Is It Safe to House Geese With Chickens?

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If you've been contemplating the idea of adding geese to your chicken coop, chances are you've seen a lot of conflicting advice online.

In recent years, geese have increasingly been touted as good "guardians" for chickens, and this has led many homesteaders to consider housing geese along with their chickens.

I myself have been doing this for a couple of years now, and I have quite a few homesteading friends that gone this route--at least for a while. When folks ask my opinion on whether it's safe to house geese in the same barn with chickens, my honest answer is a qualified "Sometimes."

Here's my own experience with housing geese and chickens (and ducks) together.

For 9 months out of the year, I find that my small flock of Emden and Toulouse geese do just fine sharing a barn with the chickens and ducks. There is mostly peace in the kingdom.

The geese are bossy, definitely at the top of the pecking order. I have a feeling that if I sat down with my other birds and had a heart-to-heart, they'd let me know they'd much rather the geese just went away entirely. But overall, it's generally pleasant.

Most summer nights the geese would rather sleep outside anyway, and no matter what, they're off grazing the moment the sun is up. Geese really are wonderful lawnmowers.

For the other three months, it's a less peaceful story, however. Starting in February, they get loud, pushy, and ornery. Then all of sudden one day, they start getting physical with the other birds.

If allowed to scope out a nesting area without being closed off away from the other fowl, things quickly take a mean turn. The geese can easily kill a chicken if they want to, and sadly, they have. I quickly learned that at least in my mixed flock, the geese must not be allowed to nest in a shared area, for the safety of the other fowl.

If you bring up the question of housing geese with chickens in any poultry-keepers' Facebook group, you'll find that most people who have raised both geese and chickens for years, have their own similar horror stories, and are quick to share them as cautionary tales.

In general, I find that anyone who's kept geese and chickens together for more than a year or two either advises against it, or urges caution in considering it. Many share special arrangements or strategies that they employ during the spring breeding months, to keep the chickens safe from the geese.

There are strong opinions in these Facebook groups, I'll tell ya.

As a general rule I don't interact in threads threads that tend to be contentious (and this can be a contentious topic!) But I do find it interesting to observe them, and there are a few additional things that have jumped out at me.

It seems to me that the folks who swear it's totally safe to keep chickens and geese together, have usually been keeping geese for less than a year. It's very easy to be adamant that geese are peaceful barn roommates when you've not yet seen them through a breeding season.

There's also always at least one person who insists, "You simply have to raise them with the chickens, that way they know they're part of the flock!" Y'all, my geese were raised by a chicken. A tiny gray hen named Gracie was their mother. Nobody is "raised with the chickens" more than goslings who are mothered by a hen from literally day one.

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Even with this gentle chicken upbringing, once grown, my geese wouldn't cross the yard to save their mama Gracie from a predator, even on a good day. During breeding season, they won't hesitate to nip at Gracie's legs if she so much as wanders too close on her way to the nesting boxes.

I've also noticed sometimes that when people inquire further about the strategies of those who swear they've been keeping chickens and geese together for years without incident, and without special arrangements during breeding season, that "without incident" turns out to not quite be the case.

The other day I saw an exchange like this in which someone had insisted she kept geese and chickens together peacefully with no problem during breeding season...'except for that young rooster they killed, but he was asking for it, and another hen they just didn't like for some reason, but I rehomed her so it was fine.'

Y'all.

Please hear me when I say that I'm not second-guessing those who genuinely have had peaceful experiences housing geese and chickens together year round. I'm sure there ARE cases where it happens, and if there's anything keeping poultry has taught me, it's that there are no hard and fast rules that always apply to every flock.

That said, my experience, and that of friends I know personally, leads me to suggest that while housing chickens and geese together can be done (and done safely), it's important to know your flock, and keep a very close eye on the situation as spring starts coming.

Here's what I suggest when housing geese and chickens together.

Have a backup plan for how to separate the geese from the rest of your birds, for up up to three months or so, if they prove to be too aggressive while those breeding hormones are raging. It's so much easier to kick into gear with plan b, if you already have a plan b.

It's frustrating and nerve-racking to pull a backup plan out of the air, when you've come out to the barn and discovered the geese pinning your favorite chicken to the ground, and suddenly need to figure out how to arrange things to keep your chickens safe.

What has worked well for me is to give my geese free rein of the yard and barns, until they start getting ornery in the spring.

At that point, they get their own stall in the little chicken barn, on the opposite side from the perches and nesting boxes. The ducks get to share the rest of the barn with the chickens, and everybody stays safe.

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Once the weather gets warmer, the geese can be tractored out on pasture, until any goslings are raised, and their aggression levels reach equilibrium again.

Geese really are delightful birds, and they can be a successful and enjoyable part of a mixed flock. Every poultry flock is different, and has a unique social structure, so my very best advice is to spend time with your birds and know your own flock well--knowing that they can also surprise you at any point. There are no hard and fast rules here, and you'll find what works best for you.

I hope hearing about how things have worked for us here has been helpful, and if you've got tips that have worked for you, I'd love it if you shared those in the comments!

Cheering you on from Maine,

~ Anna