What will take a Gosling out of the nest!?

[Stanley]

Bit of a weird and sad one, unfortunately
One of our geese was sat on 2 eggs, unsure if they were fertile (even tho they had mated) we let her sit on them and hope, last week she hatched one egg, 'it' was very healthy, happy and doing fab, until sunday morning, heard some commotion, came downstairs to find no gosling?
so early sunday morning something had got in the stable and taken the gosling from mum/dad (who are protective)
We also have another goose on 2 more eggs next door, who now only has one egg?! and theyre VERY aggressive, much more than the other parents.
there are small cracks at the bottom of the door, and obviously the top was and has always been open, bit its well over 4ft high, im guessing at least 135cm..
So what has the cheek to take a gosling and an egg from the parents nest with them there!?
obviously nothing big enough to hurt the adults, but our geese have killed rats for fun before, literally.

 

[dorsetduckowner]

Crows can do if they are small enough, weasels, foxes.... Anything like that.
I am so sorry for you and your geese
Zo

 

[Stanley]

was actually thinking of a crow, we have an owl around too and other smaller birds of prey, apart from a buzzard but you can hear him before you see him!!
it would have been daylight, and as its on a yard with 8 horses right by my back door i doubt a fox, still a possibility, but it means jumping over 2 seperate stables and not touching the adults, and if i were a fox i would have probably just cleared out one stable, if that makes sense!
We also thought stoat, gap isnt big enough to fit more than a medium sized rat through, but unsure how big weasels are..
so odd, i just dont understand over/under a stable and just touching the baby/egg!
Thank you for your thoughts, we will definitely plan ahead next time/take them inside
didnt want to be prepared and get excited incase it was a false alarm!
although we still do have the one egg, although after everything im not sure its going to hatch

 

[AlexArt]

Rats are the biggest threat, geese can't see in the dark so don't do anything at all in the dark and will just freeze even if they hear distress calls from the babies as they are taken, the rats will just pull the goslings out from under the goose, they go absolutely nuts for goslings and ducklings - horrid things!
The only way to stop it happening with the other one is either as soon as the gosling hatches move the pair and the baby into a rat proof run and shed, keep them in for the first few days then if your land is secure they can go back out during the day. Or what we used to do was move the gander, goose and her clutch, once she was sitting tight, after dark to somewhere secure and keep them in until the eggs hatch as they sometimes go straight back to where they first laid and sit on nothing! With young birds we'd stick the real eggs in the inci and put some hard boiled ones under her, as geese are very clumsy and often break them, also means if they take exception to being moved and won't sit in their new spot then you haven't lost the viable eggs, and you can leave to hatch and fluff up in the inci and put back under the goose and then move her - she'll be too preoccupied to worry where she is then! It's just so they'd hatch somewhere safe, once they start to feather up and are too big for rats they can go back out with the rest at night - so 6 - 8 weeks old.
Breeding geese is always a faff as ours used to break the eggs faster than you could say cheese or they'd get so excited when they hatched they'd squash them all before they'd fluffed up and could get out of the way of those huge feet!!! - not always easy birds!!!

 

[NEWTODUCKS]

Hi,
I've had rats take eggs from under broody hens and I had a hedgehog take the one and only chick a bantam managed to raise. I was woken at 4 in the morning by her distress calls but it was too late. She was inconsolable for hours, it was awful.

 

[Stanley]

Ah thank you!
Will the mother goose not realise until daylight, although the gosling would make noise? as it was daylight when we first heard noise from her..
next time i will prepare properly and take the goslings inside til they are old enough..
mum is still very upset and has stolen the nest from the other goose to sit on her last egg, although 99% its not going to hatch, but poor old girl