Geese prefer puddles to ponds?

[EeyoreD]

So I'm a bit confused by my newly acquired waterfowl (7 American buff geese, a Rouen drake, 4 Scovies).

I have 2 large, though admittedly overgrown, ponds on my property. The geese swam in the larger the first day but after that none have really swam in them, preferring the "pre-pond" on the other side of the culvert of the larger pond. They've actually hollowed that out and distributed the silt into a decent sized kiddy pool - but why do they prefer that to the ponds?

Too much vegetation growing up from the pond bottom? Nasty, bitey things nipping at their feet? Just not used to large water sources?

I don't really mind, whatever they like to do. I'm just now wondering if my ponds could use some work that I don't know about. I mean if waterfowl eschew your ponds for the feeder springs into them, that might be indicative of something, no?

 

[The goose girl]

Almost anything could be "wrong" from a goose point of view. That doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong with it. Geese are cretures of habit and always need a lot of time to adjust to new surroundings. I'd say give it some time and see if they'll start swimming. Unless of course you do have nasty, bitey things like snapping turtles in your ponds? Those can inflict serious injury on waterfowl.

My goose left her pool untouched all last summer from April to December. I couldn't figure out what was wrong until this spring. She was happily swimming around, when all of a sudden she screamed and almost flew out of the pond until she was several feet from the pond edge, and there she hissed and hissed and hissed. I ran out, expecting to see at least a shark, but it turned out to be a small frog. For the next few days she hissed whenever she looked at the pond.

After a couple of weeks I decided to empty the pond. When I did that, I found several mating frogs, so I'm guessing some overeager males tried to mate with her feet.

When I first installed the pond, she took one initial swim in it and then left it for almost two months, until she decided it was safe. Nothing I did during that time could convince her to use it (not even putting on waders and jumping in myself).

 

[EeyoreD]

She was happily swimming around, when all of a sudden she screamed and almost flew out of the pond until she was several feet from the pond edge, and there she hissed and hissed and hissed. I ran out, expecting to see at least a shark, but it turned out to be a small frog. For the next few days she hissed whenever she looked at the pond.

After a couple of weeks I decided to empty the pond. When I did that, I found several mating frogs, so I'm guessing some overeager males tried to mate with her feet.

Ha, that's hilarious! I actually don't know if there are turtles in there but I don't think so. I don't think they were used to ponds where they were before. It's probably just geese being weird. Or geese.

Thanks!

 

[Going Bhonkers]

I've heard that they also like to be able to see the bottom, so if its too muddy that may be a factor (though I don't know how true that is... my goslings have yet to discover the pond we have out back)