We Add Guard Geese to Our Flock | Protecting Chickens from Predators
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- čas přidán 11. 06. 2019
- In need of aerial protection due to a recent predator attack, we take the necessary steps to make sure our flock has all the safety we can provide and welcome two baby goslings to the homestead.
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What a riot! You guys are precious. What a great job!! We’ve just started our homesteading journey less than 2 years ago with our 5 (homeschooled) kids. No experience at all. Even through the tears, we love it!! God is good. Blessings from Nova Scotia
During the Vietnam War, U.S. soldiers used flocks of geese to warn of enemy infiltration, with pens of geese encircling entire camps.
Our neighbor in northern Alberta had a huge free range enclosure for decades on his farm. He had chicken wire up about 8 feet and roofed the entire area with chicken wire. He also floored the area with chicken wire and then covered the wire with earth. The most amazing part was that he did it in the trees. He had dozens of eggs all the time and many grain farmers bought eggs from him for at least 30 years. He also always had geese to protect the chickens. The only predator he had was one of his dogs. It took him about 3 months to figure that one out.
Michael Chugg with our birds getting bigger and adding some black chickens we have not had any issues in over a month so fingers crossed! Otherwise yes a net might be in our future.
you guys are living my dream. never made it to Alaska but I was dreaming of living there since I was a small girl. You are doing some great work there! Take care. Lilly
Survival Lilly, thank you! :)
Survival Lilly love your channel!!
@@SimpleLivingAlaska where in alaska are you living now?
I've searched your videos, and they are cool. Keep going 😍
Geese are great guards, had them. Forget about sleeping in.
That little rooster sounded like a squeaky toy LOL...To funny
hahaha I love how squeaky the rooster sounds.
I loved that little, crowing rooster. Love, love watching these videos. I started at the beginning, so you know what I do with lots of my time.
Thanks for the update....and for sharing all of your knowledge...it makes a difference for those trying to follow a similar lifestyle...
Little birds are tasty to and easy pickings for hawks. Geese are fantastic guard birds with many advantages including eggs. Good choice. Great opening shot. Net, fence, guns and Russell should do the trick. Great hair is a blessing. Stay strong.
awww so cute when he crowed. You all know your information about raising chickens, ducks and geese. I always wanted to raise some ducks. We have a creek and the ducks go up and down the creek. A lady down the road, they are her ducks. They always go home at night and squat in the front yard. lol
Great homestead u all have built, congratulations to u both, been seeing your videos from time to time, u all really have it going on, living in true serenity.
Great video that's right take care of those gorgeous chickens. Those goose are too cute
You guys did a great job making your run in the trees, very smart. Sorry you lost a bird but thats par for the course up here with all the bald eagles. Sounds like what got your bird was a bald eagle. When they are young the color ranges from black to gray to white and brown. The geese are a good addition to the flock. Best wishes moving forward. Theresa & Jason
Where I was, the full sized chickens did pretty good for awhile, but the predatory birds would eventually pick off a good number of them (most of the free rangers 🤨 ). I like the 3.5 inch squares because no weather problems, easy to attach around trees and won't catch much debris, easier to clean, the little birds can get through... and they say it won't rot so it should last through several flocks. 👋🙏🙂
Some great defense measures.. the net will work well. I have lost about 1 a year here. Do to ground predators. Heavily wooded here. With a tall canopy. My garden is really the only open space. Great video as always you two. Ha e a fantastic day..!!
great up date on your flock and security system :) thank you
I love the chicken coupe, just watching them is fun.
Our family used to live on a farm with chickens. Hawks can definitely be a problem. I imagine them sitting in trees licking their lips watching for unsuspecting critters to stroll by. I noticed you had put up some plastic netting. That was a great idea.
Arielle, was that a rooster’s applause? Love to listen to you and Eric’s informative explanations… all your plans sound and are great 👍
Cheers and love to both of you. Stay safe. 😍
As said elsewhere, criss cross nylon twine with aluminum pie pans seems like about every 10' which stopped Hawks getting our birds.
I love what you’re doing. Roy (rooster) would be a good name for the handsome Rooster that you held and talked about his comb.
I really miss my chickens, they are very smart! The more freedom the better for their health and their instincts. I need to find an extended video of chicken coop footage❤ your rooster reminds me of an Americana, he's beautiful.
Those icelandics are beautiful! I have terrible trouble with predators in North Carolina,too. I have hawks,eagles,owls,fox,and coyotes. I think I’m going to get a goose or two this spring. Also, I have only one older Guinea left after 8 years but he does a good job warning and caring for the chickens.
