Five geese on about a third of an acre and the ground is now a series of holes and muddy pits, worst around the water trough and along one fence line. Two of them spend a good part of the morning probing at the soil with their bills.
I expected grazing, not excavation. Is this normal goose behaviour, and is there anything I can do that does not involve giving them less space?
A third of an acre for five geese is not generous, and boredom in a confined space makes them dig more. Rotating them between areas so the grass recovers does more than anything else, and if you cannot rotate, scattered greens and something to investigate takes the edge off.
Fence off the garden and any new seedlings now rather than after they find them.
Some of it is grit hunting too. Put insoluble poultry grit out and see whether the probing drops off.
One seasonal cause to expect in spring: a female will scrape out a shallow rounded nest in the ground and line it with grass and her own down, usually near cover, and spend a lot more time there.
That one is not a yard problem, it is a decision. Provide nesting material and a sheltered spot if you intend to hatch, or collect the eggs daily if you do not.
@water_on_gravel · 4d ago · 3 replies
Normal, and the trough is the fixable part. They dabble and dig wherever the soil is wet, so anywhere they drink or splash turns into a pit remarkably fast. Put the water on gravel, pavers or a raised platform with somewhere for it to drain, and move the containers around rather than leaving one spot to be destroyed.
The probing along the fence is foraging. Soft soil after rain gets worked over for roots, shoots, worms, grubs and seeds, and repeated attention to the same patch becomes a hole.
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@yard_full_of_pits · 4d ago
Is there any point filling the holes, or will they just redo them?
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@filled_the_holes · 4d ago
Fill them, mostly for ankles, yours and theirs. A goose that puts a leg down a hole can hurt itself and so can you carrying a feed bag. They will dig again somewhere, which is what rotating the grazing is for.
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