Rats with wings at it again...

Sure enough, just got done planting 135 acres on friday and the Canadian geese showed up. Close to town so options are limited... Grrr.... What do you do? They've mowed down the same place before too. Frustrating.

propane cannon like used in orchards...they have timers so you can have it shut down after hours.

Propane cannons are what we use at the airport I work at. They are directional. So you can point them away from the town folks. Set them on random timers. They work OK but far from 100%. Just ask Capt. Sullenberger.

-steve

I've had an idea for this for several years now. Part of the research. if you want to call it that is my wondering how visible is the acreage to the public? What I have in mind would depend on being out of sight to passersby.

Get yourself some good dog(s).

What did you plant ? If forage, hay, oats, wheat or similar, they seem to really like those, even if there are green grasses nearby, grass that is just starting or still young, supple and sweet or so I have seen here. With corn, they nip the plants, and as much as I hate seeing them in a field, I've not seen them cause significant damage here at least, those plants seem to outgrow em, but maybe the damage is subtle and more significant.


In NYS you have to get a DEC depredation permit, that allows you 25 kills, then you have to get a federal permit. The geese we have here are not native and that gives us leverage I believe.

They are pesky and persistent, I've never been able to keep em out completely as they live in the 20 acres of pond we have, brood their young, then march them over to the field to graze, I have kept them off oats long enough to minimize damage, but what pain in the @ss, every morning at sun up, .22, sometimes shotgun, louder bang seems to keep em off longer sometimes.

Interesting to hear more on how the rest of YT'ers deal with them, get some more ideas.

Only other thing I have not been able to do is oil the eggs, that would likely be effective, have to get in the flat bottom and row around, find em, supposedly that keeps them on the nest, they don't hatch or lay more, diverts their attention to the nest I believe.

Before you blame Canada the real name is Holland geese. And they foul the entire ballfields.

If you rent the ground document the losses and ask your landlord for a rent reduction.

Are the geese digging the kernals out of the ground already?

No, but they hit it hard when it comes up. I'm sure they were always around, they just had to rub it in and show up when I was planting so I could see them! They keep after part of the field so hard it sometimes makes nothing. Sometimes the corn is 3' tall with a nubbin.