Help with my nesting goose

[Sheepheart]

I found One of my embden girls has made a leafy nest next to one of the out buildings. I also think she is laying, but not 100% sure. I havnt checked the egg size yet. Anyways my big problem is that she is nesting over here by this building. Anyone know if I’m able to encourage her to build her nest inside the barn?

And I little additional information about her, which may be helpful? Yesterday she stood next to what I’m pretty sure to be a duck egg that was laid outside before they got put up for the night the night before, and was honking at me. Of course the egg had froze and cracked. Which also goes into my concern of where she made her nest.

edit:
I checked the size of the egg she’s sitting by, it’s slightly larger than what most of my ducks have been laying, I couldn’t get a photo because my phone decided it was to cold and shut off

 

[Percheron chick]

Is she younger or have less status in the flock? I have found that my first year layers make nests in the chicken side about 1/2 the time. You can always lock her up in the goose pen but she's telling you that she is most comfortable away from the others. What structures are you providing for them to build their nests in? What materials are ready available to build the nest with? She found a nice pile of leaves to work with. If you gave her an XL dog house with a pile of leaves or straw, she would know what to do with it.

 

[Sheepheart]

Is she younger or have less status in the flock? I have found that my first year layers make nests in the chicken side about 1/2 the time. You can always lock her up in the goose pen but she's telling you that she is most comfortable away from the others. What structures are you providing for them to build their nests in? What materials are ready available to build the nest with? She found a nice pile of leaves to work with. If you gave her an XL dog house with a pile of leaves or straw, she would know what to do with it.

she is the same age as the other geese and i havent noticed anything between her and the others that might suggest a status difference, but the others are showing no concern for her not being near them. they do have have access to a dog igloo and repurposed side table cabinet, those have straw in them. I guess I can try putting some leaves in once of those and see if she will nest there, she might not like the straw. thank you!

 

[Sheepheart]

Update:

went to go move her and her nest into the barn. Looks like the egg I saw was from yesterday so it was frozen, and the egg she had laid today got crushed when the dog spooked her when we found her. I also now know that I didn’t know she was near there because she moves all the leafs back into a pile when she leaves. Hopefully she decides to lay inside now that I moved her and her belongings.

here’s her frozen egg compared to my ducks egg

 

[Percheron chick]

I like dogloos for the geese. Anytime I find them for cheap on CL, I buy! Take one to where she has made her nest and fill it with the leaves. Let her use it for a week then move it where you want it and hopefully she'll follow.

 

[Goosebaby]

I like dogloos for the geese. Anytime I find them for cheap on CL, I buy! Take one to where she has made her nest and fill it with the leaves. Let her use it for a week then move it where you want it and hopefully she'll follow.

I have goose caves too “dogloos.”

 

[Goosebaby]

You can build her a little A frame, get her a dog house or dogloo, a dog travel crate, or use two bales of straw stood up on their sides and set a board over the top to make a little cave, geese love nest caves! You can make it more appealing by adding a few of her eggs to it so she thinks it’s the safe spot.

 

[Sheepheart]

Thanks for all the input!

we had about seven inches of snow come down a few days ago and the day of none of the birds wanted to go out (lol don’t blame em!) and the day after the geese went out for maybe ten minutes and then came back in for the rest of the day. That seems to have encouraged Speck to nest inside. She has nest built in front of their nesting box in their area and right now she’s gone into the ducks igloo and is hissing at them.

also I’ve started giving her the fluffy undercoat that my meat goat kids have been shedding and she really seems to like that for her nest.

 

[iturnknobs]

Did you successfully relocate your goose's nest? Mine just laid her first 2 eggs under a fishing boat outside. Bad place. I've got nightly predators(canine prints in the snow) that jump my 4' fence. She can't sleep out there at night. Hoping for encouraging stories plus tips. I just pulled the eggs today and put them in a dogloo filled with Timothy grass/hay which is inside the shed they sleep in at night. I hope she figures it out.

 

[Sheepheart]

Did you successfully relocate your goose's nest? Mine just laid her first 2 eggs under a fishing boat outside. Bad place. I've got nightly predators(canine prints in the snow) that jump my 4' fence. She can't sleep out there at night. Hoping for encouraging stories plus tips. I just pulled the eggs today and put them in a dogloo filled with Timothy grass/hay which is inside the shed they sleep in at night. I hope she figures it out.

Yes, thankfully. To me it seems that the long period of time having all the birds shut in because of the extreme cold we had really reenforced that she needed to nest and lay inside. For the last two weeks or so she has been nesting reliably in the dogloo, and about two or three days ago my other female embdens started laying and share a nest in the dogloo.

I would say, if the weather and safety of your goose permits, having the dogloo where she is laying under the boat to try and get her to move into there and then moving her and the dogloo to the desired location once she reliably lays and nests in the dogloo would be the least stressful for your goose. My girl did refuse to lay for maybe four or five days because she wasn’t able to get to her previous nesting location and wasn’t fully recognizing the dogloo as her nest yet.
I would also try providing her some other nesting materials she might be attracted to, like what ever she is using at the boat(mine was using dead leaves so I tried to provide some until she started using hay and straw on her own) or if you have any animals with downy like under coats that they may be shedding out right now. I’ve been giving my girls the fluffy undercoat that my goats have been shedding and she just love it. Even the if she hasn’t been gathering any more nesting materials if I put some out for her she puts it right to use!