# Bad Hatch



## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

It looks like we're finally going to catch a break in our war versus the snow geese. It's shaping up to be a horrible hatch for them. Hopefully they don't reproduce at all and we can continue to keep putting a dent in the population and save the tundra.


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## Big rig (Apr 16, 2013)

Anas Strepera said:


> It looks like we're finally going to catch a break in our war versus the snow geese. It's shaping up to be a horrible hatch for them. Hopefully they don't reproduce at all and we can continue to keep putting a dent in the population and save the tundra.


??? And how do you know this???


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## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

The weather. The geese last year we're back on the tundra fat and happy. This year they're starving in SD. They're going to make it back to the tundra late with low fat reserves. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the few young that are hatched die in a late blizzard.


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## brobones (Mar 10, 2004)

Anas Strepera said:


> The weather. The geese last year we're back on the tundra fat and happy. This year they're starving in SD. They're going to make it back to the tundra late with low fat reserves. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the few young that are hatched die in a late blizzard.


They have two full months yet before they have to be on the tundra to have success at nesting. Parts of Nunavut have had temps much warmer than 800miles south of there for over 3 weeks now. ....... two months is a long time to make a prediction like that.
Snow cover on the tundra is another thing all together and once they get up on the nests they are at mercy of the weather. Lot a variables involved here before I would right off there nesting situation. Alberta has very little snow cover if any up to Calgary, there is no spring season for snows in that province and it has huntable numbers of snows now. A lot of those birds come from Freeze out lake google that and see how many birds have all ready staged there in the last week of March.


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## justquacky (Feb 27, 2008)

Just killed 14 snows & they had lots of fat on them..


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## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

Well, I hope you guys are wrong and that I'm right but who knows yet...good point.

You guys almost sound like you want them to have a good hatch???


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## tglobes27 (Feb 11, 2012)

by Anas Strepera » Tue Apr 16, 2013 1:25 pm
Well, I hope you guys are wrong and that I'm right but who knows yet...good point.

You guys almost sound like you want them to have a good hatch??"

itd be hard to see the CO get shut down. some of us have a lot of money tied up in gear to hunt them in spring. imagine the craigslist explosion of gear that would show up if the CO were ended.


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## bluegoose18 (Jan 9, 2008)

Anas Strepera said:


> It looks like we're finally going to catch a break in our war versus the snow geese. It's shaping up to be a horrible hatch for them. Hopefully they don't reproduce at all and we can continue to keep putting a dent in the population and save the tundra.


Hay Anas. 
Have you ever heard the saying " If your not sure about the topic being spoken about than keep your mouth shut"? You should practice this it may help you with your mental delusions that you have. Everything you write about sucks. The damn snows still have at least 2 months to go before your delusional thought would even remotely be true. Hay mods. When you gonna ban this guy?????


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## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

Hey bluegoose,

I tried to read the recent threads you started so I could comment on your writing and see how it was.

There wasn't any...

Pretty easy to say my writing sucks when you don't even write.


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## bluebird (Feb 28, 2008)

bluegoose18 said:


> Anas Strepera said:
> 
> 
> > It looks like we're finally going to catch a break in our war versus the snow geese. It's shaping up to be a horrible hatch for them. Hopefully they don't reproduce at all and we can continue to keep putting a dent in the population and save the tundra.
> ...


Agree. Mods need to do something, this stuff is crap.


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## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

Don't read my threads. It's not hard. They have my name on them. If you don't like them then don't read them.


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

If the weather stays warm this week there will be no lolygaging around. Those geese will fly straight through to the Tundra. This may not seem like a normal year to many younger guys but still having snowcover in mid April was pretty common whan I was growing up. I have yet to see a snow goose in NE ND this spring and expect they will probably hop over the state in a couple days when they do come.


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## SkunkNipples (Jul 13, 2012)

They are going to make it to the Tundra and hatch lots. Those birds can make up incredible distances in a few weeks. All I know is when they hit Canada the hunting could be fast and furious as they make a bee-line to the Artic Circle. One word to describe these birds 'tough'.


