Foxes attacking sitting geese

[Goosie Girl]

Hello at BYC,
We've had a beautiful flock of geese who free range and live on a dam for a decade. One year we had 30 lovely gosling babies.

Unfortunately the foxes and crows have learned the cycle of things here and for the past few years nests have been raided just as hatching was about to happen so no babies. This year is even harder... the mums are being taken as they begin sitting and it is heartbreaking.

We can't fence so the only option I can think of to save the mums is to remove the eggs and incubate them. We've just discovered a couple in a nest where the mum is not yet sitting. Can anyone suggest how soon to remove the eggs as she has not yet laid a full clutch? And once removed, how long are they viable for before incubating? I am hoping to time it such that she won't go and lay another nest elsewhere but I realise this may be a long stretch. All advice appreciated.

My main concern is to protect the mums as they really are 'sitting ducks' and don't stand a chance.

Many thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi!

This is so sad, but I'd first try to dissuade the predators as if you hatch a bunch, aren't they just going to face the same demise?

The eggs are good for up to two weeks, and after that, they start losing their viability exponentially. I've hatched older eggs before and have personally noticed a lower hatch rate.

One thing we did to reroute a fox that was coming by our breeding pens was to play music on a boom box quite loudly, then change to talk radio for a day, then music again. I do not know if that would disrupt the geese in any way, but our chickens didn't seem to mind it. It worked as we haven't seen her on camera since.