Hateful geese

[Farmingfannie]

Ok spring is in full swing of things here. My trio of Toulouse geese have always been a little grumpy towards other members and animals on our flock. Nothing I didn’t expect. Yet, never really thought it through with spring time and including them while everyone else hatch’s and sits and does their spring time thing. Everyone for the most part interacts fine year after year and free ranges and stays out of each other’s way. Until now. So my question is 1.) will my geese kill or harm my ducklings when my hen comes off? Yes they chase her when she comes off nest to eat and she sneaks back to her nest. I have watched them get a good hold of one of my Pekins and I wasn’t very happy with that moment. They have acres to do their thing but they seem to boss everyone and push them away from everywhere no matter what. Nothing makes them happy. I just don’t want devastating results one day. So is this something I should go ahead and plan to intervene with? And also for the life of me I CANNOT find their nest! I’ve searched everywhere sneaky things!!! Any ideas and hints of where they sneak off to lay eggs would be oh so very helpful. They are making spring time a little bit hard for me this year.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am having to keep my geese in a separate part of their fenced property since they hate the Muscovys and the drake and gander will fight. I use a piece of lattice to separate and it’s low enough the chickens can go back an forth. The geese are def grumpy but other than just being bossy they haven’t injured anyone but I don’t let any of my birds ducks chicken or geese around a new mama and her babies until the duckling / chicks are at least 3 weeks old. I keep mama and babies on one side of a fence the rest of the birds in the larger side. Once they get around 3 weeks they are able to stay out of everyone’s way much better. Thankfully breeding season for geese will be over end of May. As for finding their nest a little detective work in your part by following the female at a distance. Thankfully most of my egg layers lay inside their house. All but my little OEGB hen she has decided to nest up under the goose house​

 

[jtn42248]

Yes, geese will kill baby ducks and chicks. We have pens for the ducks and chickens that the geese can not "breech". The geese have a full 3 acres of their own and still they fight among each other daily. As for eggs, 99% of the time our geese build a nest in their house and share it with one another. I have found goose eggs just dropped in the field as well.