Spring Hiss in the Air

It has been getting more difficult to lock up the critters at night because spring is here and the geese are getting territorial.  The chickens do not have a problem going in at night, but the geese hang around the door and keep the ducks out, which means herding the ducks around the coop and into the human entrance, and then shutting the critter door as goose beaks snap and hiss at my hand.  I doubt it would even be possible for the geese to hatch anything, since there are too many other beasts about, and they do not want to use the coop to nest.

Goosemigrant

A while ago Lost saw an ad on Craigslist for free geese.  Normally he would not be interested due to biosecurity concerns, but he felt pity on his two male African Geese.  We packed up a couple dog crates and went over to a squalid goosehole filthier than a Craigslist casual ad, and stole five goslings from a hissing mother.  I was surprised at how the African Geese responded.  You have to be very careful with animal immigration because the natives will consider it invasion--especially if the immigrants are young.  We kept the gosling in a brood box in the garage and created a small enclosure near the native enclosure so everyone could get used to each other without fighting.  One of the geese sat near the small enclosure all day, watching over the goslings.  When we finally thought it was time to introduce the gosling into the general population it was quite a sight.  One of the African Geese covered the front, while the other covered the rear, with their

snapping beaks laying down covering fire on any chickens or ducks that dared approach.  Anyway, it turned out that of the five goslings we picked up, two were male, which was concerning, due to our previous rape-iarchy problem.  One of the male geese disappeared somehow.  There was a storm one night and it just went missing.  We were going to kill and eat the other one, but someone wanted a male goose, so we sold him instead.  He now has his own happy harem.