![]() ![]() Breaking up the eggs is often ineffective because geese will just lay more eggs. Dipping the eggs in corn oil is the simplest and most common approach. Addling is shaking, puncturing, or freezing eggs and returning them to the nest. You can apply for a special permit to addle eggs or destroy geese nests on your property (application to apply for a permit can be found below). It is illegal to destroy eggs of most bird species, including Canada geese. If you destroy or take eggs from a nest, the gees will continue to lay eggs and replace the missing ones. Geese like to be able to see around obstacles, therefore, planting a hedge or leaving a wide swatch of uncut weeds between water and mowed grass creates a natural, low maintenance barrier. A 3-foot chicken wire fence is an effective barrier. Geese walk to their feeding sites from water, and will rarely fly over a fence, especially during the molting period (summer) when the birds are flightless. Loud noises may also work, but geese can adapt to noise. For an active approach, try walking up to the birds and flap a tablecloth. It’s important to move decoys periodically or the geese will realize the decoys aren’t real. Full bodied swan or coyote decoys sometimes work because geese perceive the decoys as threats. Putting out flags, tying aluminum pie plates along strings, and using scarecrows may help keep geese away from an area until they learn these objects pose no threat. It is in the birds’ best interest to stop providing them with food. Feeding encourages birds to stay in one place and build up flock sizes the habitat can’t support. Geese (and ducks) concentrate wherever people feed them. Keep in mind that persistence and a combination of tactics will keep geese from becoming pests. Here are a few suggestions to prevent goose grief. Now geese are on golf courses, in gardens, over shellfish beds, on lawns, beaches, water supplies, and cranberry bogs. Canada geese produce a half pound to a pound and a half of dropping every day. Food, habits, and habitatĪs goose numbers increase, so do problems, especially with goose droppings. ![]() Geese in urban areas tend to live twice as long as those in more rural areas. While MassWildlife has recorded geese living up to 22 years in the wild, 60% of geese live 4 years or less, and only 10% live beyond 8 years. No one imagined the population explosion that followed. In the 1960s and early 1970s, MassWildlife moved geese from the coast into central and western Massachusetts to the applause of both hunters and non-hunters. With no pattern of migration, these geese began nesting. When live decoys were outlawed in the 1930s, many captive birds were released into the wild. The second is the resident population: descendants of captive geese used by waterfowl hunters. Massachusetts is one of the many resting areas for these migrating birds. The first is the migratory population which passes through in the spring and fall. There are two different populations of Canada geese in Massachusetts. By fall, they all gather into one large flock for the winter. Non-breeders and yearlings form separate flocks. Usually by the time the young are 4–6 weeks old, the broods begin gathering in large flocks. If the clutch is destroyed, geese generally don’t re-nest, but with two large birds guarding a nest, the chances of success are good. Most Canada geese don’t begin mating until they are three years old. Geese form permanent pair bonds, but if one goose dies, the other will seek a new mate in the next breeding season.
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