I love the new Geese they are so cute. Sorry that you lost one of the chicks but you are doing your best with the safety issues and correcting as you go. A friend of mine had Geese. I was blown away how crazy fast and loud they got running towards the fence line when Coyotes came too close, needless to say they didn't come back after they found out who the aggressors were, lol. Enjoy them and so glad they are getting along with the youngsters! Love the Scarecrow...take care.
Enjoyed the video. Cheers from Arkansas!!
Love the little crow 🐓👍
By the way, I think it was Colleen from Chugiak chicks who told me I didn’t need netting over my chickens pen. She said just take fishing line and run it back and forth over the top and use some surveyors tape to make a few flags on the fishing line to give the aerial predators a visual that there is a barrier.
8 Stars, thank you! That is a wonderful idea :)
the fishing line works well for our granddaughters chickens in Mississippi.
I took an old picnic table umbrella frame....and used it as a cetnerpole/spreader for lines of jute running out from the umbrella and then wove more jute like a spider's web...then tie cloth, CDs, pie tins ..... Make it so no falcon or other bird wants to risk flying through that aeriel obstacle course. It really opened up a lot of well-protected space. Our birds also knew they could just run under the "web" and be safe
I use a similar set up for growing green beans.
Love the scarecrow awesomeeeee lol. I am shocked Bandit doesn’t feel tempted to eat the chicken or duck or chase them. Yes strap up strap up strap up. That chicken 🐔 coup is littt, like they are living their best life with a Coup Mansion, free range, healthy food, clean air and clean surroundings and owners who love and care for them.
They're so cute.
Sorry to hear about the little rooster. Sounds like you have solid plan for the future. Love the geese.
They both look very nice the new birds....
Those are the feistiest, healthiest chickens I’ve ever seen. Like a speeded up movie.
Good luck with the geese. Great idea
Looks like you are doing everything you can as warranted to keep them safe. I personally LOVE geese. Hope it works out well for you.
You have a super cute chicken area. Thanks for sharing.. :)
Green Rage, thank you! So far they are a blast, we raised Khaki Campbell ducks and they were always spastic so we didn't forsee waterfowl in our future again but the geese are awesome :)
Just wonderful! 🐣💕
You can get some clips and put them close together. at the bottom of the fence. I believe Justin Rhodes has used some. He also has guard geese. I worry about your cats too. Love watching you both, and the nice mix of things your doing. You don't see some of it from the other homesteaders. Stay strong! Sal-Lee from Southwestern N.Y. (snow belt area). Last winter it was -40F at times, and a lot of snow! My friend in Alaska says I get more snow than they do! LOL
Last week I saw on facebook where an eagle flew off with a goose. Your flock is looking good.
Rustic By Nature, I wouldn't doubt their ability to do that, we definitely need to get the little goslings to maturity before they can be out there on their own. I hope with the African and Embden in them they will be on the larger side.
You might have to make fences area smaller with netting over top of it to prevent big birds taking them
Russell Crow...love it! Pinwheels...great idea!
Great channel from ALASKA.
Jaypalsing, thank you :)
Hey there again from the oil patch in Central Wyoming!
Splendid choice on the geese, I'm going to go for the super giant African Geese from a couple of the better-known hatcheries, because they have great live shipping policies, and because they've got good reputations.
I see that the goslings seem to like you and I would encourage that by taking 5 or 10 minutes each day and cuddling them and giving them treats as you cuddle them and stroke them, and this is why all the chickens are around, because you do not want the geese to consider the chickens their chickens and not your chickens as well!
You do not want your keys to consider you a threat to your chickens when you come to collect eggs and deliver food and water.
Try various treats for the geese and hand feed them these treats. you should probably expect that the gander will be considerably more aggressive than the goose.
Again, I dearly loved this video because I really loved waterfowl! I'll be going with silver Appleyard ducks and Ancona Ducks, along with some muscovies as well for meat and breeding purposes.
And yes I dearly love to hear young roosters try to Crow, it just cracks me up, because they are doing their best to be big roosters and they're just not up to the task!
You're right on that one rooster you were holding truly Splendid looking chicken
J R bailey, thank you for your comment :) we are really enjoying them so far!
little bells on string or ..cds old ones lol dvd strung along my grandad used things like that
Love your show. You are living my early 70s dream. We were stationed in Fairbanks for several years and went to a lot of places that you have been too. Really enjoying it.
