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While poultryOne focuses on the basics of raising chickens, many people enjoy raising geese as well. True, raising geese is a comparatively small part of the poultry world; the University of Minnesota says that geese make up less than one percent of the poultry hobby when you count chickens, ducks, etc. However, more and more people are discovering the joy of raising geese In this poultry article, we'll teach you how to start raising geese by hatching your own geese eggs and brooding your own little gaggle of goslings. We'll also discuss other basics of the care, housing and feeding of geese.

Why raise geese?

People raise geese for a variety of reasons. Maybe you want your own Christmas goose (although, honestly, your geese will probably become just like pets!). Geese are great at pest control, with an excellent eye for snails, slugs and other garden bugs. Geese are also good at weeding, and make excellent self-sustaining foragers if you have a large backyard or a pasture to raise them in. And while most people raise chickens for eggs, some people also raise geese for their eggs!

Choosing a goose breed:

There are so many different types of geese breeds in all sorts of sizes and colors. Big geese and small geese; grey geese and white geese! We would recommend staying with the tried and true goose breed: The Toulouse goose breed and the Emden goose breed are excellent choices for beginners.

Starting your own gaggle of geese:

A group of chickens is called a "flock," and a group of geese are called a "gaggle." Ready to start your own gaggle of geese? Great! Many people choose to start raising geese by incubating and brooding their own goose eggs and goslings. Your incubator should have a built-in egg turner. Otherwise, you'll find yourself turning your goose eggs by hand 4 times a day; quite a chore! Your incubator should have a thermostat to keep the eggs hot enough, as well as have settings for the correct humidity levels.

The Government of British Columbia in Canada says the following about incubating goose eggs:

Geese hatch in 28 to 34 days depending upon the breed. The incubation temperature should be a dry bulb temperature of 37.2 C (99 F) and a wet bulb temperature of 30.0 - 31.1 C (86 to 88 F) for 25 days with a wet bulb temperature of (32.2 C) 90 F in the hatcher. Geese eggs should be incubated on their sides, turned 4 times a day and turned through a 180 degrees. They are not turned in the hatcher. Setting them on their small ends and turning them 90 degrees like duck eggs significantly reduces the hatchability. Only goose eggs weighing at least 140 g and no more than 200 g with good shell quality should be set. Eggs from the lighter breeders start pipping at 28 days while heavier breeds take 35 days. Thirteen percent water weight loss during the incubation period (not including the hatching period) is optimal for a good hatch.
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Brooding your goslings:

Once your goslings hatch, you'll need to place them in a brooder. This step of hatching and brooding geese is very important! The brooder should be dry with a soft litter. We recommend corncob litter or wood shavings. To keep your baby geese warm, the brooder should have a 250-watt heat lamp. The lamp should keep the temperature in the gosling brooder at about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature should be decreased by 5 degrees every week.

You can feed your newly-hatched goslings chick feed. Chick feed is high in protein which will help your baby geese grow. As your geese get older, you can switch the geese feed to grower chicken feed. As for water, you can use a regular poultry waterer as long as the goslings can submerge their entire bill and head into it. Remember, geese are waterfowl and need lots of fresh, clean water to be healthy!

It is not necessary to give your goslings a pond or pool to swim in, but they do need deep waterers so they can get their heads wet. This holds true as they become adult geese.

Housing your geese:

When raising chickens in a chicken coop, you need to make sure they have adequate space. Geese need a lot of space, too. Goslings need half of a square foot while they're brooding. By the time they're a month old, your geese will need one whole square foot. This requirement will continue to rise as your geese get older. Here is a chart that compares the space requirements of geese with other poultry breeds:

Minimum Space Requirements for Poultry
Type of Poultry Bird	Sq Ft / Inside Coop	Sq Ft / Outside in a Run
Bantam Chickens Layer Hens Large Chickens Quail Pheasants Ducks Geese	1 1.5-2 2 1 5 3 6	4 8 10 4 25 15 18

Feeding geese:

As your goslings become mature, adult geese, you'll move them off of the chick starter feed and onto grower chicken feed. It has less protein than chick starter. When feeding geese, you can supplement the grower feed with grains as well as letting your geese forage. Geese are very, very good foragers--better than ducks!--and enjoy eating grass and any bugs they might find while wandering your backyard.

The University of Minnesota says the following about feeding geese:

Goslings can be started on a crumbled or pelted chick starter. Place feed the first few days on egg case flats or other rough paper. Use the same type of feeders as used for chicks, changing type or adjusting size as the birds grow. Keep feed before the birds at all times and provide insoluble grit. After the first 2-3 weeks, a pelted chick grower ration can be fed, supplemented with a cracked grain. Geese are quite hardy and not susceptible to many of the common poultry diseases so medicated feed is not generally necessary. Certain coccidiostats used in starting and growing mashes may cause lameness or even death in goslings. Geese are excellent foragers. Good succulent pasture or lawn clippings can be provided as early as the first week. By the time the birds are 5-6 weeks old, a good share of their feed can be from forage. Geese can be very selective and tend to pick out the palatable forages. They will reject alfalfa and narrow-leaved tough grasses and select more succulent clovers, bluegrass, orchard grass, timothy, and bromegrass. Geese can't be grown satisfactorily on dried-out, mature pasture. Corn or pea silage can be fed if available. An acre of pasture will support 20-40 birds, depending on the size of the geese and pasture quality. A 3-foot woven wire fence will ordinarily confine the geese to the grazing area. Be sure that the pasture areas and green feed have not had any chemical treatment that may be harmful to the birds. The birds should be provided shade in hot weather. Although supplemental grain feeding of goslings is often continued after they have been established on good pasture, many flocks are raised on green feed alone during the pasture period. Geese to be marketed should be fed a turkey finishing or similar ration for 3-4 weeks before processing. Any birds saved for breeding stock should not be fattened. Farm geese are usually sold in time for the holiday market in late fall when they are 5-6 months old. They will weigh from 11-15 pounds depending on the strain and breed. Some young geese (also called green geese or junior geese) full-fed for rapid growth are also marketed at 10-12 pounds when they are 10-13 weeks old. For several weeks after this age geese have many pinfeathers which are difficult to remove during processing. Growth of geese after 10-13 weeks is very slow compared with the rapid growth of the young gosling. Considerable attention has been given to the use of geese to control weeds in cotton, strawberries, and some truck crops. Development of more selective herbicides is reducing this practice. The problems in coordination of bird supply and management with weed and crop growth make goose weeding rather impractical for most producers.
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You can also feed your geese healthy kitchen scraps. Some suggestions include vegetable peelings, fruit, and pruned leaves and branches from your vegetable garden. You will want to avoid certain scraps like meats, spoiled food, human food and onions and garlic (strong-smelling food will make your duck eggs smell funny).

Got a question about raising geese? Ask other poultry hobbyists who raise geese on our free message boards and visit RaisingGeese.com for free poultry articles on raising geese.