Are geese (in general) mean?

[animalpro24]

I think a lot of people think that geese are just plain mean. Is this true?

 

[kidcody]

I have only one goose, she is very nice with me, but any body else she would rather attack. You certainly wouldn't go into my backyard with out me. She is a great watch dog and loves her chickens. I can always tell if any body comes over she lets me know! She's a Toulouse.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have an Emden gander and he is also a very good watch goose between him and my dogs noone can sneak up here.

But he is a biter, Unless someone really wants to go out in the area where my goose lives with his ducks and chickens I would prefer they didn't. He doesn't bite in off season but when mating season starts up he is a handful.

 

[The goose girl]

I think a lot of people think that geese are just plain mean. Is this true?

Nooooo!

Geese are just plain scared. Of anything and anyone. And since they're too large and slow to flee, their instinct is to try and scare away all those frightening intruders any way they can - which includes loud honking, wing-flapping and biting.

They sure can act mean. But they're not "angry birds"!

 

[TennesseeTruly]

I have 17 Sebastopol geese, 1 Roman Tufted and 1 Brown Chinese. I just rehomed 13 other geese of all different kinds to a 100 acre farm. Not one of these geese are mean.

I can hold my geese, pick them up, check them for injuries and illnesses. I can feed them from my hands. My 10 year old grandson goes into the goose area, no problems. Although he did get bit on the behind last week because he was teasing the head gander and when he turned his back, Peter bit him in the butt! But it was more of a love bite not anything mean.

Geese kind be kind and loving, but protective of their owners. Can anyone come onto my property and try to pick up or even walk into my goose area? No. Not at all. But even the people whom recently took 13 of my geese all love them and said that they can't believe how gentle they are. They have two boys 10 and 13 who haven't been bothered by the geese.

So if you're interested in geese, do your research, then do it again. Ask plenty of questions. Have a secured area for them at night and then get yourself some geese. You won't be disappointed!!

Here I am holding one of my Sebastopol geese. His name is Trouble. He's almost 2 years old.

Laurie

 

[desertdarlene]

As a non-goose owner, I can definitely tell you that not all geese are mean. I mostly deal with the park geese, some of whom are never handled and often harassed by people who don't understand them. If you can learn their language and work with them as individuals, they won't be mean to you. Sure, there's that one that is more difficult to deal with than the others, but that can happen with just about any type of animal.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Geese are territorial and because they are cowards, they will bully if they think someone is afraid of them. Geese must be trained so they know what is acceptable behavior and what is not. They are very smart and easy to train. But they will learn bad behavior just as quickly as they will learn good behavior.

Although on the coward thing, don't count on that when they have eggs in the nest of new goslings. They are such good parents they will defend those goslings even when they are frightened.

It is pretty obvious, if you pay attention, that the people having problems with their geese are the people who have raised them as spoiled pets and confused the geese about their own identity and about their place in the hierarchy of the flock.

 

[Kevin565]

No. All of my geese have been wonderful *except* a white chinese gander i raised this year. He's a terribly aggressive

. However, in general I think geese have great temperaments if raised properly.

 

[SkyWarrior]

I thought this too and wasn't even going to consider geese, but my husband remarked that they were good watch critters and would alarm at stuff. (They do!)

I raised an African gander and a Toulouse goose, and both are incredibly silly creatures. Not a mean bone in their bodies. Sure, they posture and bluff, but the one time my husband said they were "scary big," I went over and picked up the gander and he went all silly and squawky. My husband laughed.

I have two more geese--Chinese browns-- that are very sweet and hang out with the ducks. The African and Toulouse (EEqua and Louise) are too big to hang out with the other birds, but they're very good with each other and with me. My complaint about geese is more how messy they are than meanness!

I think the wild ones--like Canadian geese-- might be a bit "meaner," but given the rough nature of the wild, I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[ga_goat]

My 5 white chinese treat me well , but no one else had better come around them not even my wife or grand youngins ,, oh how I love those geese.