Thinking about adding geese to your homestead?
Geese are remarkably easy to tend, and in many ways, they’re easier than chickens. They’re self-sufficient, and generally excellent mothers.
Goose family free-ranging on our homestead in Vermont.
While they can be easier than chickens, they’re also quite different than chickens. I’d recommend getting a good book on goose husbandry to fully understand their requirements before jumping in.
The Modern Homesteader’s Guide to Keeping Geese is a great comprehensive beginners guide, and Keeping Geese: Breeds and Management is another great specific goose raising guide. For a more general guide to poultry, there’s no better book than the Storey Guide to Raising Poultry which covers just about every type of backyard poultry, including geese.
Here are just a few ways geese differ from chickens.
Geese are Grazers
Unlike ducks and chickens, which prefer bugs and high-protein food, geese are grazers. They have a digestive system that’s much like a horse, and they’re made for quickly converting grass into meat and eggs.
Be sure they have access to greens, as well as standard un-medicated poultry food. Medicated poultry food is dosed for chickens, and can be toxic to other breeds.
Our mother goose teaching her babies how to graze at just 1 week old.
Geese are Very Hardy
Even in very cold climates, they prefer to stay outside during daylight hours. Ours would lay out on the snow contentedly grooming themselves even in the harshest blizzard.
With that in mind, they only need the most rudimentary housing, just enough to keep predators from getting to them.
Geese Can Defend Themselves Better than Chickens While Free Ranging
Geese make excellent free-range birds because they’re excellent at defending themselves against predators. Some mixed flock poultry keepers add them to a flock to help keep chickens safe while free-ranging.
While geese are great at fending off intruders during the day hours, they have very poor night vision. They can’t fight off what they can’t see, so be sure they’re locked up safe in the evening.
One of our hand-raised cuties.
Geese Don’t Roost
Geese have large feet for walking over the soggy ground or for paddling through water. Those feet are very different from chicken feet, or any bird that uses a perch.
They’re ground-based birds, and they need able clean floor space in their coop as well as large nesting boxes on the floor. They won’t be able to access raised chicken nesting boxes.
Geese nesting in the early spring in a very basic shelter with hay bedding.
Geese are Water Birds
Geese are water birds, and they’re happiest when they have water to bathe, but you don’t need a full pond. They’re happy with a small kiddy pool to splash in during the warm months. In the cold months, we’d bring them warm water daily and they’d rely on eating snow for much of their liquid.
Be careful that their winter water source is small and not easily spilled. They’ll try to climb in to bathe, and then afterward they’ll freeze their breasts and feet to snow and ice.
It’s best to keep them dry as possible in the winter months if you’re in a cold climate. Though eating snow may seem harsh, it’s much nicer than trying to chip a panicked goose out of ice.
Our matron goose, looking after a mixed flock on the pond. She adopted the ducks as her own and defended them.
Goose Eggs Need Moisture to Hatch
While chickens are land birds with very dry nests, goose mothers actually have to bathe to wet their feathers to keep their eggs moist during incubation. To hatch goose eggs in an incubator, you’ll need to follow specific protocols. See The Modern Homesteaders Guide to Keeping Geese for details.
All that extra moisture means that goose eggs are a bit different than chicken eggs when it comes to cooking. The yolks are much larger and richer, but the white is runnier.
I love making homemade custard or waffles with the goose egg yolks, but don’t try to make a meringue with the whites. They just won’t whip up right.
Goose egg from a mature bird. This egg weighed about 1/2 pound (220 grams)!
Goose Meat is More Like Beef than Chicken
If you intend to raise geese for meat, you’ll be pleasantly surprised that goose meat tastes more like beef than poultry. For small-scale homesteaders, goose meat is a great way to get some variety into their harvests without actually taking on the responsibility or expense of raising a cow.
Even if you’re not intending to harvest geese for meat, there’s always the occasional gander that just can’t be tamed. It’s nice to know that if you do need to harvest to curb attacking behavior that you’re in for a rare treat.
A goose breast sliced into goose “steak”
But Aren’t Geese Aggressive?
Geese have a bad reputation for aggression, but more often than not that has to do with handling more than anything else.
Hand-raised geese are devoted to their owners, and welcome them in as part of the flock. Geese hand raised on our homestead are more lap animals than farm animals.
Our cat’s lost his spot as our lap goose gets snuggles. This one is a juvenile, so much smaller than a full-grown bird.
Our geese would welcome us when we came home, come when called and circle our ankles nuzzling just like house cats.
While they accept you as part of the flock, visitors might be a different story. Our family of friendly geese needed to be locked in when friends visited, and we had to work out a fencing compromise with the UPS guy. Anyone outside of their known flock was liable to attack.
Our baby geese hard at work learning to follow the leader. If training starts early, you’re just another part of the family.
This “guard dog” behavior makes them great additions to the homestead in very rural areas where you don’t see a lot of visitors. Geese are still used to this day as “guard dogs” in prisons because they can’t be bribed like real dogs, and they’re fierce at defending their territory against intruders.
The same is true of your homestead. I’d pit my geese against a burglar any day.
Judy Redden
I love my American Buff geese.