Do you have walking onions? Older verity ? I dry and powder the green parts of the onions n garlic to season food with.
But the onions reproduce on their own but I control where the babies start growing.
Awesome video sorry for your loss
Oh ,they are very cute !
Good work both of you
With the netting and snow, be ready to take it down when the snow hits, or plan a way to keep it from breaking due to snow weight. We have it with our chickens to prevent hawks and such from getting them, but didn't take it down this past winter and did have it collapse in on us. We just attached it with some screws and scrap wood to the coop wall, and then zip ties to our fencing (non electric). We were able to zip tie it back up where the netting tore. Not too terrible to do, but after a while something to have to replace and adds in an expense to plan for. Otherwise, love the coop setup you have, and great idea on the geese!
Nate Ostrenga, thank you for your insight :) we do actually plan to take it down in the winter. We agree the snow may damage it but also we think we would get too much snow around it and won't be able to manage it for the fence to be effective.
I like how you're keeping a distance with the geese so that they fully bond to the chickens (another YTuber bonded too much with the geese, resulting in poor, unintended effects). Like the netting idea, the scarecrow/tassle idea (agree results seems to be mixed). Think another YT homesteader bought a specific chicken species (black australorps) to give the impression to aerial hawks that they were crows (hawks/crows don't get along), and that this traditional homesteader trick kept those birds away (but please note this may not work with bald eagles). Maybe place a straight stick to angle the water down for the tarp? Appreciate giving us the tour.
Great video! Handsome rooster! Here in Juneau our eagles take cats and small dogs. We even have one eagle that attracts tons of attention around town because she is so large she could take a medium size dog easily. Everything seems bigger up here 🤣😉
Keep up the great work!
Serenity Woods thanfully the eagles here haven't shown interest in our animals 😓
Ariel that little gosling got very vocal when Eric picked it up lol. Sounded and looked like it was telling him off good and proper. I was going to suggest bird netting to cover most of the outside area to prevent flying predators, it works well over here, like really well. Or if you watch Justin Rhodes he built a platform for his meat birds so if there is a flying predator the goose warns them and they all crowd under that platform. Very cute rooster. Michelle
bohemiangypsy99, Great tips, thank you! We are thinking of adding both :)
@@SimpleLivingAlaska I meant to say those chickens look like they love both you and Eric. It comes from actually spending time with them which a lot of people don't. I would be doing what you both do and sitting in there on the floor with them or walking around holding a couple of them lol. Michelle
Put a motion detector in the scarecrow and run it to a speaker with a recording like one of the car alarms. Like the one that says get away from the car only have it say chickens in a deep commanding voice
The ancient Roman armies used to keep geese as guard 'dogs', too. They do raise a rukus when nasties come about. Good choice on your part.
Predators have always been an issue where we live but since we got a Great Pyrenees we have cut way back on losses. They even watch for overhead predators.
James Couch, I believe it! LGDs are wonderful but right now we have trouble finding enough good food for our pups that it would be hard to add on another. They do seem like excellent protectors though :)
Thank you for this video! We have been trying to decide if we should add guard geese to our chicken flock here in VT. :)
Birch Moon Farm I think we will be doing an update on our geese but we most likely will not be keeping them, we made the mistake of getting two (which was required by the seller) and the owner had imprinted them on humans so our geese are really only concerned with us. Unfortunately it's going to be a do over for us, this time we will have a broody chicken hatch out a goose egg, that's the plan at least ☺
@@SimpleLivingAlaska Ahh thats good to know, thanks and good luck!
My friend hung up old CDs/ DVD's with bright yarn, and he said it's actually help keep the Hawks from diving at the chickens
Thomas Schauss we did this at our previous place to help with birds in the garden, I really liked how it looked too :)
Guard geese seem to work together. They seem to make a more impressive demonstration in groups. Some time it helps to fly banners on fish line overhead to let eagles know that there is something in their flight path.
You guys are living my dream. One day, I will do the same things. 😍😍
my neighbor bought 35 chickens last february here in MN. We live on a acre lot. Our chickens are in a fenced in area within the trees. My neighbor left his to free range alone the neighborhood and they would come over to my chickens. He lost all but one chicken over the summer to the hawks, bald eagles and peregrine falcons and fox and thanks to my neighbor we had fox also and dogs that we never had problems with before. Long story short, i took his last chicken (rather he surrendered it to me) and added it to our small flock and we had to lock them up for quite some time. These animals finally, after 2 months are not visiting my yard anymore. You letting them free range when your out is a good idea but i wouldn't leave them alone. Plus, make a point to give them some chicken feed that you shake in a can and call them and get them accustomed to coming to you when you say chick chick... your doing great. your fence will be great. and thanks for caring for your chickens enough to want to raise them and protect them.
