Help me plan the "bedroom" for my geese

[Sunny Side Up]

I couldn't decide if this should go under Coop Construction, Predators & Pests, or Other Birds.

I'm constructing the pen for the pair of Embden geese I recently acquired. I've been keeping them confined most of the time since I got them in order to accustom them to their new home, and have been letting them have supervised outings in the yard for the past few days. So far they've been behaving nicely & staying in the yard.

Meanwhile I'm building them a pen where they can stay each night and during the day when I cannot watch them. Eventually I hope to allow them to free range around the yard all day, as the guineas & the ducks do now. So this pen would then be just to keep them in at night.

It's just about 7' X 12', with 4" hog wire fencing around it about 4' high. I've draped some orange plastic emergency fencing material over wood strips tacked to the tops of the 6' fence posts and hanging down to the top of the wire fencing, to keep the geese from jumping/flapping over the fence. I made this cover high enough so I can walk in their pen without stooping.

What I'm trying to decide now is if the geese need an enclosed area in this pen to keep them safe overnight. Right now I've put corregated metal panels across the top at one end of the pen to give them a bit of shady shelter. Should I next enclose a small space under that roof to confine the geese inside at night?

I haven't -- thank God -- had too much trouble with predators here, very occasionally raccoons & possums. Would they bother a grown goose? Would a goose be more alert than a chicken at night, would they be able to scare it off? And would a goose be safer if it had more room to maneuver, rather than being enclosed in a small space?

Please let me know what you think. And maybe if I can take a break from coop building I can work on being able to post photos online!

 

[Omniskies]

Raccoons and opossums are only threats to goslings for the most part, unless you have a giant raccoon in the area. Your biggest concerns will be owls (I'm not kidding), coyotes and foxes.

Large owls will dive bomb and break the neck, coyotes and foxes learn how to jump a fence if it's possible. The geese would yell and flap around, but they really are big babies. Once whatever it is realizes that they are just putting on a show then they'll ignore it. When you charge a goose at night it doesn't charge back - it runs.

The area they're in at night doesn't need to be very large at all. They don't need food or water since they'll just play in it, but it should be enclosed, if only for your own peace of mind.

Sometimes geese like to be dry and sometimes they want to play in the rain. They're just like small children and will sometimes get fussy over a little mud while other times they're bathing in it. Give them a nice, cozy little area to get out of the wind, snow, rain and mud, but don't feel bad if they only use it on occasion.

Right now all of the predators are making their rounds. As the weather worsens they will become bolder and bolder. I wouldn't take any chances since catastrophes only take a few minutes.