I have two friends considering the use of geese in their gardens. The first couple homestead in Wales and want to use them for slug control. The second couple homestead here in Arkansas and want to use them for weeding. What experiences of any of you had? Thanks - Kim

-- kim (fleece@eritter.net), April 30, 2000

Answers

Only very small geese (babies) in a mature garden. And even then,. don't leave them alone for a minute. We've had goslings only a couple of months old leave the garden looking like a Marine boot-camp hair cut. (Well, all of it they could get to, the floating row cover had blown off part of it.) When they are used for weeding commercially, you will notice it is in crops like cotton, not vegetables. Ducks will do less damage and do a good job on the slugs.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 30, 2000.

Hi Kim,

Our geese (Toulouse) won't eat slugs...what a couple of prima donnas! But our ducks eat slugs like I eat potato chips. The geese do eat grass and weeds (hang with the sheep all day, which is good, since they act as watchdogs...we don't have dogs). I have heard that big geese are great as weeders in orchards, and corn fields (after corn is up and established) but not so good, in fact disastrous, at the early stages. If I plant corn this year, I am going to request them to eat the weeds between the rows. Hope they do what I ask!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 30, 2000.

Geese(we had adults) will pick out every single beet or chard seedling you have, and leave the weeds, and trample the other seedlings.Ducks are just as voracious, maybe more so. Yes, they do like slugs, they also enjoy ripe strawberries,tomatoes,lettuce, and all sorts of other stuff you might want them to leave alone. I wish there was a way to make a long,narrow run for the garden paths, and put the ducks in that.The run could be moved every day.The ducks do eat potato bugs, and don't bother the potato plants.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), April 30, 2000.

We have Embdens (big, white, blue eyes) and they will eat everything in your garden! They especially like the cole crops; cabbage, kale,cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts. They will eat them to the ground even when the plant stems are bigger around than your thumb. I've heard of weeder geese too, but I wouldn't ever try it again.

-- Peg (NW WI) (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), April 30, 2000.

I find these responses confusing. I knew of a U-pick Strawberry operation a few years ago that used geese, (50 of them) to clean up the weeds in the strawberries.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), May 01, 2000.

Hendo, I've heard that geese (small young ones) can be used as weeders in strawberries before the berries get ripe. Personally, I would be very careful about doing that, because I've seen how fast they can clean up *everything* in the garden -- weeds included, but what good is that?!? The doggone weeds come back, the vegetables don't!!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 01, 2000.