Geese As Guard Dogs? Yep, And They Just Might Be Better At It, Too

Image source: Pixabay.com

A well-trained guard dog can be an excellent addition to any home security plan. The dog is an active, living threat that can alert you of danger, deter potential attackers and actively defend your home if needed. But training an effective guard dog can be time-intensive, and selecting just the right candidate can be tricky.

What if I told you there were guard dogs that did not need to be trained? Guard dogs that instinctively alarm at strangers, attack intruders, all the while laying tasty eggs and producing rich beef-flavored red meat? Sounds too good to be true? Perhaps you’ve never met a guard goose.

Geese have many instinctive traits that make them better guards than either humans or dogs, and all without any special training. They have been used as a low-tech security solution for centuries, and are still used to protect police stations in China and to patrol prison yards in Brazil.

Naturally Territorial

Geese, especially male geese, are exceptionally territorial. While most domestic geese can still fly, they don’t. Once a location has been established as home base, they’ll fight to the death to defend it from intruders. Geese are commonly used for flock defense (for other poultry) from predators as big as coyotes.

Diatomaceous Earth: The Best Natural De-Wormer For Your Livestock!

They imprint as chicks on both their owners and the other birds or animals around them and identify them as part of the flock. Anyone or anything else is liable to be viciously attacked on sight.

Superior Eyesight & Hearing

With better eyesight than both humans and dogs, and exceptional hearing, they’re perfect for detecting threats both day and night. Geese can see in the ultraviolet spectrum, and with widely spaced eyes on the sides of their head, their field of view is exceptional.

Unstoppable Alarm Capability

Image source: Pixabay.com

Anyone who has ever lived near domestic geese knows they can be exceptionally loud. Once they’ve detected an intruder, there’s no stopping their alarm. While a poorly trained dog can be deterred by tossing it a steak, geese actually get louder when fed. Toss anything in their direction, and the moving object will only strengthen their alarm instinct.

Crippling Attack Strength

As flock animals, they shouldn’t be kept individually. That means that you’ll have multiple guards defending territory. Each goose is armed with a sharp serrated beak capable of inflicting significant damage. The beak, however, is the least of your worries. Goose wings are equipped with bony club -like knobs at the wrists, and once they’re within range, they begin beating their opponent with a force capable of breaking bones. Humans venturing too close to wild goose nests have had arms broken, as well as severe head trauma. These injuries from wild geese are only a sampling of the capacity of a much larger domestic goose. The biggest wild geese only grow to roughly 9 pounds, whereas domestic geese have a lot more girth behind their punch, weighing in at up to 22 pounds.

Easy To Keep

While a dog needs to be fed every day, geese are grazers, and prefer to get most of their calories from grass when it’s plentiful. As excellent foragers, they only require a small amount of supplemental feed if forage is available. Domestic geese do not fly south for the winter, but unlike chickens, they hate spending the winter indoors. Even on the coldest days, they’ll be out patrolling the snow. Their webbed feet and downy coat make excellent insulation, and they only require a modest three-sided shelter even in the northernmost regions of the US. Most geese are excellent and devoted mothers, raising a new flock of guards each year that can be kept to bolster the flock, or raised out for meat to bolster the freezer. They can live for up to 20 years, so their ranks don’t require replacement often.

Other Considerations

On occasion, a goose’s guard instincts can be a little too effective, and they can be a bit overzealous if you do tend to have routine friendly visitors. Considerations will need to be made if you’re expecting a visit from a repair man or a social call from friends, family or neighbors, especially those with young children. While geese do not need to be fenced to stay in their home territory, you may wish to have a small fenced holding pen somewhere to stand down the defenses and allow welcome visitors.

What do you think? Do geese make good “guard dogs”? Share your thoughts in the section below:   

If You Like All-Natural Home Remedies, You Need To Read Everything That Hydrogen Peroxide Can Do. Learn More Here.

4 Ways Geese Can Work For YOU On The Homestead

Image source: Pixabay.com

If you haven’t added geese to your homestead or your small family farm, then you really are missing out. These big, hardy birds are more than just livestock to be raised and harvested for a meal (although geese are delicious); they are extremely useful birds that you can put to work.

Geese can do everything, from weeding your garden to guarding your chicken flock from predators, and can provide income from the down feathers used in winter wear, pillows, and comforter blankets, as well. Here are some great ways you can put a flock of geese to work for you today.

Weeder Geese

Geese can help keep the weeds under control in your garden. They have a knack for eating grasses and other invasive plants in a garden or field, while leaving the actual crops alone. Geese often will eat weeds in a garden all day long, and well into the night when there is a full moon. They will eat weeds whether it’s sunny or raining, and also will help keep hard-to-mow places — like fencerows — weed-free, too. As a general rule, four geese can effectively work an acre of cultivated area, although more may be needed initially if the weed problem is severe. While all goose breeds can act as weeders, typically the more active African or white Chinese geese are used in this role.

Guard Geese

Image source: Pixabay.com

Geese make surprisingly good guard animals on the homestead. They can help protect your other poultry against predators, as most geese will hold their own against smaller predators like possums, skunks, raccoons, or the occasional wandering dog while sounding an alarm. Some geese can be exceptionally loud, and will make a racket any time they sense something is awry on the homestead.

Diatomaceous Earth: The All-Natural Livestock De-Wormer!

