They're Back...........

[mominoz]

Ok. Last year I had a problem with my goose eggs totally disappearing when my year old goose was trying to set them. All 4 geese had access to the night pen where she had a 8" thick straw nest. It is covered with 2x2 wire with hardware cloth around the bottom 36" inches. The aviary pen then has a 4 foot 2x4 fence with hotwire top and bottom. The gates are open in day to a fenced yard to freerange.The geese were allowed to go in and out. I couldn't figure out what happened to my eggs. 2 clutches. Not a shell. So after I cleaned out the nest, I found a hole (ground has round rock, like pond stone on it.) There was a hole near the nest about 2+ inches diameter, and one near the outside of the pen. I have seen mice runout under the straw nests. We live in a rural area. I also saw a long black snakego into the pen one day ,either a king or rat snake right thru the gate hole.I cleaned and took straw out for summer.
Being winter I put some tarps along the sides as windbreaks (has a roof). And I put rubbermaid bins , with the front cut down as nests, to contain the straw and thinking if something is coming up from ground for eggs,they won't get them from underneath.
So today I was cleaning and moved the bins and found a hole about 2+inches diameter and a ton of dirt, like,a quart or so ....I'm thinking too much for mice, really alot of dirt kicked out, under one of the bins. So I moved all of them to another section and pushed dirt back in hole. Now I am wondering what to do before egg season.
Now my runners were in the same aviary and they layed and I picked up their eggs every morning, it was just the ones on the nest. Unless it was another goose .....?
So I was thinking I could put a hose in the hole or set some rat posion in my container on the other side of the fence(it is locked with hole for mice/rats only).
I just hate to try and let my goose brood and lose all her eggs again... beginning to think about raking up the rocks and putting down hardware cloth down, but they could just climb the sides and go in the 2x2 holes.
Course maybe mice or rats aren't the ones doing it anyway. All I have seen is mice around the feeders , when I hose the pens down, they run out.But they are small.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Course maybe mice or rats aren't the ones doing it anyway.

I don't thiing mice or rats would eat the eggs and not leave some evidence.
It would take a large snake to swallow a Goose egg, but it's possible.
The bad news it it's almost impossible to keep snakes out and still let the bird free range​

 

[laughingllama75]

It sounds like rats to me. Been there, done that. Good luck.

and yes, they can take eggs and chicks without leaving any evidence. I wouldn't have believed it, had I not seen it with my own eyes

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
You might build a broodie pen for your goose nest. Something made of 1/4 inch wire but that has a dooor you can open for the day till your goose finally starts setting. At my last house in the city I had rats the size of bedroom slippers.

They can eat through a trash can and are smart enough that simple precautions dont work. But what ever Critter it is the 1/4 inch wire (hardware cloth) will keep them out.

deb