Impossible to fix the fence, what is his PROBLEM?

[chickensducks&agoose]

Okay, we've been freeranging all the birds (11 chickens, 4 ducks and mr. Goose) all last summer, and fall and this winter. Anyway, with all the crazy mud we've had this spring, all the birds want to just sit on our steps and poop. So I got a bunch of wire, and made a big enclosure around both the goose house and the chicken coop. It's been fine for about a week, but then the chickens realized they could hop up onto the back of the goose house, walk up the slope and fly down into the yard... then up onto the steps to poop. So I got some more fencing (not needed to protect from predators, just to protect our steps from them), and made the circle bigger, away from the goose house. Anyway, that's the background story to my problem. I was in there, wielding my staple gun (the only tool I can use other than a hammer), trying to put up a line of fencing to separate the waterfowl from the chickens kind of like (/) kind of situation, and Mr goose just kept nibbling on me, wouldn't stop...and it really, really hurt, not like the PLIERS pinch he can do, but still painful... he will NOT stop biting me if he can reach me... just rubs his head on the ground, then bites me. I had to lock him up to finish... then I held my hand over his side of the fence, and he stared at it, tilted his head back, opened his mouth really wide, and JUMPED!!!! straight up in the air (only like 2 inches, cause he's kind of fat) to try to bite me.... what is his deal? Is this love or hate?

 

[Chicken Fruit]

Sounds like a terrirotial issue to me.

ps, make a fence by sticking pvc together (it just pushes together with some pvc glue) and wire your fence to the frame you make. It wont sink, it wont sag, and you can make it tall enough to birds dont try to escape.

Theres the basic idea... Its sooo easy... that lady made hers herself.

 

[Omniskies]

Territorial. He's trying not to hurt you in order to get the message across, but if you're not polite enough to take the hint (since he's pretty convinced everyone can speak goose and knows exactly what he's telling you

he's willing to wallop you.

The easiest way to fix that without getting aggressive is to grab him and "sit" on him until he gives in and goes limp. You're _not_ putting any weight on him. Just holding him between your legs and applying pressure on his back near the base of his neck.

By doing that he can't move his wings around and whomp you with them, and by applying pressure to his back it feels as if you're winning the contest to see who's dominant over who. It will also keep him from squirming away and will keep your other arm free to hold his neck in case he decides to try and bite you.

Once he stops fighting pet him and praise him. Let him be all limp for a minute or two, then let him up and go about your business.

The whole thing is then handled without yelling or whomping on him, and sends him the message loud and clear that you're the boss. If he decides to get all picky again then do it again.

We had a goose that was given to us that became _extremely_ protective toward everything in the yard. The noise was bad enough, but when he started hissing at us because the other geese came over it was enough. We ended up grabbing him and pinning him down. The humiliation of being trumped was enough and after a few times he got the hint. He still didn't like us around his flock, but he conceded the fact that we were probably too strong to fight.