Is keeping guard geese on the farm a good way to protect chickens and other birds?
Is owning geese right for your homestead? Will they protect your flock of birds or simply be a nuisance? Is it expensive to keep geese? Do I have the right farm set up for geese? If you are looking for answers to these questions and all your geese questions, you are in the right place.
Keeping Guardian Geese is part of a series of articles about choosing the right farm animals for your homestead. You can read about the beginner’s guide to animals on the farm and how we answer the questions: What is the purpose, cost, advantages, disadvantages, and special considerations including temperament and behavior of each animal?
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We have kept almost every farm animal at Cattle Upon a Hill. Our most recent addition has been keeping guard geese. Today, I am going to tell you about my experience with keeping guard geese. I will tell you the purpose, advantages, disadvantages, and special considerations when keeping guardian geese.
Expectations versus Reality of Keeping Guard Geese
I imagined keeping geese would be a whimsical fairytale much like that of Mother Goose. My perfect geese waddling around the farm as beautiful symbols of quiet, peaceful farm life. Wow, was I wrong! Geese are loud and very “social”.
Ever since I started keeping chickens, I have wanted to try to keep geese. I am blessed to live on a farm where I am able to keep many different kinds of birds. Currently, we have chickens, ducks, turkeys, guineas, and most recently geese. Each type of bird has its own personality. But none, quite like geese.
Keeping Guard Geese to protect against Predators
The reason I wanted to keep geese is that I have a predator problem. My chicken coop is behind our house on the edge of a wooded area. There are 15 acres of woods and many wild animals living in the woods including raccoons and foxes who think my chickens are an easy meal.
I have tried several methods to deter predators including trapping, guard dogs, and now we are trying geese. My children knew that I wanted geese. They were Mother’s Day shopping for me at the local farm store and there just happened to be goslings. My dear sons purchased a pair for me. Here are my cute, fluffy goslings when my sons presented them to me.
I have raised hundreds of chickens, some ducks, guineas, and even turkeys. None of these birds prepared me for raising geese. Geese have a “unique” temperament. I knew geese have a reputation for aggressive behavior. My plan was to handle them often and try to imprint myself as their mother goose.
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Imprinting Geese
Imprinting is basically teaching the geese to identify with a specific human as a sense of identification. For example, the day we got the geese I acted as their mother and called to them “geese, geese” and they started following me around when we had them out of their brooder. They imprinted pretty well with me and still to this day, come running when I call them.
We kept our geese in the barn in an old water tank. I used the same set up as chicks: a brooder light, waterer, chick feed and straw as bedding. You can read more about starting happy, healthy chicks here. Here is a list of supplies for starting goslings.
I did add a flat 3 Gallon Rubber Feed Pan (like this one below) with water for the geese to swim in. It was messy, but they loved it.
Raising Guard Geese
As goslings, caring for the geese was much like caring for chicks. However, geese are much messier. They splash around in the water and then the bedding gets wet. Therefore, you will need to clean out much more often than chicks.
We also gave our goslings supervised time in the water. Since they were so small, we filled a 55-gallon drum that was cut in half with water and let them swim. Here is a short video. You can hear my daughter and I giggling at their adorable diving.
Growing Geese
As our goslings grew, their need for water increase. Training young goslings to come when called is very helpful. We were able to walk them across the road to our seasonal pond. It is more like a large puddle, but as you can see in the video below, you can hear me calling the geese. They loved going to the pond.
Purpose of Keeping Geese
Once our pair of geese matured, I realized that we had a male and female. I also determined that they are Chinese Geese. When my son purchased them, they were sold as straight-run (unsexed) and hatchery choice (unknown breeds).
We introduced the geese to our flock of birds slowly by allowing them to free-range with the flock and finally placing them in the main coop at dusk. The geese seemed to adapt well, although they scared the guineas into the trees to roost at night.
Do Geese Really Protect?
As I mentioned, the reason I keep guard geese is to protect my other birds. Once the geese were sleeping in the coop, I observed their guardian instincts. They are very vocal and alert everyone of unusual activity. However, there was an opossum eating some grain right outside the coop one night when I shut them in. The geese were nowhere near the coop, in fact, they were hiding by our house. But they were being very loud.
Goslings for profit
Next spring, when my goose starts laying eggs, I plan on allowing her to set on the eggs and hatch a clutch of goslings. I plan on selling the goslings to earn a profit from keeping geese. I do not plan on keeping any more than two geese.