Leigh Harrington
I am excited as I am bring three American Buff Goslings to our farm the second week of April. This will be my first geese, though I have successfully raised chickens. We have an almost acre pond in the front of our home and I have a goose house ready. Any suggestions welcome.
Lucinda
I’m hoping to get a trio of cotton patch soon!!🥰💕
Vivien
Very informative article. Highly appreciated.
Jerome John Ogbaje
Hi, this piece of information has been of tremendous assistance to me. I live far away in Nigeria. West Africa. I love animals. I have had a variety of different types of animals. Ranging from spotted antelopes to dykes. I have had a kite as well. I now have nine rabbits, three turkeys, two guinea fowls, two ducks and five geese. All in my small compound. I need expertise advise on handling them. Especially when it has to do their hatchling.
Adee Drory
thank you for this post! super helpful. I have a question about what happens when they are older and can fly . Have any of them left?
Ashley Adamant
Domestic geese can’t really fly as well as wild geese. They get a bit too big/heavy, and they can only fly short distances. They only really fly when startled, and even then they generally make it 30ish feet at most.
Tamry
Hello,
It was cool to see you are from Vermont as I am also.
We have chickens, ducks and turkeys and my daughter
Wants a goose. Can we just get 1? Would really only like to get 1 so was thinking to get some chicks to raise with it?
Ashley Adamant
Geese do really well with ducks, provided you get a single female goose. Male geese will harass your lady ducks, and can be territorial. We had one very lovely female goose in with our ducks for years before we got more.
Keith
Thank you for this article. We have raised chickens before but this is our first time raising geese and we’re raising them with chickens. We’re about two weeks in and everyone is getting along. Do your geese free roam all seasons? Do they need access to shelter all year? Have you had any issues with predators?
Eric
This was great! Could anyone out there tell me what the best way to harvest an egg from the nest is? And a good way to ingratiate myself to our new geese? We got a pair from a local farm, but I am new at this, love the eggs and the geese and want to make sure I am doing it right!
Considering getting more in part to this article. Thank you.
jenny davis
Hello,
I have just got 3 embden goslings. They are 2 weeks old now. They are still inside at night with some heat them I pop them in the run in the day. I really want to get them free ranging without supervision as soon as, as they love it. I have a particularly murderery cat who would definitely have a go at the moment.
Pat Harvey
Hello. I recently got my first 4 goslings that are almost 3 weeks old now. I’ve been handling them everyday but when I walk into the coop where I’m keeping them right now, they run into a corner in a panic and pile on top of each other. What am I doing wrong?
Aysha
Great article! Admittedly I didn’t do a ton of research before getting my geese, but I’m enjoying every minute of raising them and learning a lot! One thing I haven’t seen much about is transferring geese from the inside brooder to the outside shelter/barn. My Roman Tufted geese are just a month old and pretty attached to me….if they don’t see me around, they freak out!
Julia Bonafine
My geese are in a transition phase between being outside part of the day, but needing to be inside. They definitely have some feathers, but not completely. I am having a heck of a time the last couple of days catching them. Any tricks?
Ashley Adamant
Try shaking a grain can? We honestly never had trouble with that, they’d always come running when they saw us.
Patricia
My geese, 6 was old, are in a fenced area in the middle of the chicken yard, 1 acre. When can they free range? Will roosters bother them? Thanks
Patricia
Correction: 6 wks old
Linda Brown
Hi, I love your site & all the great info! I have an issue that I’d appreciate getting your input on, please! I have 10 chickens, all different breeds & 2 geese. I got them all at the same age so they grew up together. They’re about 3 months old & get along pretty well & currently they all stay in the coop at night & have an outdoor pen for daytime. I’ve tried to free range them & for some reason the chickens seem to go all over the place, not staying close to the barn & the geese are so motherly that they freak out if they can’t see them all. So we’ve backed off on the free range idea for now. But the pen they are in does not have enough grass for the geese & eventually the coop won’t be big enough either when the geese are full size. I planned to put them in the stall next to the coop at night.. However, I can’t seem to get these geese to be ok with being separated from the chickens. My hope was that if I took them out a little every day they’d eventually get used to it. But when I do they endlessly honk & cry, trying to get back in by their chickens. Could I please get your input on this? I’m kind of at the end of my rope! I absolutely love them all & I don’t want to keep stressing the geese out if this is not going to solve the problem. Thank you in advance for any suggestions!
Administrator
Geese actually make great chicken guardians. This is in their nature and something you probably won’t be able to change. You might want to consider some portable poultry netting that they can be in during the day. It will keep them contained but they will still be able to free-range within the netting. You can also move them around to different places on the property if you wish.
Ajak bior alier
Thanks for the articles. Am planning to purchase two pairs or at least one male and three females.Be blessed.
Administrator
Sounds great! So glad you enjoyed the article.
Dee OHara
I have two Giant canada geese for the second year preparing for their second batch of goslings. i know they are supposed to eat grass, and pond stuff as they are. Some of our people threw in hot dog rolls. I want to get corn, what kind of corn?
I love these guys and have taken may wonderful photos, so i just want to help Harley and Jesse!
Administrator
It looks like we must have missed this comment. How are your geese doing?