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Our chooks shared night time accommodation with our chooks initially.
but.....
We have our chooks in a granite pigsty which is 2m x2m x2m
Our chooks sit on perches 1m off the ground.
For the first year we had geese ( 3) they shared the pigsty with the chooks. Thing is they slept huddled together in the corner underneath the chooks.
Good job goose feathers are waterproof is all I can say!
...so we ended up making a shelter underneath the chooks so the geese didn't get plopped on at night.
Geese squit every 20 mins or so , so made a mess of the henhouse- and it needed cleaning out thoroughly everyday. Cost a heck of a lot in shavings!
Any eggs laid early in the morning were always broken ( geese are very clumsy and trip over/tread on/nibble at anything)- and subsequently eaten by the chooks.
Mid summer (when it was light very early) the geese would sometimes 'pick on' one of the hens if it dropped down into range- and yank out tail feathers.
They were fine together to start with- and we had no option but to keep them together at night for the first year.
Subsequent years we've had 5 and they have slept in a floorless 'shed' specifically for them , away from the chooks. This worked a treat as it was inside an electric fence and has no base so it could be moved around every day or so to prevent the build up of their sloppy poop.
One thing to be aware of is that if your meadow is too large for the number of geese you have then they will tend to graze in one area- and leave the rest to grow. Then...that grass is too long for them to eat...and mow!
( optimal height is up to 10cm for them to tear it off)
You could of course cut one section regularly at let them graze where they choose ( that would at least cut down on the amount of mowing you'd need to do)
Round here peeps keep donkeys to keep the grass down...they make nice sausages! ( I jest!
)
but.....
We have our chooks in a granite pigsty which is 2m x2m x2m
Our chooks sit on perches 1m off the ground.
For the first year we had geese ( 3) they shared the pigsty with the chooks. Thing is they slept huddled together in the corner underneath the chooks.
Good job goose feathers are waterproof is all I can say!
...so we ended up making a shelter underneath the chooks so the geese didn't get plopped on at night.Geese squit every 20 mins or so , so made a mess of the henhouse- and it needed cleaning out thoroughly everyday. Cost a heck of a lot in shavings!
Any eggs laid early in the morning were always broken ( geese are very clumsy and trip over/tread on/nibble at anything)- and subsequently eaten by the chooks.
Mid summer (when it was light very early) the geese would sometimes 'pick on' one of the hens if it dropped down into range- and yank out tail feathers.
They were fine together to start with- and we had no option but to keep them together at night for the first year.
Subsequent years we've had 5 and they have slept in a floorless 'shed' specifically for them , away from the chooks. This worked a treat as it was inside an electric fence and has no base so it could be moved around every day or so to prevent the build up of their sloppy poop.
One thing to be aware of is that if your meadow is too large for the number of geese you have then they will tend to graze in one area- and leave the rest to grow. Then...that grass is too long for them to eat...and mow!
( optimal height is up to 10cm for them to tear it off)You could of course cut one section regularly at let them graze where they choose ( that would at least cut down on the amount of mowing you'd need to do)
Round here peeps keep donkeys to keep the grass down...they make nice sausages!
( I jest! )
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