Two headaches in one day. Anyone have solutions?

[HeatherLynn]

Ok first headache is we have 4 geese in with our chickens. They have a HUGE run and their own pool but they are all together in this Huge run. Anywho I have 3 females and 1 male. The male is ignoring the geese and trying to mate my hens which as you can imagine is not going well. Is there a way to stop this. He is a big big boy and they already get attacked by my Maran rooster so I think they have enough on their plate without this. Before winter the geese will have their own sleeping quarters and the run will be expanded even more to include the pond. Do you think the extra area will stop this. They are my moms so I cannot strangle the little bugger but he is going to hurt my hens.

Ok second headache comes from my BO hen who is just starting to lay. Well she lays the first egg and has now decided she no longer wants to stay in the coop or the run. I even clipped one of her wings and she makes it over the fence anyway. My sister has dogs that she has refused to control. My coop is on my parents farm. Her dogs come over all the time. My dad says its just a chicken and her dogs are hungry cause she doesn't feed them so if one gets killed its my problem. Short of my husband doing some major major work on cover the coop is there some way to keep her from going over the fence. I even considered locking her up for a few days to maybe break this cycle. Not one other bird goes over the fence. These guys and gals have an absolutely huge area to room. Tons of spots with shade, dusting areas. Heck I even opened up the garden to them and they are eating the extra tomatoes. No reason for her to go over. Will locking her up break this bad habit?

 

[Mahonri]

It couldn't hurt to lock her up for a few days and see what happens.

 

[NurseELB]

You can try clipping the other wing.

(Other than that, do you have any really tiny weights you can tie around her ankles? Cement boots?

Okay, just kidding-)

Good luck!

Can't help w/ the goose problem either

 

[HeatherLynn]

the cement weights sounded good right about now.

 

[chicksbestfriend]

HeatherLynn,
I have a Rhode Island that had the same behavior, she would fly up onto the coop and over into an open field behind our house which is a haven for feral cats. This went on for several months and I was at wits end with her because I would leap over the fence to "rescue" her everytime I heard her cackling, and would put her back on our side of the fence. This seemed to happen 4-5 days out of the week! A little over a month ago, I was just ready to leave the property and I hear her cackling, pacing the fence line and a feral cat was sneaking up behind her. You never seen an old lady hop over a fence so quickly! Much to my amazement, she was nowhere in sight and I was boiling over because I had snagged my new blouse in the process, I was determined to find her, and possibly choke her neck.

Suddenly, I see this quick movement of brown feathers in the tall grass on the backside of their coop. When I pulled the grass open, there she was, sitting on a nest of almost 90 eggs! Yup, she was going over there to lay her eggs in her own nest! Since I completely shut down that nest, she now lays her eggs in the nesting box with the rest of them. I would say, look for a nest.

Or you could always put her on a string walk; sounds cruel, but at least you know she wont be leaving the property.

As for the geese, I dont have any of them, but I do have one Muscovy drake that likes to harrass my chickens. When I catch him harrassing the hens, I start chasing him to the furthest corner of the property, this has been going on for months. Now, when he sees me coming, he automatically starts running away for me to chase him. I think he enjoys me chasing him because when I get him cornered, he stands there and wags his tail and does this funny thing with his head, looking upward making a gurgle sound, somehow, I think he is laughing at me.

By the way, my drakes name is Luckey, because he is Luckey he never ended up on our dinner table!

 

[HeatherLynn]

Not sure the goose will be a problem anymore, he picked the wrong hen to get friendly with this morning. The big roo was ok as long as it was not one of his girls. The teen roo is too chicken to defend his yet. This morning though he grabbed one of the marans girls and the roo got pretty dang terrifying for a bit. It was all I could do to get out of the way. The poor gander landed on his face a few times in his hurry to get away. So the gander is staying in the garden far away from the hens and roo for now.

I will go looking again. I was thinking egg laying since she had just started but have found nothing. Little bugger is driving me nuts though.