MORE goose investment....

Goose house #1

Goose house #2

GOOSE HOUSE #1
Learning any new thing inevitably leads to mistakes or....re-does.  When I added a goose house to my chicken coop I thought I was pretty smart. The goose area was faster and more efficient to make since I only had to build three sides. I also used up stored recycled material in my effort to clean up my homestead.
​And maybe It was better for awhile. With three sections I could herd groups easily into one or another for cleaning coops. If I wanted to let geese out to forage I could leave chickens in an 'extended area' coop and they ran to cleaned up the fallen goose feed.
My Toulouse geese were both raised with other poultry so they do well with my chickens and duck. But breeding season is here and I think they need their own goose coop for making babies. So I began the SUMMER VINEYARD GOOSE HOUSE.

The idea is this:
-The goose house #1 might be good for consolidating the birds in winter for ease of care. In addition
it has a special upper door in case I leave town and any geese fearing housesitter can feed and water geese without going into coop (see pic above). It has insulated water barrels with a gutter feed and this has worked extremely well so far. The stored water never fully froze and automatically replaced itself rainstorms. You just have to protect the silver insulation from chewing geese.
- The goose house #2 is for geese being put to work.

GOOSE HOUSE #2
The summer house will be the working house. It makes it possible for geese to mow vineyard weeds (a daunting task before my goose workers). It also allows for making goslings safely. A sheltered fenced area with electric wire top should enable geese to come and go from house without closing up the hatch. We will see if it actually works.
The summer house is well on its way. I have ordered the cedar siding to make it extra cute. The windows are recyled wood. Being a closed area my hope is nighttime honking will be suppressed. It will have a dual pupose with shelving for bee supplies. Then add a cute rustic door and some goose art and it will be home! 
I added a wooden floor due to the slope. Though I prefer a earth floor for coops, I am excited to try this elevated wood floor for cleaning. I figure if the geese spill a lot of water in one area I will just cut out floor and add hardware cloth only in watering area.
It will have an access door outside the vineyard and a hatch inside for birds coming and going. It is at a height to prevent it being obvious from the house, but tall enough to store stacked hay. Geese poop alot so I need more hay to deep layer or for constant replacement when I pitchfork out the poop.

Miss you pepper.....