Raising Geese in Ghana: Grazing, Guarding, Meat and Eggs

What geese do well, and where they disappoint

Do you need geese, or do you need a dog that does not sleep? That is the first question we ask anyone who calls about geese. If the honest answer is the second, a goose is a sensible choice. It will raise the alarm at a stranger, a dog or a snake faster than most dogs, and it will stand its ground when it has to.

Where geese disappoint is on time and scale. A goose takes months, not weeks, to reach table weight. A broiler reaches about 2.5 kilograms in roughly six weeks, and a goose will take several times that. Geese also lay fewer eggs than hens, and they lay in batches. They eat a great deal of grass, and in the dry season they need a fair amount of ration on top. The bird that costs little to keep in the rains can cost much more in the harmattan.

Geese live a long time. A good breeding bird can stay in the flock for many seasons, which means the purchase is also a decision about the next several years. Treat it that way from the start. If you are comparing with a water bird, our duck egg article covers the same questions for ducks.

Choosing a breed by size, temper and what you need from it

The table is a starting point, not a rule. Two Chinese geese can be quiet and one Embden can be bossy. Look at the birds before you buy, and ask the seller how the gander behaves around people. A gander that charges children is a problem for the whole compound.

If you want the guard and the meat from one flock, African and Embden are a common pair to compare. If eggs matter most, Chinese geese are usually the easier choice, though expect modest numbers. We would not promise a set number of eggs from any breed without seeing your birds in your own yard.

Goslings in the first month, and where they differ from chicks

A gosling is hardier than a chick in some ways and less forgiving in others. It feathers quickly and feeds hard. But a gosling that gets wet and cold can chill within hours, and goslings can drown in water that is too deep for their size. Brood them in a dry, draught-free space with a heat source you can adjust, and give them water they can stand in, with edges they can climb out of.

1. Warm, dry bedding from the first day, changed as soon as it is wet.
2. Chopped soft greens from the first days, alongside a starter feed, so they learn to graze.
3. Shallow water in a dish with stones or a raised rim, checked several times a day.
4. A heat source the goslings can move away from, so they do not pile up.
5. No deep tub until they have feathered and can climb out without help.

Goslings are not in our standard range. Ask us on WhatsApp at +233 24 915 1503 what we can supply in a given month, before you plan a flock around them. Our breeds page covers the other birds we supply and how they compare.

Pasture is the feed, and the dry season tests it

Geese eat grass, and a goose yard with bare earth is a goose yard that will need bought feed. The question to answer is how many days of grass your land gives you across the year. Walk it at the end of the dry season, when the grass is lowest, and count what is still green. That number, not the rainy-season picture, decides how many geese you can keep.

Rotate the flock across two or three paddocks if you have the land, so each plot has time to recover. Keep the grass short enough that the geese can crop it, but do not let them walk it flat into mud. In the dry months, cut and carry green feed to the pen and give a grower ration to make up the difference. A few geese on a large patch of grass beat a large flock on a small one.

Breeders and birds you are finishing for market still need ration. Ask your miller for a feed that suits geese rather than a broiler ration, and record how much you give each week, so the dry-season bill does not come as a surprise.

How a goose guards, and where it fails

A goose raises the alarm with a loud, repeated call, and an adult will chase a stranger off the yard. That is useful at dusk, when the compound is quiet and the gate is open. It is less useful if the intruder is a dog that has already got under the wire, or a thief who came with a sack and a plan. A goose will not stop a determined person, but it will wake the house, and that is often enough.

The gander is the part of the flock most likely to cause trouble. A protective gander will challenge anyone, including children, and can hurt them. Settle him by handling him from a young age, and do not leave children alone with the flock. If a gander attacks everything that moves, the usual answer is a different gander, not more fencing.

Keep the flock in a secure shelter at night. A goose left in the open overnight can be taken, and a guard that has been carried off is no guard at all.

