"dstvns" wrote in message
...

snipped

Mixing ducks & geese can sometimes be a good idea, since the ducks eat
the slugs and the geese have a little more attitude (ie "protect"
them).

I love geese. We have 12 -- 9 Toulouse and 3 Africans, living lawnmowers
for 1.5 acres, hopefully eggs next spring. They take about a year to
mature.

A gaggle of geese can run off a dog, but not a pack of dogs. This isn't
foolproof. They'll make a big racket if there's an "invader" on their
territory. They're smart enough to recognize their owners, and can be
really aggressive to guests, esp. during breeding season.

Geese graze and dabble in water (sometimes to the extent of enlarging their
pond). They must have enough water to at least immerse their beaks. They
graze and doze, graze and doze, not strictly diurnal, so if they're cooped
at night, they should have food and water in their housing. No stale
bread - some low-protein chicken feed when they're young, later on cracked
corn, and lots of tender grass. A 3-ft fence will confine them though won't
keep out foxes etc. Domestic geese usually get too heavy and contented to
fly. Housing isn't a requirement, even in winter, except to protect from
predators.

They'll keep your lawn trimmed down if it started off short, and happily
nibble many other plants. My rascals ate a patch of gladioli down to the
ground.

BTW, goose doo-doo is fairly unobnoxious when their main diet is grass.

flick 100785


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