- Mar 2, 2011
- 21
- 0
- 22
My husband and I recently bought our first house. We love the property it came with (6 acres, mostly wooded, great gardening area, large open yard, and a pond). The house and property also came with a whole lotta birds! We have a peacock and hen, several doves in a large outdoor enclosure, 23 chickens (2 roosters, 21 mixed breed laying hens), as well as some wild ducks and 3 geese. Since we never intended on being "mini farmers" I did a lot of reading up before taking over the property. And the former owners had us over several times before closing to go through the routines, etc, and left us with several books and many pages of handwritten notes. We've gotten a pretty good hang of it. All of our birds are healthy and seem happy. And I've been trying to do things "right" from the start.
Here's where I need advice...
The three geese have become a big issue. My husband hates them. And I am starting to come over to his side. Two are Canada geese and the other is a large domestic goose, I don't know the actual breed name but I've always heard of them referred to as "farm geese" which I'm sure isn't helpful. This one is the primary issue. He is very aggressive. He follows us around the yard and hisses and honks constantly even if we're nowhere near him. This gets the two Canada geese riled up and they start honking, too, and they won't stop until we've completely left the yard.
I've tried some suggestions I've heard like "establishing pecking order" but he doesn't seem to care. Neither my husband nor I have ever run away from him, we've always stood our ground. He knows we're the ones that put out food, we've lived in the house for over 4 months now. So I don't know what the issue is. Other suggestions have been to not provide food (a little impossible since we free range our chickens during the day and thus give them access to food and water outside the coops, and we also still like the ducks who rely on us for food), or to make the property less attractive for geese, again, we can't really do this since we like the way the property is and it's only the geese that are the issue.
The female Canada goose was born on the property and suffered a wing injury while her mother sat with her, which is why she didn't migrate when the rest of her flock moved on. So the former owners purposefully hatched her a "mate" so she wouldn't be lonely. So they stay all year round with this other domestic goose.
On top of the annoyance of them constantly honking at us, and the frustration of them chasing us, I'm getting tired of goose poop everywhere. The chickens keep to certain parts of the yard so their poop is not an issue, but the geese come up to the house and into our sheds and all over the yard and they leave huge poops everywhere which makes our yard less enjoyable for us. On days where his patience is lower my husband talks about wanting to just "shoot that stupid goose!" I know he's just very frustrated and neither of us are able to enjoy our new house and property because of them. But, killing them doesn't seem like the right thing to do.
So ... do I get rid of them? I'm leaning toward yes. But, don't know where to start. It seems since they are all somewhat "domesticated" it's not a job for animal control. But, I wouldn't know the first thing about how to trap them, and then what to do with them once I had them. But, they are really making us feel uncomfortable in our own yard and I'm pretty sure they need to go. I should also mention that we are new to the area, new to the state even, so we don't have any "connections" to reach out to. And the former owners moved well out of state.
Help?
Here's where I need advice...
The three geese have become a big issue. My husband hates them. And I am starting to come over to his side. Two are Canada geese and the other is a large domestic goose, I don't know the actual breed name but I've always heard of them referred to as "farm geese" which I'm sure isn't helpful. This one is the primary issue. He is very aggressive. He follows us around the yard and hisses and honks constantly even if we're nowhere near him. This gets the two Canada geese riled up and they start honking, too, and they won't stop until we've completely left the yard.
I've tried some suggestions I've heard like "establishing pecking order" but he doesn't seem to care. Neither my husband nor I have ever run away from him, we've always stood our ground. He knows we're the ones that put out food, we've lived in the house for over 4 months now. So I don't know what the issue is. Other suggestions have been to not provide food (a little impossible since we free range our chickens during the day and thus give them access to food and water outside the coops, and we also still like the ducks who rely on us for food), or to make the property less attractive for geese, again, we can't really do this since we like the way the property is and it's only the geese that are the issue.
The female Canada goose was born on the property and suffered a wing injury while her mother sat with her, which is why she didn't migrate when the rest of her flock moved on. So the former owners purposefully hatched her a "mate" so she wouldn't be lonely. So they stay all year round with this other domestic goose.
On top of the annoyance of them constantly honking at us, and the frustration of them chasing us, I'm getting tired of goose poop everywhere. The chickens keep to certain parts of the yard so their poop is not an issue, but the geese come up to the house and into our sheds and all over the yard and they leave huge poops everywhere which makes our yard less enjoyable for us. On days where his patience is lower my husband talks about wanting to just "shoot that stupid goose!" I know he's just very frustrated and neither of us are able to enjoy our new house and property because of them. But, killing them doesn't seem like the right thing to do.
So ... do I get rid of them? I'm leaning toward yes. But, don't know where to start. It seems since they are all somewhat "domesticated" it's not a job for animal control. But, I wouldn't know the first thing about how to trap them, and then what to do with them once I had them. But, they are really making us feel uncomfortable in our own yard and I'm pretty sure they need to go. I should also mention that we are new to the area, new to the state even, so we don't have any "connections" to reach out to. And the former owners moved well out of state.
Help?
