Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
you collect eggs. To prevent being injured by protective mothers, situate nest boxes near an
aisle in the pen, wear gloves, and protect your eyes with safety glasses. You can also create a
distraction by feeding the birds as you collect their eggs.
Using Waterfowl for Weed Control, Insect Control,
and as Alarms
Because of the goose's large size, excellent vision, and loud voice, and because of some
breeds tend to be aggressive, they make good guard birds. Geese are intelligent and have a
good memory. They remember people or animals that scare, harass, or frighten them. They
also remember troublesome and scary situations. These factors make the goose a good guard
bird against intruders. Geese have a preferential appetite for grasses and will avoid eating
broad-leaved plants, which makes them ideal weeders for gardens or vineyards. Before chem-
ical weed control became commonplace, specialty crop growers relied on geese to keep the
grass picked in such crops as asparagus, mint, beets, beans, onions, and potatoes. To use geese
for weeding gardens, the garden rows should be at least 1 foot apart, and a fence should en-
close the garden.
Let the geese have access to the garden once the plants have established themselves, and the
geese will eradicate the grasses and small, tender weeds. For plants that ripen above ground,
such as tomatoes, do not allow the geese to weed these plants when the vegetables are ripe as
they might peck at the colorful plants. Geese prefer to eat grasses (weeds) to vegetables, so re-
move them once the weeds have been eaten to keep them from sampling the vegetables. If
snails and slugs are a garden problem, ducks can be let into the area to feast on these garden
pests. Ducks are good algae and insect eaters in ornamental ponds. However, do not stock the
pond too heavily or they may deposit too much feces in the water and destroy all plant life.
CASE STUDY: WHY WATERFOWL?
Suzanne Peterson
Azariah Acres Farm
Foley, Minnesota
Suzanne Peterson raises geese and ducks on her farm, Azariah Acres, near Foley, Min-
nesota. Peterson grew up on a hobby farm where she learned that she really enjoyed caring
