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Raising geese takes a little room to graze, a secure place to sleep, and a tub of clean water. Geese are hardy, self-sufficient grazers that cut the feed bill in summer, and a hand-raised flock gives you spring eggs, goslings, weed control, and a yard full of friendly, chatty birds.
We’ve always raised geese on our Vermont homestead. Once they’re past the brooder stage, they need grass to graze, clean water, and a safe shelter at night.
They’re hardy, too. Even in very cold weather, ours would rather stay outside during the day, and they’d lie out on the snow grooming themselves in the harshest blizzard. In the growing season, Texas A&M says grass can make up as much as 70% of their diet.
Geese aren’t right for every backyard, though. They need more space than chickens, some breeds are loud, and a gander can get pushy in spring. If you’re still deciding, start with these things to know before getting geese, which cover how they’re different from chickens.
This guide walks through choosing a breed, raising goslings, housing, feeding, and keeping your flock safe. For more on any one breed, there’s a full list of goose breeds, from big meat geese to small ornamental breeds.
Notes from My Homestead
My daughter has been mama to our geese since they were goslings. She takes them out to graze every day, leads them on walks, and takes them down to the pond for a swim.
They’re still bonded to her like a mama goose, and they always come running when they see us. Even our weeder geese in the garden still come in for snuggles when my hands are muddy from weeding.
Choosing a Goose Breed
Goose breeds vary a lot in size, temperament, and purpose. Some are calm and quiet, some are loud and alert, and some are bred mostly for meat, eggs, or looks.
Pick a breed for what you want from your flock, whether that’s meat, eggs, weeding, or friendly pets. A calm breed is easier for a first flock, and a loud one makes a better alarm.
These breeds turn up at most American hatcheries:
- African: Big, upright meat geese with a knob, a dewlap, and a loud voice
- Chinese: Light, loud geese with a knob on the forehead, and the top egg layers
- Embden: Big, fast-growing white meat geese
- Toulouse: Big, calm gray meat geese, in a production type and a heavy dewlap type
A few more are easy to find, too, from hatcheries and breeders:
- American Buff: Calm, medium-size geese with soft apricot feathers, and good mothers
- Pilgrim: Medium-size geese where the ganders are mostly white and the geese are gray, so you can tell them apart from hatch
- Roman and Tufted Roman: Small white geese, often with a tuft of feathers on the head
- Sebastopol: Gentle white geese with long, curly feathers that keep them from flying
Beyond this short list of common breeds in the United States, there’s a longer list of heritage goose breeds from around the world. Sometimes you can find the specialty breeds if you know to ask for them.
Hatcheries usually ship goslings in spring. A mixed or mystery gosling order is much less expensive than choosing the breed, and that’s how we ended up with Chinese geese.
Raising Goslings
If you’re starting with goslings, be ready for fast growth and big personalities from day one. By 3 to 4 weeks old, they’re often more than double their hatch size and starting to feather in.
Goslings need a warm brooder at first. Metzer Farms suggests starting at 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit under the heat lamp and dropping it about 5 degrees a week. If they huddle under the lamp, they need more heat, and if they pant, they’re too warm.
Goslings need heat longer than chicks, often 4 to 6 weeks depending on the weather. Give them bedding with some grip, since a slick floor can cause splayed legs, and change it often, because goslings make a wet mess around the waterer.
Goslings are very social, and they’ll cry if they’re kept alone. Raise at least two together, and handle them every day for the first few weeks. Frequent, gentle handling makes for calmer, friendlier adult geese.
Feeding Goslings
Feed goslings a waterfowl starter, or a chick starter with at least 20% protein that includes niacin. Waterfowl need two to three times as much niacin as chickens, according to Metzer Farms, and a shortage shows up as weak, bowed legs. Unmedicated feed is the safe default, since geese rarely need medicated feed.
It’s also nice if you can give them some greens to get their digestive system going. Geese are grazers at heart, and corn isn’t exactly their natural diet, so we start trays of homegrown microgreens for them every week. They’ll eat a whole tray in about an hour!
Goslings need water deep enough to dip their whole head, since they use it to clear their nostrils and eyes. Wisconsin Extension says the water should reach at least up to their eyes.
They’ll also make a mess of it, and wet goslings chill fast. Use a waterer they can’t climb into, and set it where spills won’t soak the bedding.
Swimming and Time Outside
We like to take our goslings for short swims in our stock tank pool, but they need constant supervision when they’re young. Their feathers aren’t waterproof yet, and without a mother goose, you need to be there to tell them when it’s time to get out.
We give them a little floating platform, our goose boat, so they can take breaks.
