Ganso3
Hatching
- May 5, 2015
- 2
- 3
- 9
Help – our 6 geese (2 African Grey – male & female, 4 White Chinese – 3 female, 1 male) are suddenly driving us bonkers with noise! We’ve had them for about 2 months, bought them as young adults.
Night before last, they started up with the honking around 10pm, and all night long they kept up a constant chatter – everything from the “Where are you?” – “I’m over here” exchanges to the “Hey lookout, something has startled me!!!” ones which are extremely loud, repetitive honking. Literally they never took a break longer than 5 to 10 minutes, honking from 10pm until 6am. None of us got any sleep and I’m sure our neighbors (whose bedrooms are 200 to 300 feet from our yard) are irate.
Last night, they had a few eruptions of chatter and alarms but kept pretty quiet until 430am today, when they let forth a wild cacophony of constant alarms, reporting their locations to one another, confirming receipt of alarm, repeating alarm, etc. (as you can see, I speak fluent Goose, lol).
Last time we had a noise problem with them, we fixed it by moving them further away from the barn. Out by the barn, we had a raccoon problem and then an armadillo problem, with predators constantly trying to get at our hens' eggs. We've locked up the hens at night but have no where to lock up the geese. They sleep outdoors (this is the deep southern U.S.) and they have several small nesting-type shelters where they can get out of the weather when desired, but they love the rain as much as our ducks.
Okay, our ducks could be part of the problem. We have one-month old khaki campbell and indian runner ducks, and the geese spend a large part of their day honking at the ducks and kind of chasing them around the yard. We're not sure if they are saying "Get out of here!" or if they are herding them like goslings. One of the geese recently adopted the ducks and things were going well for a week, until 2 nights ago the geese got this new habit of honking all night long. Maybe the geese are waiting for a honk from the ducklings?
Or....Outside this morning while it was still dark outside, I observed two large predator birds – they were so fast I couldn’t identify them, but they were either chickenhawks or owls. Maybe that’s what has got the geese so upset? I live in the country and will never be able to eliminate hawks, owls, skunks, armadillos, possums, etc.
It’s so bad that we’re talking about selling, or even GIVING away the geese, just to escape this noise problem. Suggestions?
Night before last, they started up with the honking around 10pm, and all night long they kept up a constant chatter – everything from the “Where are you?” – “I’m over here” exchanges to the “Hey lookout, something has startled me!!!” ones which are extremely loud, repetitive honking. Literally they never took a break longer than 5 to 10 minutes, honking from 10pm until 6am. None of us got any sleep and I’m sure our neighbors (whose bedrooms are 200 to 300 feet from our yard) are irate.
Last night, they had a few eruptions of chatter and alarms but kept pretty quiet until 430am today, when they let forth a wild cacophony of constant alarms, reporting their locations to one another, confirming receipt of alarm, repeating alarm, etc. (as you can see, I speak fluent Goose, lol).
Last time we had a noise problem with them, we fixed it by moving them further away from the barn. Out by the barn, we had a raccoon problem and then an armadillo problem, with predators constantly trying to get at our hens' eggs. We've locked up the hens at night but have no where to lock up the geese. They sleep outdoors (this is the deep southern U.S.) and they have several small nesting-type shelters where they can get out of the weather when desired, but they love the rain as much as our ducks.
Okay, our ducks could be part of the problem. We have one-month old khaki campbell and indian runner ducks, and the geese spend a large part of their day honking at the ducks and kind of chasing them around the yard. We're not sure if they are saying "Get out of here!" or if they are herding them like goslings. One of the geese recently adopted the ducks and things were going well for a week, until 2 nights ago the geese got this new habit of honking all night long. Maybe the geese are waiting for a honk from the ducklings?
Or....Outside this morning while it was still dark outside, I observed two large predator birds – they were so fast I couldn’t identify them, but they were either chickenhawks or owls. Maybe that’s what has got the geese so upset? I live in the country and will never be able to eliminate hawks, owls, skunks, armadillos, possums, etc.
It’s so bad that we’re talking about selling, or even GIVING away the geese, just to escape this noise problem. Suggestions?