While some homesteaders (and their neighbors) may not appreciate this, others may want an early warning in case something unusual is afoot. The ancient Romans used geese as guards, and even the U.S. military has recently used geese to patrol its overseas bases.

Down Geese

Beyond meat and egg production, domestic geese also are valued for their fine feathers, commonly called down. Down is valued as a component of high-end products, such as winter jackets, pillows and comforter blankets. While the price of down fluctuates, prices of $16-$20 for one-fourth pound of this material are relatively common. Approximately 20 percent of the feathers on an average goose can be considered down; the larger, coarser feathers on the backs and wings of geese cannot be used in down products. Nine to 12 domestic geese will generally yield enough down to make a single pillow. Although you will not necessarily be able to quit your day job harvesting down from a modest flock of geese, you can nonetheless get money from the down feathers of the birds you slaughter, something your other poultry won’t be able to match.

Show Geese

Having animals to showcase at 4-H clubs and county fairs is a great way to draw attention to your small farm (and perhaps attract new customers), but it can be expensive to raise larger animals for such purposes on a modest homestead. Geese, however, are super hardy, and extremely easy to raise; as noted earlier, you can feed them simply by letting them loose on the weeds in your garden beds. And geese are popular attractions at these events. A giant, handsome dewlap Toulouse goose, for example, often can tip the scales at 25 pounds or more, and will almost certainly generate excitement at any exhibition or competition. Geese that consistently win at county fairs and 4-H shows will often be sought out as breeders, and selling goslings that come from champion bloodlines can be lucrative, too.

Have you ever owned geese? What would you add to our list? Share your thoughts in the section below:

They’re The Hardiest, Most Self-Sufficient Poultry You Can Own …

Image source: Pixabay.com

Whether you are a seasoned homesteader or are just starting out with a garden and some chickens, you should consider adding geese to the mix.

Geese are the hardiest, most self-sufficient of all poultry, and are extremely useful to have roaming around the pasture. They also are relatively easy to care for. Geese make great guard animals, and it is genuinely entertaining to just sit there in the afternoon and watch their antics; the expression “silly goose” is indeed grounded in fact.

So, if you are considering adding a few geese to the homestead, here are some facts to get you started.

A Big, Useful Bird

There are several breeds of domestic geese, with the larger varieties tipping the scales at 25-30 pounds. A more common weight range for typical market geese is 12-16 pounds, however. Although not common table fare these days, geese were prized years ago and eaten on special occasions. The Cratchits in A Christmas Carol had prepared a roasted goose for Christmas dinner, just before a reformed Ebenezer Scrooge surprised them all by buying a large turkey instead. Scrooge notwithstanding, geese have a rich, unique flavor, and a typical goose carcass will yield over 60 percent of usable meat, which is impressive for a bird so large.

Many geese are prolific layers, and some can produce up to 50-60 eggs per year. Goose eggs are roughly twice the size of chicken eggs, with a higher yolk-to-egg white ratio. They are prized in baking, and their enormous size makes them a popular novelty at many farmers’ markets. Fertile goose eggs for incubation are in-demand items, too.

Diatomaceous Earth: The All-Natural Livestock De-Wormer!

Goose down and fine feathers are also valuable. The down, especially, is used in the garment industry; your high-end pillows or expensive winter jackets are likely filled with the stuff. Finally, geese are great guard animals. They are fearless, and can hold their own against many common barnyard predators, or sound the alarm when they sense that anything is amiss.

Taking Care of Your Flock

Image source: Pixabay.com

Baby geese, or goslings, can be reared in a brooder like most other poultry. However, they grow fast, and are ready to head out to the pasture much quicker than many other birds. Start your day-old goslings in the brooder at 85 to 90 degrees, and reduce the temperature five to 10 degrees each week, until you reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point, your goslings are ready to venture outside. Goslings and young geese can be fed chick-starter in standard feeders, after which a cracked grain supplement will suffice. They also need plenty of water. Fortifying the chick starter with brewer’s yeast can help ensure your goslings get enough niacin and develop sturdy legs to carry their heavy bodies later.

Adult geese are relatively easy to take care of, especially when compared to other poultry. On a homestead, leaving them to graze a fenced-in yard or pasture is an ideal option. Although they won’t gain weight as fast as they would in confined, intensive production, they still will grow just fine, will serve as a guard force, and generally will be more content. While some people provide geese supplemental grains, many people rely on grazing alone and are successful. A typical acre of grass or pasture can easily support a flock of two to three dozen birds.

Geese are extremely cold-hardy. In the Atlantic region or southern United States, no real shelter is needed. Even in colder climates, a simple three-sided barn enclosure or shed with bed-down hay will suffice. Geese do extremely well in mixed flocks, although they can be aggressive when protecting eggs or goslings. However, they generally do not like to be confined in chicken coops at night, and prefer to simply sleep outside.

You don’t need a lake or pond to keep geese, either. Although the birds love water, don’t sweat it if you don’t have any such features in your back yard. Buy a trough, or a kiddie pool, and put enough water in it so that they can bathe themselves, they will love it. Make sure you clean the pool or trough out every few days, however; geese can make a mess of a small pool really fast.

Parting Thoughts

Geese are efficient, useful, entertaining birds that can help round out your homestead. They are easy to care for, fun to watch, and can provide an excellent return on a relatively modest investment. So, do a little more research, and then get your flock started right away.

Do you own geese? What advice would you add? Share it in the section below: