04/05/2026
Another day, another Spring snow-storm. Itâs hard not to take the weather personally this year. The chickens and I both feel persecuted, and reluctant to go outside if itâs not absolutely necessary. Even the ducks are lying low today; it might be the wind-driven snow and freezing rain, or maybe itâs the sound of tree branches creaking and cracking that they donât like. In any case, it would be like a ghost town out there in the barnyard, empty.
Except for the geese. They are outside screaming and squabbling, having yet again hopped their fence to roam, poaching buds and bark from any shrub unwise enough to grow nearby. I can hardly see them through the blowing snow, but I can sure hear them. Geese are weird.
Why keep geese? Well, to be fair, I should tell you first why you shouldnât. They are, above all, loud. Especially during breeding season, which here in the Great White North runs from about mid-March to the beginning of May. At least they donât usually wake you at dawn like a rooster, or the middle of the night like a barking dog; geese usually raise their ruckus in the middle of the day, but it can still get on your (and your neighborâs) nerves. So thereâs that.
Also, they donât like unfamiliar things. So unless you take the time and trouble to make yourself familiar to them, they wonât like you. You have to spend time interacting with geese, especially when they are young, so they feel humans are familiar and not a threat. It can take time and patience for geese to warm up to new people and new situations.
Lastly, geese need more room than most poultry. They donât need to have a deep pool or pond (although those things bring them great joy) but they do need more space than a chicken or duck. They really arenât backyard birds, unless you are lucky enough to have a pretty huge backyard and understanding neighbors.
So why keep geese? So many reasons! First on my list is that they are the only fowl that can be raised without any grain at all. Zero. While geese can manage on a grain-based diet if you choose (pelleted foods or grain mixtures), they are really built to graze and browse. Think of them as goats with wings! Three seasons out of the year, our flock of Embden geese roam freely and graze all day, raising their goslings and growing and getting fat just on grass and weeds. They are great to control weeds in an orchard, just donât let them into the garden thinking theyâll leave your lettuce and peas alone! In winter they do appreciate a little corn with their hay, especially when it gets cold.
Goose is a gourmet table fowl, absolutely delicious. Like all waterfowl they grow incredibly fast, and can go from gosling to roasting size in 8-10 weeks, all on grass if you have good grazing. They are extremely long-lived, 10 years or more of productive life-span, so just one breeding pair of geese can provide many goose dinners for years and years.
Many folks ask about geese as âflock guardiansâ for their ducks and chickens. This is one of those âYes, butâŚâ situations. Geese are not so much protective as territorial. Like I said earlier, geese donât like things that are unfamiliar. So when a predator comes slinking around, the geese will raise a ruckus, which will often scare away a predator. If the predator insists on coming into the territory, a goose will try to drive the threat awayâŚbut if itâs anything bigger than a skunk or a cat, the goose will lose. Dogs, fox, coyotes, bobcats--they are all quite willing and able to take down even a big goose. That said, we definitely have noticed fewer hawk attacks on our flocks since we got geese, which is significant for us.
I could go onâŚhavenât even spoken about the down and feathers we harvest from the geese, or the goose grease (kitchen magic! Deserves its own post), but this is too long already. Suffice to say, I think geese deserve a spot on any homestead.
