Kirsten Lie-Nielsen - The Modern Homesteaders Guide to Keeping Geese

Praise for

The Modern Homesteaders Guide to Keeping Geese

If you are considering bringing geese into your life, this is an excellent resource to help get you started. In addition to detailed, easy-to-read information on everything from choosing breeds to keeping geese healthy, the authors bond with her geese is clear throughout. Get ready to ditch your pre-conceived notions about geese, and start enjoying the benefits of adding these useful, entertaining birds to your backyard or homestead.

Victoria Redhed Miller, author,
Pure Poultry: Living well with heritage chickens, turkeys and ducks, and the award-winning book Craft Distilling.

Its always a joy to read a book written by someone who so clearly loves the subject about which they are writing. Such is the case with this book. Between the beautiful photographs and charming stories, Kirstens infectious love of geese has even made me think about getting a few more goslings for our pond.

Deborah Niemann, author,
Homegrown and Handmade, Ecothrifty, and Raising Goats Naturally and the blog ThriftyHomesteader.com

Everyone should have geese. Kristen does a great job extolling all the virtues of these great additions to any farm or homestead. Read this book for all you need to know about geeseand then get yourself some!

Dyan Twining, co-founder Urban Coop Company

Copyright 2017 by Kirsten Lie-Nielsen.

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.

Cover art iStock.

Background texture AdobesStock_75003007. Feather illustrations MJ Jessen.

Printed in Canada. First printing August 2017.

This book is intended to be educational and informative. It is not intended to serve as a guide. The author and publisher disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss or risk that may be associated with the application of any of the contents of this book.

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of The Modern Homesteaders Guide to Keeping Geese should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers

P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada

(250) 247-9737

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Lie-Nielsen, Kirsten, 1990-, author

The modern homesteaders guide to keeping geese / Kirsten Lie-Nielsen.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-0-86571-861-6 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-55092-654-5 (ebook)

1. Geese. I. Title. II. Title: Geese.

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.

By Lisa Steele

M Y EARLY EXPERIENCES WITH GEESE were much like those the author relates at the beginning of this book and usually involved my mother urging me closer to a gaggle of unruly wild geese at the local reservoir or petting zoo so she could get a Polaroid snapshot of me feeding them for our family photo album. I would end up running tearfully into her arms with several hissing, flapping creatures hot on my heels. Later memories would involve stepping over little mounds of goose poop on the putting green of the golf course. All in all, I cant say that geese had ever been on my short list of animals to raise on our farm.

But fast-forward to the present day and happily raising chickens and ducks on a small property in Maine, not too far from where Kirsten lives. She and I met at a Tractor Supply store event several years ago and hit it off. She related to me her challenges keeping her geese out of her neighbors yards and out of the busy street she lived on near Portland. But she and her partner had just bought a large farm in a very much more rural area of Maine, and she was so excited to expand her flock of geese, along with adding more chickens and ducks, plus goats, to her menagerie.

We continued to keep in touch, and I even managed to pawn off a few unwanted roosters I hatched the following spring on her, since she now had the room to keep multiple males in her expanding flock. She started posting photos of the renovations she was doing on the farmhouse and barn on her social media, and I was enthralled to see her visions come to life. Of course, she also was sharing adorable photos of her animals including baby goats, chickens, ducks, and geese enjoying their new home.

She shared snippets about the geese, and their personalities and loyalty soon became obvious through her daily photos. She pointed out their value in helping to weed the garden and trim the lawn. And I have to say thats what hooked me. The idea of having helpers in the garden that wouldnt scratch up all our plants (like our chickens do) and who actually prefer to eat grass over commercial feed, but who wouldnt eat all our garden toads and good bugs in the garden (like the ducks do), made raising a few geese start to look pretty attractive. She even shared with me how if you offer a particular weed to your goslings when theyre young, they develop a taste for that weed and will actually seek it out in your yard (buh-bye dandelions!).

Add to that their value as flock guardians, sounding a very vocal alarm if they sense a threat and being a deterrent to many predators just because of their size, introducing a couple of geese to my homestead seemed like a good plan. And once she told me that by hand raising them from youngsters, they imprint and bond with her and are actually not aggressive and mean, but rather endearing and lovable, that was the end of any reservations I had.

Knowing absolutely nothing about raising geese when I first opened Kirstens book, I feel entirely confident that I could do a good job of it now that Ive turned the last page. Her book answered every question I had and many that I hadnt even thought of. I am delighted to learn that brooding goslings isnt that different from brooding ducklings which of course I am very familiar with and that adult geese arent terribly different from ducks as far as their feed, water, and bedding requirements are concerned.

I hope that anyone picking up this book will seriously consider raising a flock of geese, either alone or in conjunction with chickens or ducks. As for me, Im excited to begin my journey as a Mother Goose. Now I just need to convince my husband that we need some geese.

Lisa Steele, author of Fresh Eggs Daily, Duck Eggs Daily, and Gardening with Chickens.

A FTER I PICKED UP MY FIRST PAIR OF GOSLINGS, it didnt take long for me to be head over heels in love with geese. This transformation puzzled many of my friends. Even those who otherwise understood my growing enthusiasm for the farming lifestyle would ask me, Why do you love geese so much? The question always made me smile. There are many reasons for my love of geese, some more complicated than others. But the simple and most truthful answer is that, for me, the colorful presence and personalities of geese have proven them to be devoted and reliable companions.