This post was made in answer to a sweet gal with a very mean goose.-Aunt W
Geese are great addition to a homestead. I try to keep a flock between 9-12 because that enables them to defend against predators more easily. They reduce the frequency we have to mow grass to once or twice a month which is a nice bonus. They are good "watch dogs" because they will alert us to anything unusual. The sale of the offspring from our geese pays for a large percentage of our feed costs for our other animals.
If you raise them from when they are young and treat them well, they will run to greet you with lots of enthusiastic honking. They do become standoffish when nesting and raising young. The drawback is the poo they leave where they sleep, but that is easy to rake up and add to the compost pile. A heavy rain will take care of it too.
My geese are tame, eat from my hands, and see me as one of their flock (aka the Keeper of the Bread). There are geese one will run into who do not see humans as friends. Geese can leave some serious blood blisters and bruises on human flesh. Even without the biting, their size, honking, and hissing are very intimidating to small children who find them terrifying. Most of the time, these geese have been taught they can push humans around because no one would stand up to them.
I was taught how to defend myself from very aggressive geese when I was a young woman. It has worked every time I have used it, and no geese have ever been harmed from me applying it. Use the following information at your own risk.
The first thing I try, I came up with on my own. I call it my return challenge. I face it, spread my arms and move them up and down, and speak loudly telling it to go away while taking fast steps in its direction. I respond to the aggression with the same kind of display of dominance as they show. They spread their wings and puff out their chest to make themselves look larger and make loud noises. A very aggressive goose will attack when you return the challenge, so be ready. If trying that a few times does not deter them, I do the following.
The goal is to swiftly establish dominance over the aggressive goose (usually a gander) without injuring it or self. If you run from it, you teach it that it dominates you which will likely make it more aggressive increasing risk of injury to you or someone else.
As the goose approaches, I grab it by neck and quickly but gently lift it straight up taking care not to swing the goose which can cause injury. Then, while it is about a foot off of the ground, I let it go quickly so it lands hard on its butt. The whole thing is over in a matter of seconds. Once is usually sufficient, but for one stubborn goose I had to deploy this method two times in a row.
This has worked to protect myself and my children in a park where the geese were terrorizing the visitors. It also helped me when I purchased problem geese from a "farm park" that had been taught they could push people around. The farm park had to sell or kill them because of liability. I had those geese's attitudes towards human adjusted very quickly, and they lived long, healthy, happy lives on our farm. Again, use the aforementioned method at your own risk.
When geese are breeding/nesting/raising offspring, they are more aggressive. My tame geese will then hiss at me and warn me away from their nests or goslings. Being a mother myself, I respect their watch over their offspring and do not interfere with them unless necessary. When I have had to move nests due to predators, it is a very noisy affair with lots of hissing and runs towards me, but my geese do not bite me. I did have one goose hen, who was losing eggs to a predator, run straight into my leg with her chest this year. I got bumped, but no harm from or to the fowl.
Every once in a while I'll have a young gander who wants to show off for his mate. Because I have already established dominance with them from a young age, these emboldened males will sneak up behind me in an aggressive manner (hissing, wings open), but that's about as far as it goes. I will turn around and return the challenge to any goose that starts walking up behind me aggressively as I go past because I do not want them to think that behavior is OK. Who wants to do farm chores with one eye on a gander that likes to sneak up on people? A lack of response would only serve to reinforce the undesirable behavior.* That behavior could lead to biting which won't be good for the goose.
Among other things, God gave me a strong naturalist intelligence. Observing animal behavior and learning how to work with them is something I really enjoy. I feel it is kinder to teach a problem animal to live peacefully with humans because when animals are harming people, they are usually killed. A drop on a well feathered goose hiney is a much nicer fate, don't you think?
*That is a key thing to remember when training anything. What you don't deal with, you quietly accept/reinforce. When tired, it is tempting to overlook something, but to improve, you must address the behavior. With children, there is the added element of soul. A baby throws something to experiment or for play. An older child might throw in anger with the intent to harm/damage. Wise parents address the behavior and discipline according to the heart/intention.