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## tilley (Jul 28, 2011)

I agree it would be great for them to have a total bust hatch for even a couple years in a row. Afterall isn't the very reason for the CO to "save the tundra"?? I think most of the posts on here are waay more concerned about themselves and being able to kill birds and would want the CO to continue regaardless of bird populations ,tundra condition etc.


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

I'm all for saving the tundra........

If snow geese ever get down to target numbers I suspect about 1/2 the snow goose hunters out there will throw in the towel on snow goose hunting.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

tilley said:


> I agree it would be great for them to have a total bust hatch for even a couple years in a row. Afterall isn't the very reason for the CO to "save the tundra"?? I think most of the posts on here are waay more concerned about themselves and being able to kill birds and would want the CO to continue regaardless of bird populations ,tundra condition etc.


Yes, and this whizz match would perhaps end if people actually understood migratory energetics, fecundity of the species and capacity of the habitat, not to mention rate of habitat recovery.

Don't forget how much unity helps in the face of the anti gun crowd to the left, and the pay or don't play crowd to the right. Were between a rock and a hard place and that's just where they want us. They also want us to bicker over trivia. Come on spring. Nothing that jerking a few walleye jaws will not cure. Unless our legislature tells us we have to pay adjacent landowner $100/day per rod.


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## PJ (Oct 1, 2002)

tilley said:


> I agree it would be great for them to have a total bust hatch for even a couple years in a row. Afterall isn't the very reason for the CO to "save the tundra"?? I think most of the posts on here are waay more concerned about themselves and being able to kill birds and would want the CO to continue regaardless of bird populations ,tundra condition etc.


x 3

Not to go hipster on this but I predicted a bad hatch on this site a month or so ago. :beer:


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## PJ (Oct 1, 2002)

tglobes27 said:


> by Anas Strepera » Tue Apr 16, 2013 1:25 pm
> Well, I hope you guys are wrong and that I'm right but who knows yet...good point.
> 
> You guys almost sound like you want them to have a good hatch??"
> ...


So you wouldn't hunt snows in the fall if you couldn't hunt them in the spring?


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## slough (Oct 12, 2003)

Surprised you guys are getting after Anas for this one. This seems like the most reasonable and rational information he's ever posted.


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## Firehunter (Feb 3, 2010)

There will never be a complete bust of a hatch cause they will have a second hatch like last year. The population will only be effected by several really bad years or diseases.


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## jim and tuck (Mar 14, 2013)

A second hatch? I used to raise snows and Canadians, and have never heard this one before.where in the world did you get that b.s.


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## Trapperjack (Feb 25, 2007)

Firehunter said:


> There will never be a complete bust of a hatch cause they will have a second hatch like last year. The population will only be effected by several really bad years or diseases.


You are joking aren't you? Snows have one shot and those nests need to be going by the first week of June or the chance of it being successful goes downhill fast! Geese rarely if ever renest unlike ducks. Geese on the tundra have a small window to lay, hatch, raise a clutch, and have them old enough to fly before bad weather arrives. Even if they did renest there is no time.

As for this year, too early to tell. A lot can happen in the month and a half before they have to be on the nest. The weather is going to break, but will it be soon enough, NO one knows that answer.


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## burltealrugerlegs (Mar 15, 2012)

I raise birds, it takes 28-30 days for a goose egg to hatch. however if something happens to their nests, a fox or something takes the eggs, they will re-lay the eggs. but by then it will be to late!


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## Bustem36 (Feb 5, 2008)

Like others have stated....There is a small window for the snow geese this year. Just say they start laying first week of June. The eggs will hatch first week of July. Then it takes about 6-8 weeks for the goslings to be able to fly, not too long after they can fly long distances because for about 2 weeks prior all they do is run around flapping their wings and excercising them. That is putting them into the middle to end of august already. I know that for Canada geese once the eggs are about 13 days old if the nest gets destroyed more than likely the female will not re-nest. That is how nest searching and poisoning works. The eggs are injected early and then destroyed after day 13. Or if the eggs are already older than that they are simply destroyed. In 5 years of working with Canada geese nesting, banding, and capturing I have never seen a pair re nest if the eggs were destroyed properly. For Snows I would guess it is about the same.