In warm weather, goslings can go out for short trips at 10 to 14 days old, according to Metzer Farms. In cooler weather, wait until they’re about 3 weeks old and pick a sunny day.
Bring them in out of the rain until they’re fully feathered, at about 7 to 9 weeks old by Metzer Farms’ count. Until then, wet down won’t keep them warm.
If you raise goslings in early spring, watch out for cold, wet weather. Wet down and chilly nights can chill even big goslings, so keep a draft-free shelter and dry bedding ready until the weather settles.
Ours are fully feathered and nearly full grown by 8 to 10 weeks, and then they can live outside full time.
Housing and Shelter
Geese don’t need fancy housing, but they do need a dry, draft-free shelter where they can rest at night and get out of the worst weather. A simple shed or low poultry house with clean straw or shavings works well.
For a breeding flock, Nebraska Extension suggests about 10 square feet of indoor space per goose, plus 30 to 40 square feet of yard. On pasture, an acre supports 20 to 40 geese, depending on the size of the geese and the grass.
Geese don’t roost, so give them clean floor space and big nesting boxes on the floor. They can’t get into raised chicken nest boxes, and they’ll often make their own nests in the bedding.
With a routine, geese will often put themselves to bed at dusk. Ours learned to head back to the coop at night, even from the pond.
Every flock is a little different, though. We’ve had geese in the past that didn’t want to go in at night. If yours are stubborn, try shaking a can of grain.
Feeding Adult Geese
Geese are grazers first. They spend seven to eight hours a day eating, and University of Kentucky Extension says that’s why they can live on a pasture-based diet. By 5 to 6 weeks old, good pasture can cover most of what they eat.
When grazing is thin, give them a waterfowl or all-flock feed. Feed tags don’t have to list niacin, but Metzer Farms says most poultry feed has enough of it. Metzer Farms suggests about 0.4 to 0.55 pounds a day for most adult geese, a bit more for heavy breeds and a bit less for Chinese.
They’re completely willing to help you weed the garden, too, and they’ll clear the grass and lawn weeds between rows. Just keep them out of new beds, since young seedlings look like a snack.
Skip the bread, even though it’s what everyone wants to feed geese. Tufts University’s vet school links angel wing, where the flight feathers twist out from the body, to a diet too high in carbohydrates and protein, and bread is mostly carbohydrate.
Always give them clean water deep enough to dunk their whole head. They use it to clean their eyes and nostrils, so a shallow chicken waterer won’t do.
Water and Seasonal Care
Geese love water, but you don’t need a pond. A kiddie pool or stock tank to bathe in is plenty in summer, and if you do have a pond, here’s how to maintain a homestead pond with a flock on it.
Winter water takes more thought. Keep the waterer small and hard to tip, because a goose will try to climb in and bathe, then freeze her breast and feet to the ice. In cold weather, we brought our geese warm water daily, and they ate snow for much of their water.
Adult geese molt once a year, in summer or fall depending on where you live, so expect feathers all over the yard for a while.
In hot weather, geese need shade and plenty of water to bathe in, especially the heavy breeds.
Behavior and Flock Dynamics
Geese do well with other waterfowl, too, as long as you plan the mix. We had one very lovely female goose in with our ducks for years before we got more. Go with a single female goose, though, since a gander will harass your female ducks and can be territorial.
Ganders get protective in spring, especially while a goose is sitting on eggs, and Metzer Farms says they can get even more protective once the goslings hatch. Give a nesting pair some room.
Handling makes the biggest difference. Hand-raised geese welcome you in as part of the flock, but there’s always the occasional gander that just can’t be tamed. One year we had an aggressive Toulouse gander that attacked our Embden females, and since we keep a gentle, kid-friendly flock, he didn’t stay long.
Visitors are a different story. Our friendly geese still had to be locked in when friends visited, and we had to work out a fencing compromise with the delivery guy. They’ll holler at anything that comes up the driveway.
Predator Protection
Geese are big, but they’re still vulnerable to predators. I’ve seen geese hold their own against weasels and raccoons, but we’ve lost geese to coyotes, bears, and foxes over the years.
Geese have very poor night vision. They can’t fight off what they can’t see, so lock them in a secure shelter every night, and use good fencing or electric poultry netting during the day if you have a lot of predator pressure.
Texas A&M lists rats, coyotes, and neighborhood dogs among the predators to plan for. Goslings are small, though, so keep them close and supervised whenever they’re outside.
Goose Eggs, Goslings, and Meat
Geese lay seasonally, starting in late winter or early spring and often laying into early summer. Most breeds lay 20 to 50 eggs a year, and Chinese geese lay the most, up to about 100 with good management. Here’s more on how a goose egg is different from a chicken egg, plus a long list of goose egg recipes for the spring glut.
