Does anyone keep sheep??

[Nicos]

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! )

[Nicos]

We have Tolouse gees



very gentle natured.

Be aware that once they get to laying/mating age the boys can become quite aggressive/protective

[marchogaeth]

Marchogaeth, you are a wise soul and completeley correct. I also appriciate all the replies from our fellow grapes.

Thanks

I just don't know if I could kill a goose for the pot.

But you could kill a sheep? Or lead it trustingly on to a trailer knowing how you were going to betray it at the other end of its journey? Because I bet they'd become more of a pet than you'd like to beleive now. (My rule of thumb is if you wouldn't be prepared to "heft the hammer" maybe you shouldn't have them!)

Our current lot have all got names (big mistake), many eat from your hand (big mistake). We've got a ram who looks like he has potency problems and I find myself pricing up sperm tests (probably followed by councelling) rather than freezer bags and I'd tell you am hard enough to wield the hammer (although I really hate killing birds - too wiggly).

[marchogaeth]

Round here peeps keep donkeys to keep the grass down...they make nice sausages!

I didn't know T***o posted on the vine.

[rustylady]

I'm still undecided, trouble is it cost's me around £20 in petrol to mow, when you're doing that every three weeks it soon adds up.

How much grass do you have?

[marchogaeth]

How much grass do you have?

I was about to ask that. Simply because if you have a reasonable area, some local sheep keeper with a small flock and not enough land might be really glad to use it, if not all year ceratinly for some of it.