Breaking Goose News!

Headline: Goose has been released from confinement

Breaking News:

A local African Goose, self-affirmed good citizen, swears he has been maliciously prosecuted and punished without access to a legal representative.
“I’m innocent of all charges”, was his first official statement on this matter.

Genghis Goose, a member of the community for the last 5 years, has had occasional run-ins with community enforcement, but has never been imprisoned before.
“This was new and I did not like it”, he said to this reporter.
He went on to express that he was confused about the lack of reaction from his fellow gaggle members. “They just walked off and left me! I guess the grass really is greener over there.”

Gaggle members Ginger Goose and Mary-Ann Goose, both members of the African Goose community and active in local politics, had no comment about the situation.
“I’m here for the newly refilled water bucket”, was the only statement released by Ginger Goose through her representative.

Genghis, my gander, is a bit of a ladies man, in his eyes. This means that I have to deal with "inappropriate courtship behavior" until Spring ends in goose sensibilities.
He was rather persistent today which nearly got him stepped on and me tripped, so he got picked up and placed in one of the currently unoccupied grow-out pens.

He complained much and loudly. I was able to finish my chores; the ladies did walk off to go sit in the shade and nibble newly sprouted grass.

Does one simply just pick up a goose and confine him?

I can only imagine it must look like a spectacle!

Timothy Norton wrote:Does one simply just pick up a goose and confine him?

I can only imagine it must look like a spectacle!

I can't speak for other goose care-takers, but ... yes. I end up carrying him around quite a lot some days - I'll pick him up and tuck him under my arm like a football, then put him down somewhere generally far away from what I'm doing. I try for fresh grass or near the girls, but ...

He doesn't seem to mind. It used to be his punishment for misbehaving, but it gets him attention, so he's like the Bad Kid in school - some attention is better than none.
Putting him in the grow-out pen was a move of desperation. It worked, so I'll use it again.

Maybe I need to build a Goose Isolation Pen - the GIP?
I'm open to advice.

Kristine Keeney wrote:.....I'll pick him up and tuck him under my arm like a football, then put him down somewhere generally far away from what I'm doing. I try for fresh grass or near the girls, but ...

My wife did a lot of bird banding in a previous life and showed me how to do that, but I never got the hang of it.  However, our 25+ years-old gander, Buddy, often rides shotgun in the John Deere Gator during his sojourn to the river nearby for a swim and needs help up into footwell.  He's not so rambunctious these days when getting him into place (and I can just do it with a quick lift and gentle drop), but he still refuses to wear his seatbelt!

My problem is a surplus of males which results in fighting with each other, more than issues with the 4 ladies I have.

Lack of infrastructure is a big issue also. The last male that made the mistake of fighting at bedtime, found himself in a cage and then off to freezer camp.

The weather hasn't been reliably nice enough for a repeat of that approach. So long as I can get the whole group into the night-time shelter, I can manage.