Jenny,

Why geese? Pets, weed control, meat? I had Toulouse. They were to destructive. I now have Muscovies. The males are as big as a goose. The muscovies eat grass, weeds, bugs, flies, grubs, and slugs.

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Muscovy Drake, white female muscovy behind him

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Eric

I selected Pilgrim Geese. They are smaller than Emdons and Toulouse, and much sweeter in temperament! I got them last May, and they grew up to be very personable birds, but raise them with your chickens as much as you can, they tend to be a bit jealous! I raised mine separatly and wish I'd done otherwise, the gander and my Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster "spar" every now and then, the rooster wins, he's like "Taz"! When the 2 roosters fight, the geese get really excited, as if to say, "only we can make a stink!". For the most part, the Pilgrims sit at my doorstep, or swim in the kiddie pool I provided for them. Yes, they are very destructive, as in eating everything!They even knawed through a wooden trellis. I had 10 of them last year, butchered a few and now have 1 gander and 3 geese. I think things will be calmer this year, and they likely won't run out of forage and be "forced" to eat peonies, hostas, and such. They like to get attention and treats, and are very smart, whatever that would mean for a goose! They follow me everywhere, to the point it's annoying, but it's better than being attacked by Toulouse or Embdons! They like to be petted an sang to, wierd, huh? By the way, when I butchered, I saved the most friendly of the bunch, even though the gander had more grey on him than desired, his personality is very sweet! The geese are now taking turns sitting on 27 eggs. Check out this: omniskies.com/goosepilgrim.shtml www.poultrypages.com/goose-breeds.html Good luck!

I also had Pilgrims, and they were great around me. But they were ultimately too aggressive for the rest of my family, and also my dogs, so we had to get rid of them. They were raised around ducks and chickens, and didn't seem to have any inter-bird problems that I noticed.