Shelter and water, and why geese need both

A night shelter for geese needs a dry floor, good airflow and enough room for the flock to lie down without piling up. Geese are much bigger than chickens and need more floor, so do not squeeze them into a house built for hens. Raise the floor a little above the ground, use dry straw or shavings, and close the entrance at night.

Water is the other half. Geese need to drink, and they also need to dip their heads and clean their nostrils, so a drinker that only fits a beak is not enough. A bath or trough deep enough to dip the head, emptied and refilled daily, does the job. It is not for swimming, and it should not be deep enough to trap a gosling. Put a shade tree or a roof over part of the yard, because geese standing in the afternoon sun will pant and lose weight.

Eggs, broodiness and the gander-to-goose ratio

A common working ratio is one gander to three or four geese. A calm, settled gander can manage a few more females, but an overworked gander wears out and the eggs are less likely to be fertile. Do not judge the ratio by one season. Watch the eggs you set across a full laying period, then adjust.

Geese lay in batches, and the batches follow age and feed more than the calendar. Many books describe a spring laying season, which is built on the long days of northern springs. Ghana has close to twelve hours of daylight all year, so do not be surprised if your flock lays irregularly. Keep a daily count for the first year and use that pattern, not the book's.

When a goose goes broody, give her a quiet nest in a dark, private corner and leave her alone except to check feed and water. Goose eggs usually take about four weeks to hatch, typically around 28 to 30 days, so plan the set around that. A broody goose may refuse to leave the nest even with food in front of her, and that is normal.

Raising geese for meat: slow birds and a slow return

A goose is a long bet. It takes several times as long as a broiler to reach table size, and it grazes for much of that time. That works if you have the grass and the patience. It is a poor deal if you pay for ration to hurry it along, because the extra feed does not return as extra price at the same rate.

Work out the cost per kilogram at the point of sale. Include the months the bird stays in the yard, the ration you gave in the dry season and the time you spent on it. Then compare that with a broiler you could have raised in the same space. In most cases the goose does not win on money alone. It wins on grass you would not otherwise use, on the guard it provides and on the festive market, where buyers will pay for a whole bird. Our guide to choosing broiler or layer chicks sets out the same kind of sum for chickens. For the fast comparison, a broiler from our broiler chicks page reaches market weight in a fraction of the time.

Do not plan a goose sale around a date you cannot move. A goose that is ready in the middle of a wet week may be ready a fortnight later, and a buyer who wanted it for Christmas will not wait. Keep the birds on a weight record and set the sale date when they reach your target, not when the calendar says.

Who buys geese and goose eggs in Ghana

There are fewer buyers for goose meat in Ghana than for chicken, and they are more particular. Families who want a whole bird for a festive meal, caterers who cook for events and keepers building their own flock are the usual starting points. Goose eggs sell to people who bake or want to hatch, and they sell better when you can say where the eggs came from and when they were laid.

Before you buy the first goose, write down three people who have said they will take birds at a stated weight and price. Ask whether they want live or dressed birds, and whether they would pay more for a bird that has grazed on natural pasture. Ask the egg buyers how many they need each week. A goose yard without buyers is an expensive lawn.

Put the price in writing, and do not quote a figure on the phone until you have checked it against the weight of the birds you actually have. A bird lighter than the buyer expected leads to a dispute, and that dispute usually costs you the next sale as well. For the broader selling side, our starting budget guide shows where buyers fit into the first-year plan. If you run a catering business that wants whole birds on a set schedule, our partner page explains how we work with regular buyers.

The errors we hear about most from goose keepers

• Stocking more geese than the grass can carry, then buying expensive feed all year.
• Keeping a gander that has never been handled, and then being surprised when he charges.
• Leaving the flock out at night in the hope the guard will do the job alone.
• Putting a shallow tub in the sun with no shade, so the birds stand in the water and overheat.
• Selling the first birds without weighing them, and losing the buyer after the first bad weigh-in.

The fix is almost always to slow down, count the grass and write the weights down. Our FAQ page covers the basics, and the about page explains where we are and how visits are arranged.

Questions farmers ask