Laurie R we appreciate that 😊
that was cool thanks
With the wet feed add some sugar and it should ferment into a really nice alcoholic beverage or and alternative fuel source for the ATV, LOL
Get a couple Gennies,they make super watch dog birds.
I'm on grate big farm property love geese and chickens
fun to find this1 :)
You should really try trout like this, a pat of butter and a slice of bacon wrap in foil cook in coals till flakey. Great camp food . I also cook in the oven medium heat. Have fun. I am also from cottage grove oregon, been in S.E. for 5.yrs. Prince of whales island craig alaska. See ya
Charles Lydall sounds delish, awesome to hear you are from Cottage Grove. We want to head to SE AK someday ☺
I had a Chinese Goose for 19 year nothing got into my yard, He hated men and love the girls Never hurt a small child, now I m raising 2 Chinese gosling to turn loose one day with my few chicken, Geese are the best pets ever
Marie Sheppard, they have been fun so far, we really love them :)
I hope the geese help !!
Love the little cock-a-doodle-doo😂
We have tons of eagles around us and I can say they have no issues flying fast through dense forest. I get surprised when I hear them fly by 10-15 ft off the ground. The wing stroke is loud.
When we get our birds I’ve been thinking about finding some used seine net from commercial fishermen to keep aerial predators out.
Nice update.👍
W
My Alaska Dream, That is a great idea, I personally wasn't sure if the trees really help at all, we are thinking of adding a platform that the birds can hide under.
@@SimpleLivingAlaska how many chickens would one man need for sustiance this year?
Hopefully the goslings will not get the knobs of the African as they are susceptible to frostbite. We have two knobbed needs and here in Missouri we had two weeks of arctic temperatures with five nights of negative temperatures with the lowest at -12 F. However we ran a heat lamp in their coop and keep them in on the two days that didn’t get above zero. Anyway they did not get frostbite.
Arielle, you are so pretty holding the young rooster and finally kissing him, it just proves how tender you are👍🙏
blessings
Nice
Interesting.
Watch that chicken scratch. Love it. Little chickens and geese getting along fine. I hate that something took one of your chickens. I was wondering if you've always lived in Alaska? Take a long black belt and weave it through the side of the fence and it will look like a snake. The hawks or whatever will be afraid of it. We used that at home. It also keeps birds from flying into your windows.
susan Markle, thank you great idea! We have been in Alaska for just under a year, we moved from Oregon to here and from California several years before that.
So sorry you lost one of your chickens! In my 10 years living in wasilla the only time I lost chickens to aerial predators was when I put my fully feathered pullets out with the adult chickens. They were good sized but they were still making baby sounds. The pen was pretty heavily wooded but a hawk came in and picked off only the very young ones who were still making baby sounds. It didn’t touch the adult birds and once the younger ones stopped making the baby chick sounds the hawk never disturbed them again.
8 Stars, thank you for telling us that. We really didn't think as adults we would have an issue but the predators in every area are different, we see chickens around here kept outdoors in open runs and I do think like you said the size and sounds are something that can influence attacks. I think they are too small still but they act like adult chickens! We are very happy with their traits so far.
Have you tried fermenting the grains? Most animals like mash. My dad dropped a VO7, Muskogee Drake stood right there and drank it up. But it's higher protein. Really increases meat.
Love your videos! Having fun trying to watch them all. Question I never heard in your Q&A's, What do you do with all the eggs you get? I have 2 chickens and I don't eat that many eggs myself.
Marc Takeuchi between us and our dogs we can eat 8 a day and the rest we like to pickle :)
Get a fake horned owl. I've got two and they watch over the flock. It's working really well 😌
I went through the same process as you :) Strings and flags and cd's and vcr tapes did NOT work for me. So I have a separate little yard for my chicks that I put aviary netting (Walmart) above, and small mesh netting and wire on the sides. It took me several years to find every opening that the little chicks could get out or predators to get in. I learned that hawks, depending on size, won't generally bother full grown heavy chickens. I don't let my young'uns free range until they are about 12 weeks old. Sometimes in mid-summer we'll have some young hawk scares in the free range area. They're learning to hunt and aren't smart enough to know they can't lift the big birds, but we haven't lost any babies since using this system. As for ground predators, there's only so much you can do and I agree with your plan to figure those things out as you go. Good luck !
