We have been at this farm thing for some time now and at the goose control for a while too. I started managing museum farms back in 1981, and we have been running a small operation at home, we call it a homestead, for more than 25 years. The goose control service started in 2002 when I left my last museum farm position.( Museum farms are rural lifeways presented in a “living history” context. Museum farms utilize the animals, plants, gardens, field crops and crafts found on farms historically). So, not to sound too much like “an old timer,” as old farmers are called, but my family and I have seen a few seasons come and go. We have spent quite a few years down on the farm, in our case on our homestead and with our goose control service.
Seasons have their changes of course, and as a farmer, you have to adapt to that, especially here in the Northeast. And as a farmer or a gardener, you have to be prepared for all sort of natural events that can make or break your fields, gardens or animal “production.” Hail storms, infestations of insects and drought are some of the natural problems that can severely impact farmers.
After a farmer gains experience with weather-related issues and such things as incursions of wild animals that want to eat your gardens or farm animals a farmer learns to adapt, predict and solve problems. Working with natures impact on farming and gardening has become more difficult with the recent shifts in weather, and the radical and quick changes we now see.
Weather and its now more extreme nature affect goose-control as well. It’s only natural, of course. Geese will fly into properties as winter warms to spring and pairs of geese will nest. But as winter and early spring days swing wildly back and forth, as they do now, it becomes hard to predict what the geese will, or can do.
Two years ago we found that geese laid double their average amount of eggs and the hatches were huge. The result was many more geese! An important fact of wild goose behavior is that goose pairs will nest and hatch young at one pond and then may walk the goslings a long distance to another pond to raise them. It is important to know that in late spring and early summer, geese will “molt,” which means they will shed their wing feathers. This happens every year, and geese cannot fly at this point. This means that geese can be stuck on a property or that they are quickly chased off.
The molt is the time of year when property owners can contract with US Fish and Wildlife to net the geese. The molt is the only time of year that netting geese can happen legally. Of course, there are hunting seasons and migratory seasons. An important fact is that there are some Canada Geese which migrate and those that do not. The Canada Geese who do not migrate are called resident geese.
To understand the variables that seasons bring both on the farm and with Border Collie goose control, it takes some experience. One trophy given at sheepdog trails is called “The Long Road”. This trophy is given out to the owner-handler of a top- placed dog which was raised and trained only by the owner-handler. I was thrilled to receive that trophy last year at the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Festival with our young male Border Collie, Blade. The Long Road takes a lot of time, and hard work but “The Long Road” in farming and goose control is, for me, well worth it.