Cost of Keeping Geese
Geese are not expensive to keep. In fact, they are less expensive to keep than chickens. Geese can live off the grass and other vegetation during the summer months. If you live in a cold climate, you will need to supplement their diet during the winter months. I supplement with commercial all flock feed and sprouted seeds.
Other costs include bedding, housing, and a water source. We do not have a natural water source year-round, so we use a small, inexpensive plastic pool. I recommend a small pool. The geese are extremely messy and the pool needs to be cleaned daily.
Advantages of Keeping Guardian Geese
Protective
I hesitated to keep guard geese because I have heard they can be aggressive. This is true with my geese. This can be an advantage to keep strange animals away from your farm and other birds. My geese have also kept strangers away from our home. This is also a disadvantage that I will elaborate on when discussing disadvantages. Our geese keep the UPS delivery person from delivering packages. I have found packages left in the middle of the driveway while we were away because I am sure the geese attacked the driver.
Socialable
Geese are fun. They are much more sociable than any other birds that I own. The geese always greet me when I am outside. They also follow me around the farm. This can be fun, but it can also be annoying. Their constant, loud honking makes it impossible to have a quiet moment or a conversation with someone in their presence. I guess you could say that geese like to be the center of attention.
Disadvantages of Keeping Guardian Geese
Mess
The biggest disadvantage of keeping the geese is definitely the mess they leave wherever they go. I don’t want to get too graphic, but compared to chicken poop, goose poop is very runny. I understand where the saying “loose as a goose” came from. Since it is so loose, it is very difficult to see in the grass and almost impossible to clean up. If you have or want a beautiful yard, geese are not for you.
Aggression
As I mentioned earlier, my geese are becoming aggressive. They are still young, but the male has started to attack every member of my family. Thankfully, he gives plenty of time and warning before he attacks. They both nod their heads up and down, honking at me, then they slowly walk towards me with their wings out and finally, the male strike with his head straight out. He tries to bite me. It bruised my leg but never broke the skin. He literally “gooses me”.
I have learned not to turn my back on him and always keep an eye on him when he is nearby. He has also attacked my children. My older boys can defend themselves, however, my daughter carries a stick when she is outside. Not really the most convenient or peaceful circumstances. If the gander continues to attack, I plan on penning them to prevent injury.
Noise
If you have a sensitivity to noise, geese are probably not for you. I remember when our geese were just goslings, I told my kids, “I can’t wait until they start honking!” Be careful what you wish for! As soon as the geese see someone, they come running, honking all the way. They don’t stop for a long time. If you live in a suburban setting, your neighbors will probably complain. Geese are loud!
Special Consideration of Keeping Guard Geese
Ease of Raising and Keeping Geese
Overall, geese are very easy to raise. As goslings, it is very similar to raising chickens. However, I recommend taking the time to imprint them on one human in the family. As adults, if they are free-range, they will eat vegetation as their main diet. Vegetation will include your garden. You will have to have a fence around the garden to prevent the geese from eating your tender young vegetables.
Make sure they have plenty of water and a source of water to swim in, even if it is a kiddie pool. You will have to change the water almost daily since they will mess in the water turning it dark brown.
The main disadvantages are messes, aggression with people, and noise. I would not recommend them for any environment other than a rural farm. Suburban neighbors will not be pleased with geese in the neighborhood.
Final Verdict about Keeping guard Geese
My geese are about 7 months old at the writing of this article. So far, I like keeping geese, but I see potentially having to keep the geese penned up rather than free-ranging them due to the mess and their aggression. At this point, I definitely would not keep more than two geese. Geese are suitable for country living and not suitable for families with young children.
What about you? Have you ever kept geese? Tell me about your experience in the comments.
Are you planning on buying geese? Please ask me any questions you have in the comments or on social media. I love hearing from my readers.
Thanks so much for sharing your story here, Amy! I came across it the past couple weeks while looking for tips on unintuitive mistakes commonly made, etc. with bringing geese into an existing flock (we have chickens and ducks right now). We’ve got two Chinese browns, a boy and a girl (like you got), about five weeks old… its funny, the boy seems the most excited to see me / have me hold him, while the girl runs and then squirms the whole time she is being held (unless you swaddle her, then she calms down and eventually starts being sweet to you).
I can’t even imagine the boy trying to attack any of us when he’s older, but if he does I will probably try the same trick that works for me to break rowdy roosters — hold the bird under arm (I can do this, I’m 6’6″!), and then grab the beak with the other hand and pull the head down into a ‘submissive’ pose… hold for about ten seconds. If he picks it back up, go right on and do it again. Have you tried anything like this, with your gander?