A goose egg takes about 28 to 32 days to hatch, depending on the breed. A broody goose will do the work for you, and she bathes to wet her feathers and keep the eggs moist. An incubator takes a different routine than hatching chicken eggs, and The Modern Homesteader’s Guide to Keeping Geese walks through it.
Goose meat is dark and rich, and to me it tastes more like beef than chicken. When you’re ready to cook one, here’s how to roast a goose, and don’t skip rendering the goose fat. You can also can goose meat for the pantry.
Tips for Raising Geese
Handle goslings every day. Geese bond strongly to whoever raises them, and a gosling that’s handled daily grows into a goose that comes running when it sees you.
Keep winter water small. A shallow, hard-to-tip waterer keeps geese from climbing in to bathe and freezing their feet to the ice.
Lock them up at night. Geese can hold their own in daylight, but they can’t see well in the dark. They need a secure shelter every night.
Raising Geese FAQs
These are the questions readers ask most about raising geese, from what to feed them to whether they can fly.
Mostly grass. Geese graze seven to eight hours a day, and grass can make up as much as 70% of their diet. Give them a waterfowl feed when grazing is thin, and clean water deep enough to dunk their heads.
Well-kept geese can live well into their teens, according to Texas A&M’s vet school. A goose can keep laying for up to 10 years, though a gander’s fertility tends to drop off sooner.
Not well. Domestic geese can’t fly like wild geese, and they only really fly when startled. Even then, they generally make it 30 feet or so at most.
Most geese start laying at about a year old, in late winter or early spring. They lay more and bigger eggs in their second year than in their first.
It’s best not to feed geese bread. Tufts University’s vet school links angel wing, where the flight feathers twist out from the body, to a diet too high in carbohydrates and protein. Give them grass, greens, and a waterfowl feed instead.
Goose Breed Guides
A few breeds to consider for your flock.
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Good morning. I found your information very helpful. I inherited two pilgrim geese when I moved to my property in 2022. I have a 3 acre pond and a lot of visiting Canada geese and other birds, including a blue heron. I have become very attached to the geese. Sadly, my female died a couple of weeks ago. She had been here at least 11 years, and I think she was quite mature before she came here. The male is very lonely now. He is spending much more time in my company. I am looking for a mature female pilgrim goose, if you hear of any. If not, I am thinking about getting goslings in the spring. I assume I should get more than one gosling? If so, two female females? One male and one female?Do you think my male would take to two babies? Sorry, so many questions. I’d appreciate your expert advice on my situation.
I’m so sorry about your goose. Geese are flock birds and don’t do well alone, so it’s no surprise he’s sticking close to you. If you can find a mature female, that’s the quickest fix, and Pilgrims make it easy to be sure what you’re getting since they’re auto-sexing (adult females are soft gray, males are mostly white). The Livestock Conservancy breeders directory is a good place to look: https://livestockconservancy.org/resources/breeders-directory/
If you go with goslings in the spring, get at least two so they have each other, and I’d go with two females. One gander with a couple of geese is a natural setup, while a second male could start squabbling with him once it matures. Pilgrim goslings can be sexed by color right from hatch, too (females are olive gray with darker bills, males are paler and more yellow).
Brood them separately and let your gander see them through a fence first. Some adult geese happily adopt goslings, but it really depends on the bird, so wait until he’s showing interest rather than aggression and the goslings are well grown (6 weeks or so) before letting them mix. Good luck, I hope he has a new flock soon!
hey Ashley. i saw your posts on all the geese you guys got. my daughter and i got into them this year. i got a goose and gander toulouse. my daughter got 2 toulouse from the same farm plus got another goose toulose and 4 buff geese. the buffs are huge and almost never honk. we both have incubators so we plan to sell goslings next spring. theres a huge intrest in them here but as you know, buying online is crazy expensive. ive had chinese and african geese in the past and didnt care for them. they were aggressive even outside breeding season. my barney and betty ( wife named them) bonded to me and follow me everywhere. if i dont see them in the yard i yell “hey goose!” they start honking and come running/ flapping. they even follow me on the lawnmower and sometimes try to follow my truck down the road. they would go in the house with me if i let them.
They can be crazy friendly like that, especially the buff geese. I had a male buff goose that was bonded to me and he’d crawl into my lap if I sat on the grass (even at 4 years old). He was so gentle and snuggly, at least with me. He saw my husband as competition and would defend me from him coming near if he could. I thought it was hilarious…my husband, less so =). They are such characters and can be so wonderful.