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

I'm really suprized that with the crowding on the tundra that snow geese have not expanded their breeding areas farther south. They can and do occasionally breed outside of the tundra areas. If Canada geese can breed in ND there really is no reason snow geese can't. The only thing keeping them there is that genetic drive...


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## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

Back in the 70's a group of sportsmen tried to start a resident population of blues in the Chesapeake Bay area. Their thought was it create an interesting new hunting opportunity since there were no blues in the Eastern flyway (I think they still believed that blues were a seperate species then). Anyways, they had a bunch of blues they trapped and pinioned but the urge for them to migrate to breed was so strong that they actually started walking North and the population never took off.

With that being said I have seen snows breed in ND that were crippled.

The other thing to remember is that the tundra is a vast area. When they overpopulate an area there is a lot of tundra left to move on to.


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## tilley (Jul 28, 2011)

Oh no it is very fragile remember? 10 years ago we were told they had eaten most of it up and that is why the CO season was started. I would think by now there would be just a few acres left according to all the "experts". The population was just about to crash as they destroyed thier habitat. Tundra Savers...remember. Who out there hopes this year will be a bust so we can save the fragile tundra and END THE CO SEASON? I would think any real sportsman would be in favor of this.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

> The other thing to remember is that the tundra is a vast area. When they overpopulate an area there is a lot of tundra left to move on to.


Only about ten percent of it is acceptable nesting, and young rearing habitat. When they talk about tundra they speak of it as more of a geographic area. That's like saying prairie. We know the prairie isn't all good waterfowl habitat. Good nesting and young rearing habitat requires more than just a vegetative component.



> The geese last year we're back on the tundra fat and happy.


I don't know if you can find it in the grey literature, but try google migratory energetics. With insufficient lips to carry them through migration embryos can be re-absorbed, but with sufficient protein from aquatic macroinvertebrates they can rebuild that reserve and nest.


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## Trapperjack (Feb 25, 2007)

Even if the suitable area is 10% that is a huge junk of realestate!! We have taken banded birds here in the midwest from as far east as Baffin Island and as far west as the NW coast of Alaska with numerous areas inbetween. On a map that area stretches all the way across North America! In areas such as Hudson Bay where large number birds not only nest there but also stage there on the way to the nesting grounds and on their way south that area has been heavily damaged and that is where those pictures came from.


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## SOTA'N'KOTA (Sep 9, 2004)

bluegoose18 said:


> Hay Anas.
> Have you ever heard the saying " If your not sure about the topic being spoken about than keep your mouth shut"? You should practice this it may help you with your mental delusions that you have. Everything you write about sucks. The damn snows still have at least 2 months to go before your delusional thought would even remotely be true. Hay mods. When you gonna ban this guy?????


Another blatant personal attack?

Would a mod care to point out what Anas said to justify this treatment?

The guy said nothing offensive...no personal attacks whatsoever. Why were people allowed to bash this guy and PERSONALLY ATTACK him just because they didn't agree with his view point?

Seriously, what'd he say? There was nothing even remotely offensive he said on this thread and people continued to treat him like garbage.


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## tilley (Jul 28, 2011)

Couldn't agree more!! What exactly did he do? What a Bulls#&* site!


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## Duckslayer100 (Apr 7, 2004)

^^^^Then...um....leave?^^^^

Just a thought...


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## SOTA'N'KOTA (Sep 9, 2004)

Duckslayer100 said:


> ^^^^Then...um....leave?^^^^
> 
> Just a thought...


The problem with that mentality is that most people have done just that....

....will the last person here please turn off the lights?

Great work mods! You've successfully ruined a once great site by childishly abusing your authority and banning the site's biggest contributors......for contributing??? The only way to "keep the peace" and make sure people don't post anything that goes against others opinions is by making sure they don't post anything at all.

It's an effective tactic unless you want a site to grow in membership and traffic as well.


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