Goose Housing Planner & Build Guide

Work out house and grazing pasture space for your geese, itemised materials, tools, and cost — then build it, across three budget tiers that change the materials and steps.

Geese are the largest common backyard waterfowl, and their space needs scale up accordingly — roughly three times the housing footprint of a duck, plus a grazing area rather than a bare dirt run. This calculator works out your actual house and pasture dimensions from your flock size, then itemises materials, tools, and cost across three budget tiers.

Space, Materials & Cost Calculator

Space figures are minimums drawn from widely-used waterfowl husbandry guidance, not a guarantee — more space is always better. This is general information, not a substitute for checking your local council's rules on keeping poultry.

Full guide and more detail at https://hollyshomestead.com.au/tools/goose-housing-planner.html

Materials You'll Actually Need (Quantities, Not Just a Price)

Why Geese Need Pasture, Not Just a Run

Unlike chickens, ducks, or turkeys, geese are primarily grazers — a large part of their actual diet is grass, not just supplementary feed. A bare dirt run doesn't serve geese the way it can get by for other poultry; without grazing area, you'll need to supplement much more of their diet with purchased feed, and geese kept on dirt long-term tend to be less healthy and more prone to boredom-driven behaviours like feather picking. Like ducks, geese shouldn't share housing with chickens — the same wet-manure and disease-risk issues apply, and geese are considerably more territorial, which can lead to bullying if mixed.

Tools You'll Need

• Tape measure and a spirit level
• Circular saw or hand saw for cutting timber
• Cordless drill/driver with mixed bits
• Staple gun
• Wire cutters or tin snips
• Post-hole shovel or auger
• Hammer, safety glasses, and heavy-duty gloves
• String line and stakes for marking out the pasture perimeter

Three Budget Tiers, Including Fencing Costed Separately

All figures are new-materials estimates in 2026 AUD, based on the dimensions calculated above.

Step-by-Step Build Method

1. Mark out and prepare the site. Mark the house footprint and the full grazing area with a string line. Choose the grazing area for actual grass cover, not just the flattest or most convenient patch.
2. Build the house frame and floor. Treated pine frame with a sealed or concrete floor — geese produce even more wet waste than ducks, so moisture management matters even more here.
3. Clad and roof the house. Fit cladding and a sloped roof, sized generously — geese are large birds and need headroom, not just floor space.
4. Fit a floor-level nest area. A deep straw-lined corner, geese nest on the ground like ducks, not in raised boxes.
5. Dig and fit the buried predator apron. Bury mesh at least 30cm deep around the full perimeter, bent outward.
6. Fit the pasture fencing. Geese are strong and can push against weak fencing, so use sturdier posts and bracing than for smaller poultry, at least 1.2m high.
7. Add water access. A tub or small pond deep enough to dunk their head is a welfare need, positioned away from the house to keep bedding drier.
8. Fit doors, latches, and do a final walk-around. Check the entire perimeter for gaps before introducing birds — geese are strong enough to test weak points over time.

For everything else involved in keeping geese day to day, see our full Poultry animal guides.

Frequently Asked Questions