We have a few geese with the egg layers and tractors and they're doing great.

Im glad you found a way to make geese work for you! I love that they eat so much less grain than ducks so their feed cost is lower. Im thinking about adding some to my own flock

Hi Maria,

I can definitely get some pictures of the chicken composting area and the turkey tractors. The ducks are currently with the egg layers bc our 3 tractors are being used for meat birds and turkeys but I'll get pics today.

Kristine Ellis wrote:Im glad you found a way to make geese work for you! I love that they eat so much less grain than ducks so their feed cost is lower. Im thinking about adding some to my own flock

I recommend geese to everyone, if they have the ability for grazing areas and the tolerance for large opinionated birds.
Africans are the noisy Big Dogs of the goose world, and I adore mine. They don't eat a lot of grain, can eat the feed I put out for the chickens, but love to graze.

Listening to them chomp the grass is soothing.

They're duck-like in not having a lot of common chicken problems, are generally healthier than chickens seem to be, and love water. Unlike ducks, they don't seem to need very much of it (the water) and do quite well with a deep water dish.
I do end up with a lot of different water dishes around and recently acquired a baby pool for more permanent "goose splashing" that will be dug into the yard soon. They tend to stand in their water dishes and will splash water all over if they can.

The hard part, in my opinion, is trying to figure out which goose will do best for you and your lifestyle/farm style. Do you want big and noisy or small and quiet? Lots of seasonal eggs or not so many? Are you thinking about meat or just want a large feathered buddy? Roast goose is wonderful, the eggs make for excellent baking, and they are fun to have around.

How did you get your LGD to be ok with the geese?

Sooooo, they now go into electric netting on the pasture WITH my dairy sheep and are brought in with the sheep at night to bed down.

Theresa Brennan wrote:How did you get your LGD to be ok with the geese?

Hi Theresa,

Hannah, my LGD, is an older girl now who pretty much tolerates any livestock. In her youth she would have been a bit more feisty with the poultry though.  The only way she will bite them is if they try to eat her food, which is why we just try to feed raw food so the grazers don't want the kibble. There is always some sort of food chain on the farm, no matter what is being fed I guess.

Thanks. I appreciate the response.

Hi Theresa,

Hannah, my LGD, is an older girl now who pretty much tolerates any livestock. In her youth she would have been a bit more feisty with the poultry though.  The only way she will bite them is if they try to eat her food, which is why we just try to feed raw food so the grazers don't want the kibble. There is always some sort of food chain on the farm, no matter what is being fed I guess.

Hi Brienne,  I just found your post.  I love it.  I raise beef on pasture and next year I will be getting sheep to follow them to eat the weeds they dont.  I believe in grazing my pastures as hard as possible and then give them as long of a rest as possible, and having as diverse of group of graziers as possible.  To that end Ive been thinking of following the sheep with geese very much like you are doing except keeping sheep and geese separate .  Have you tried that?  Did it not work?  

Do you sell the geese or eat them yourself?
Keep up the good work.  

Jeff

Hi Jeff!

Yes, I have tried to follow the sheep with geese and it works really well. I try and water the grazed spot immediately so I always set up a spot, for my 6 ewes with lambs at their side, to last for around 8 hrs and water within 24 hrs so for me that doesn't leave enough time/ pasture for geese to follow. I don't see why, especially with some tweaking, that wouldn't work though.

Hope that helps and good luck!

Brieanne

I have always heard that geese make great guardian companions.

That sounds like a great setup! I’d also love to see how you’ve organized everything especially the compost area with chickens. Ducks in tractors sound interesting too. Geese doing well is a good sign!

Anne Miller wrote:I have always heard that geese make great guardian companions.

They're noisy and Very Large birds - they tend to make themselves look bigger by spreading wings and standing as upright as possible.

They're great guardians for any critter smaller that can dodge a bully, and will make a horrible ruckus if something happens that they think you (or the world) should know about - like the UPS man arrived; or there's a low flying helicopter; or the mailman has arrived; there's a strange critter of any sort in or near "their space"(a fluid measurement that can mean a space they're in, something they can see, or space they think should be theirs but the law says belongs to the neighbor); it's Tuesday; they have once again discovered their feet.

My geese have no qualms about yelling at me if I wear something different that they don't approve of, I'm showing up at night or a time they don't think I should be bothering them, or I have neglected to offer them treats.

Unlike many dogs, they can't be bribed into good behavior by strangers - they regard corn offered by me as a treat, but my husband has to scatter it and walk away before they even think about nibbling. I've tried to have someone they didn't know at all approach with corn, but they were seen as a Bad Thing and threatened.

An angry adult goose can break a bone in an adult human if there's a situation that would drive things to a physical confrontation. There are plenty of warnings before that happens, though. They use the same ferocity to protect their spaces and the less aggressive members of my flock, so I'm fine with it. I'm thinking about getting a "warning-guard geese" sign, but haven't decided if it's necessary.
They make great guardian animals and they can be socialized with other critters and will regard those other critters with special favor.  My favorite goose guard was Pat who thought of himself as a Very Large Chicken and slept with the flock.

I would think geese and LGDs would make one heck of a security team.  Ultra alert geese squawks and LGD comes running to see what the fuss is about.    Pity the fox who came for an easy meal.