We have just acquired 9 more geese bringing our total to 14. We cannot give up a building for them so does anyone have a good idea for a geese house/brooding space (something we could build cheap?) Out of pallets? We live in Northern WI (very cold). Thank you.

-- Marcia Calkins (calkins@mscfs.edu), February 09, 2000

Answers

I onced had geese inside of an old pick up cap, they wernt that fussy

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 09, 2000.

Marcia,

There were some ideas for building shelters with and without pallets at the Countryside forum thread:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002TKE

It's still in the new answers section if this link doesn't work. I think called how to build a cheap small barn, or close to it.

We have geese and while they live in our barn, I'm pretty sure they would feel cozy in the shelters that I built (mentioned in thread).

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), February 10, 2000.

Try a shelter made out of hay bales. Ours worked for 2 years before we got the barn built. Old tin on the roof and an old window or two in the sides worked well until badgers got in the 2nd year- we live in north WI too. It was quite warm and cozy inside but we couldn't stand up in it. No need to for short term shelter. It's not pretty after the first winter but it works. When you're done it makes great bedding or mulch- nothing wasted.

-- Peg Johnson (jnjohnsn@pressenter.com), February 10, 2000.

Peg has a good idea. We built a strawbale chicken coop (permanent) and it is working great. Cool in the summer and warm in winter.

A temporary structure would be a piece of cake to make and when you are done with it you can use the straw for bedding or mulch in the garden.

Good luck.

-- Doug Shutes (toadshutes@yahoo.com), February 12, 2000.

Stans idea of using an old pick-up cap is similar to mine.. Only we raised it off the ground on wooden posts for more headroom and then used slabwood to close space around the sides. A small swinging gate at back kept geese in at night and predators out. The slab wood with the bark on was available for the taking from a local sawmill and gave it a nice rustic look. Kate N.Y.

-- Kate Henderson (sheeplady@catskill.net), February 12, 2000.