Need advice on encouraging a nest location!

[Diamond Wire Farms]

Goosedragon- I am not very experienced with geese, so I appreciate any advice. Last year this goose brooded her eggs for 12 days (sitting on the nest. I only noticed her off of it for about 15 minutes every couple of days.) Then we had a cold night and she got off and never went back. By the next night one of my hens had discovered the nest and decided to remedy the situation. That night I transferred the hen and three eggs into a brood pen. The goose and gander never reclaimed the remaining 10 eggs which I left in the nest. I can't remember exactly but I think the brooded eggs hatched after 19-20 days under the hen. So hopefully I did the right thing. This year I'm hoping that the pair can handle the whole situation on their own without intervention, but when they started defending the chicken coop AGAIN, I had to take action. Fingers still crossed that this works out. I'm not sure if they are quieter, or I am just getting more used to them!

 

[goosedragon]

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I expect you will do better this year, first year geese really don't know what they are doing and the instinct has grown weaker by so many being produced by incubators by man. Did your geese adopt the 3 hatched by the chicken? that would be a good sign. Notice that goose may not be productive and may do the same thing again so keep an eye out for a broody bird to take the eggs if needed. There is usually a big difference in behavior of a broody goose compared to a goose that is still laying and protecting the eggs as needed.Like prople some geese are good parents and others are not. I had a goose that would hatch them and then wanted nothing to do with them, the gander raised them and was very proud and protective of them. As they learn that you mean no harm they will put up with you more and make less of a fuss when you approach the nest (don't turn your back on them however). Most of my geese have used the corners of my back horse stall for their nests. Forcing the ducks to live in the front stall. If it had been the other way around my ducks would have moved out rather than walk the the front stall to get to the back. The first year it would be painfull to check up on the geese as someone was sure to throw a hissy fit. once they learned to trust me it was much better.

 

[Diamond Wire Farms]

Thank you everyone!
This pair is starting to settle down. I am hoping its a first year problem, but I can't help thinking its part of this goose's personality. Her nick-name is Problem Child. If there is a place to get trapped, a bucket to knock over, a nest location not to pick, that's this girl. She's a stinker, but hopefully as this all becomes more routine, she will figure it out. Thanks for the suggestions and advice.

 

[Klutzy]

Wow, what an interesting discussion! This is my first spring with adult geese and their first year breeding. I can see it's going to be a very long learning curve for all of us! I have a trio of American Buffs. They share a coop with several chickens, a trio of Midget White turkeys, a trio of runner ducks, a quad of Cayugas, and a trio of Muscovies. There certainly isn't room for everyone to nest, so we built several hutches, which are currently under almost 3' of snow. Two are big enough for both geese or both turkeys to share if they want to. Are they likely to do that?

Is there a way to encourage any of the birds to use a hutch rather than squabble over coop space or hide in the bushes? They all free range and no one has any bad nesting habits to break. All will be new parents except the Muscovies, who built one nest in a back corner of the coop and raised their babies together. They were protective but unobtrusive. Hopefully they'll do that again, but they're kind of intimidated by the gander so I'm not sure what will happen. He was a baby last summer, but now he rules the roost and can be a bit of a bully. At bedtime he stands near the door and hisses at everyone as they try to go in. Obviously this might cause real trouble if the geese choose the coop to nest in, so I need to get someone to use those nice hutches that they can't even get to now!

I joined this group tonight after googling Shetland geese. I would like to get a few goslings or eggs, or even a pair, but maybe I have enough to handle without adding more! But of all my birds I enjoy the geese and turkeys the most. I'm in New England, in case anyone has Shetlands to sell, or maybe trade.

Thanks, and I'm glad to join this group!

 

[goosedragon]

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[D'Angelo N Va.]

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OMG...I can picture this and I am laughing so hard, I could hardly type..

 

[Klutzy]

Hi goosedragon,

Thanks for all the info, I have never heard about these issues. (I tried to quote you but got syntax error messages.) With the door issue, it sounds like they may choose the main coop with the nice 7' door. That's OK as long as they let the other birds go in to eat and sleep, or at least sleep. But I'll enlarge the hutch door openings; luckily we haven't made the doors yet. The hutches are ~8" off the ground and we thought we'd hinge the doors at the bottom so they'd double as ramps. Does that sound good?

The last thing I want to do is raise the goslings myself! How do you split up shared nests and get one goose to go elsewhere? Will she lay eggs in a new spot or give up? We made one hutch rectangular thinking they might each take one end, which seemed like it would be easier on the gander than trying to protect two separate hutches. It's big enough for all three to sleep in if they want but sounds like they won't want. That's OK! I don't care where anyone sleeps as long as they're safe from predators.

Thanks so much for your advice, goosedragon, I really appreciate your help!

 

[goosedragon]

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[Shiloh Acres]

I just wanted to say how helpful this thread is.

I raised a small flock of Chinese/Africans before and they spoiled me. Now with my Emdens/Toulouse/pilgrims I am finding out I didn't know what it was to raise geese. My others built nests, laud and hatched, and were snuggly sweethearts. Other than checking the eggs (which I could do with the goose on the nest if I wanted) I didn't do anything.

THESE geese are a different story! Having predators here makes it worse. THEY want to nest in the very open. It's VERY cold, and so far I think only one is laying. She buries her eggs and I've been bringing them in. I have about a half dozen and they are kept in a cool room. I don't know if they are hatchable ... I hope so! But it seems like with our temps below freezing daytime and much colder overnight they would freeze solid out there.

I put up barrels for nesting, planning to close them in at night and release them each day. No one is interested. They are in a protected corner behind the coop with branches over them and a nice bed of straw and dead leaves. Nope, they wanna nest where their yard meets the main pasture. I stopped letting them in the pasture about a month ago so they could have a yard to themselves in preparation for breeding season. We'll see. Lots of other breeding going on, and some half-hearted nest building, but just one laying. I'm hoping the others will wait. And it's looking like, instead of barrels, I'm going to have to build a huge cage over each one to let her nest in the open, if I can't move nests. I will probably try though.

The ganders are fine with being put up in their coop even if a goose stays out (temporarily ... When the llama came in for the night she changed her mind about nesting and wanted in the coop). They make a LOT of noise if I go out after dark though! Especially if I got near the goose and nest.

I have now officially been bitten by my formerly-sweet gosling. Haha, goosedragon, your name describes my gander now! I see what you mean about not turning your back. They are fine as long as I face them. Turn around, the neck goes down and they come RUNNING after me. Funny thing was, I got bit while in the next yard. I was messing with a rabbit cage, and the gander came through the gate and across that yard and bit me right on the behind HARD! Tried to get me with his wings too. My sweet baby that used to like cuddles, LOL. He hisses now if he sees me far away. It's ok though. His job is to be a gander, not a lap-dog and I'd say he's doing it fabulously.

Funny though, he's not even really breeding. It's my Pilgrim gander. I had planned to separate him and the Pilgrim goose (I just got one pair of them) but I didn't and now he is kinda pushed out and not really breeding. Next year I guess I'll separate him out with the Pilgrim goose. This year I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing and how to do it, since it's not just happening so easily like it did before.

 

[Klutzy]

Oh no! Sounds like I'm in for a wild ride. I hope i can handle this. Shiloh, is there snow on the ground where you are? There is still two feet here and we should get plenty more between now and 4/1. When could I expect them to start laying? One goose hatched 5/1/10 and the gander and other goose around 4/1--which I guess answers my question since they all hatched nearby, but it was a much milder winter. The chickens started laying this week and the 'Scovies seem to be bobbing and weaving more than usual...