SuLebo215 yes it seems our growing bird's size is keeping the hawk away, no attacks in weeks yay! 😀
I don’t know if you guys have any "wire corn crib’s" in Alaska or not but if you do what you could do is take the two section for the wire roof so the air birds wouldn’t be able to fly in and get them
Thanks for this video! We've been researching for days and enjoyed your video.
Now that it's been 10 months I had a follow-up question! I tried searching through your channel, but CZcams wasn't showing much:
As you both stated it's good to get one but you got two Geese. Now that it's been 10 months have your Geese helps protect your flock & have they bonded with your flock?
Looking back are you happy you had two so they had a friend or did it lessen their bond with your chickens since they paired off?
Thanks!!!!
Also, what about netting held up by poles to keep the airborne pests away?
KlazY, we are planning to add some form of netting soon :)
Decoy owls 🦉 work good too
I’d love to see a follow up video on how they are working out. I had a question for you, you mentioned you made your own gosling food and wet it. Where did you find a recipe? I’m having a very hard time finding how to feed them. We are getting our goslings and our baby chickens on the same day in the hopes they will act as guards geese too, but apparently you cannot feed them the same thing?
Good looking rooster. My grandpa called males he liked George. Try that on for size. Might fit or open the door to the name that belongs.
LOL! "Georgie, get out of the soup bowl!"
Chickens will eat every bug on the property if they could get out, right?. But keep them safe.
We need a world where you can leave your varmit rifle outside leaning against a fence pole.
The eggs are very good for baking
Russell Crowe…brilliant 😀
My buddy from high school and I are going to be in your area next week checking out some property he bought near Denali. He plans on building a homestead similar to yours for his retirement. We fly into Anchorage Saturday 8/17 and will be up there through the 19th when we head back to Anchorage for the night. I was wondering if there is any way we might be able to meet you somewhere and visit for a while. I’ve watched a lot of your videos and I’m in awe of what you have accomplished, and you guys are an inspiration to both Jim and I. I’m sure you could answer a lot of his/our questions. If you think it is possible to meet up, please reply and I’ll provide you with my contact information .
Thanks for your consideration!!
Bill Wilson
Vocal Geese on cue!
I have heard that guini foul are clean and will alert the birds to any predator's.
Time to net over the outside exercise area....
We have a lot of crows around and Hawks can't stand them. The crows will torment the Hawks just for fun and keep them away. Not that you can get crows but if they're around they are great.
I have heard other small farmers say its best to have one goose, not two. If there are two they spend too much time focused on each other and less time guarding chickens
Pete Klover, that is also what I read and I do agree, I know they will still be good at alerting us and or the chickens but may not necessarily work towards protecting them, it was the owner's request to purchase pairs and geese are difficult to come by here :)
We’ve lost 3 full size hens to a bald eagle this week. I witnessed the first one being taken, and have just found feathers from the other two being taken (no carcass). It seems to be returning to the food source regularly now that it’s found them. We’re scrambling to come up with a net enclosure big enough to cover the run. Hopefully your situation turns out better than ours!
Mike Steward, we're sorry to hear that. We also are worried about the bird returning, we saw a hawk the other day near our cabin, possibly trying to get at a magpie's nest. Enclosing a large space is hard for sure. We're hoping the eagles stay away for you!
One way would be to try and attract ravens/crows. They are amazingly territorial. They’ll chase a massive eagle away! I think they like peanuts 😉
You should call your Rooster Rocky!
Good call! We have a ton of predatory birds here. This might be an option for us. Currently we are dealing with a bear that has figured out how to open our coop up, and he gets in and ransacks the bags of feed. Quite annoying. At least he's left the birds alone so far. I wonder if the geese might be loud enough to keep him away...research to be done over here!
Wilderstead, I had read they really are helpful for even larger predators such as coyotes but I'm not sure about bears...that is frustrating. That's good your chickens have been safe, we haven't had bears in the area yet. Hope all is well over there :)
Do you have any videos on what you feed your chickens?
How did the geese work out? I'm planning on getting a couple this spring
You have to watch for the predator birds. I was stationed in Fairbanks many years ago. The second day that my wife was in our apartment, a hawk tried to snag our dachshund while he was doing his business in the back yard.
David Henderson we didn't have that issue back home and thankfully they have stopped for now with everyone being bigger but I do worry about our littlest cat at night.