Help needed with geese...

[Hannah'sPlaidChickens]

I have two geese (of two different breeds) that I really love! They are really sweet and follow me everywhere, and I can even take them to the local public swimming lake and they will stay by me. Lately, however, as the two grow, they are becoming aggresive with my family members. They "attack" my mom, which she explains as pecking at her. I have grown accustomed to this pecking, as they would always chew on me as babies, so I am not bothered. Plus, they never attack me anyway. I was looking for a tip on how to train or prevent my geese from being aggresive towards other people, as my mom threatened to dump them on the lake, where I know the spoiled babies would not know what to do. Another problem is their coop. They live with my chickens, but have really muddied up. They eat all the grass, and I can tell in a few months that my whole coop will become a big mud hole. However when they are out free-ranging they tend to sit on our driveway, right outside and our door and wait for me, even if we are gone. Their poop gathers quite quickly, and my mom is tired of stepping in it. What can I do?

 

[picklespickles]

i have done my geese as i would do a dog. the guy i got the geese from said i was the first person they'd never attacked. when they looked at me like they might bite, i put my hand around their beak firmly. they will pull and pull their nekcs to get away. you don't need to twist or hurt them in anyway. just do not let them open their mouth or pull away. hold for as long as you can, then let go. this may need to be repeated once or twice a few minutes later, but mine, apparetnly a well known bully, got the idea real quick.

this also works, obviously, when they are or have just bitten you. a goose bite hurts. i did it as preventative when the boy got that look on his face, like hmm.....

goose have a bad rep for doing things like this. if you can learn to do this (or something else) and teach your mom, then you know they will have a happier life as they will be more managable and get more attention from humans instead of threats.

 

[greyfields]

The only geese I've ever had bite me were ones with goslings at their feet. They can be quite mean. Maybe with mating season coming around they're just grumpy?

I have over 30 geese here at the farm and many wait for us to come home in the driveway, too. I don't have much advice except find a fenced field for them, or fence off a large portion of the yard. That way they only come out of there when you can supervise them. I love my geese to bits, but they've done countless damage to my landscaping, bulbs and orchard. I bring in around 1000 lbs of feed a month, too, for our menagere. Sometimes the delivery guy just leaves it in front of the barn. Then the geese find it, and they are immensely adept at pulling strings and opening the bags. They're vandals. But, like I said, geese are my favorite. And they are very very tastey.