Finally, I’m curious what you think about the AGE at which you integrated them with your other feathered friends, and whether you feel in hindsight it might have been better earlier, later, etc. Also, do you think the boy or the girl would be more effective at seeing strange things / sounding alarms / otherwise thinking of the other birds as ‘their flock’, if you only had one or the other (ie, not a pair)? Do either of them watch the sky while they are out — and, do they move with the chickens? I am worried, based on what I’ve read from people with practical experience, that two geese get too distracted with one another, to be good guardians of the existing flock. I want to sell the girl to a loving new home, but it will break all of our hearts a little :/
Finally, did the female ever bed down and lay some eggs, once she got sexually mature? I’ve also heard that this is a HUGE distraction from their typical guard duties, and if you let them go through with it, knocks them out of being useful for like 3 or 4 months out of the whole year… again, another strong argument (unless you’ve experienced otherwise) for only keeping one.
I hope you can take a minute, to share your thoughts / update us on your experience now that your pair is over a year old =)
regards from Western NC!
Thanks for your comment and questions! You bring up some really great points and questions.
I am not sure whether introducing the geese earlier would have made a difference. I think they were about 6 months old. We got straight run geese. And since I ended up having a male and a female, the male is very protective of his mate, and she eggs (no pun intended) him on with her alert honks.
They do not move around with the chickens and they don’t really keep their eye on the sky for overhead predators. Basically, their main deterrent is making a lot of noise. They will attack people and I am hoping predators such as opossum, skunk, and raccoons. my main predator problems happen when the chickens are going in the chicken coop to roost at night. The geese are the last ones in the chicken coop at night.
My goose is setting on a clutch of eggs right now, but I don’t think any are going to hatch. One exploded last week. This may be a blessing in disguise because after these geese die, I plan on trying a different breed. One that is gentler and not quite as loud.
Do I regret getting these geese? Most of the time, no. They are a fun addition to our farm and now that we know the male’s attack posture, we can stop his attacks. . . but the poor UPS carrier.
Thanks for the article. We have 2 male Chinese and 6 female. They have their area and we do let them out to roam. They do not house with the chickens, they do hang out with them. The Geesers are great weeders and are aggressive. I trained them to “respect the rake” , meaning I carry it and they behave. We dont use sticks or other items.. we carry a rake. They are sexually mature at about 2. May lay eggs before then but they wont be fertile We have a large pond… they hate it, prefer their kiddie pools. Geese will / can live 20 to 25 years.
Hello Amy; My husband brought home, a week old gosling who unfortunately got injured during an adult brawl in the parking lot at his workplace. He couldn’t locate the parents because there were too many different stages of goslings and this kind of event goes on almost daily during the hatching season and It literally breaks my heart when he tells me about the poor babies who got stomped and tossed about like little rag dolls by other adults. I felt it necessary to go to our local feed store and buy a baby gosling to give our new baby a buddy to grow up with. We.kept them in the house until they started getting their adult feathers (that was an experience!) They are pretty messy, but it wasn’t all that bad just a bit of work keeping the area clean. I laid a painters cloth down and covered it with an old sheet in a corner of the den and surrounded their area with boxes and totes to keep them in their designated corner. They both caught on pretty quickly that ol’ mama goose was near and every time that they squawked I would just talk to them and tell them that they were fine and they would settle down. Hubby constructed a small, portable round pen for them in the yard that I could move around so that they could graze during the day. The coolest part is that the first baby turned out to be a female and the one that we bought is a gander. The gander though is very protective of the female and me so even if Dad tries to touch the female, he gets pinched by Goose-Lee and he pinches hard! Our two dogs give them a whole lot of leeway whenever I let them into the yard and sometimes it’s hard to sneak away to get other chores done without both of them running to catch up with me. I check on them frequently though, because an occasional hawk will fly about and I worry because the female is a lot smaller and could be attacked. Usually, I will open the door and find two geese sitting on the deck waiting for me. I’ve gotten used to them pulling my hair, my pant leg, shoelaces, or shirt when I’m sitting outside with them in the yard or doing yard work. They are quite the characters to hang out with and I really crack up as they wait for me to start the water for their wading pool. I was raised on a farm and after 40 something years, it is so refreshing to finally be able to have my critters around me again! I have a very blessed life.