Canada geese.

[Ardie/WI]

This spring, three pair decided that my pond was a good place to raise their goslings. Our pond is left wild and can be seen from the road so everyone enjoyed the brief glimpses of them. When a car would stop on the road, all three families would glide to the other end around a bend.

Anyway, they grew up fine, eating our neighbors new corn as it came up. (He was understanding. ) The last time we saw them the babies were almost as big as the adults, but now they've all gone.

I thought of disease, but Roger said there is no sight of corpses and I'd think that they were pretty big for predators to get all of them..

Do they move on after the babies have grown?

[Ariel]

When they are grown they leave. I had a pair raise 5 goslings in my back yard a couple of years ago. Right before they left you could not tell which were the parents and which were the goslings.

It is a most enjoyable experience watching them grow up.

[trixiwick]

They do move on once the "babies" can fly, but they might very well be back next spring to breed in the same place. You can have the ones who breed on our property too, if you want!

[Michael W. Smith]

Yes, they are nice to watch if you have 1 pair raising babies. Chances are the parents will be back next year again. However, if the children start returning to breed too, you will have a mess on hand! The parents breeding, the children breeding, you soon end up with a whole flock that poop everywhere!

I know some of the parks in our area are looking at what to do, as some Canadian geese started coming and of course, people would feed them. It has now gotten to the point that there are so many of them and the park lawn is covered in goose poop that people can't do anything at the park anymore.

It seems that if people leave them alone and don't feed them, they don't become so much of a problem.

[Ardie/WI]

Our pond is a good distance from the house and we realize that in the future they may become a nuisance. I'm more concerned about the neighbor's crops as this year they did do a number on some of the corn. If they bet bothersome, we'll discourage them somehow.

[Quint]

Encouraging geese tends to be a thing you do the first year and it is all neat and cute but but in the following years it degenerates from annoyance to dislike to despise to hate with a passion. At least they taste really good.

[mightybooboo]

Originally Posted by Ardie/WI

Our pond is a good distance from the house and we realize that in the future they may become a nuisance. I'm more concerned about the neighbor's crops as this year they did do a number on some of the corn. If they bet bothersome, we'll discourage them somehow.

If legal,goose makes a FINE meal if the get out of hand.One of my favorite foods,YUM!

BooBoo