Need advice on encouraging a nest location!

[redhen]

Good info here! I also have a goose that chooses to lay in a pile of dirt..

Cant get her to lay in her goose house on nice clean straw for anything.. *sigh*

 

[Klutzy]

redhen, we're in the same area. Are your geese laying already??

 

[redhen]

Quote:
No! But last year thats what she did...
So... i expect the same this spring too..
It sucks cause i give folks eggs and they are always so filthy..

Just wish the stinker would use the clean straw...

 

[Klutzy]

I hear ya on the filth! The ducks just drop eggs any old place, usually near the pool where the ground is muddy. I give most of them to the cats, which was not the plan.

I'm glad to know that was last year. You had me worried--we are definitely not ready now! Maybe she'll be smarter this time. We went to a lot of trouble and expense to build brooder hutches, I sure hope they get used.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Snow is gone this week. We had it last week. It melted on Sunday then we got ice balls instead.

Poor geese, they have been busy breeding for over a month now and I think they held me personally responsible for their pool becoming solid ice. I usually break the top layer of ice in the pools and troughs but it all froze solid last week.

I dunno when yours will lay. Some folks reported laying back in November. My other geese laid in Mid-March.

I may be off in this, but my guess is watch their behavior rather than the calendar. When they start really breeding often, laying is about a month later? That's been my experience so far. And I think only one goose is laying. I'm hoping the others will wait at least another week or few, to increase their chances of hatching. I really need to try to get 15 or so goslings at least this year.

I wish I already had scovies going. I plan to hopefully have them in later years and let them hatch a clutch of goose eggs in addition to their own if all goes well. That's the plan at least.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Are you sure it is only dirt? If it is compost that is still working, even a little bit the goose will pick up on the heat and want to nest there. In the past in China they used very carefully built compost heaps the way we would use an electric incubator on farms without power. I noticed both my ducks and geese liked to sit on a small hill outside what used to be a horse barn. (I thought they were playing King of the Hill) when I took a shovel to level off the top so there would be more room for them I discovered that it was the heap where the previous owner would pile the dirty straw bedding from the horse barn. I ended up fencing them off the hill in cool weather to cut out the fights over sitting space. Oner the years the ducks pretty much tore it down searching for worms and other insects.