Goose droppings on lawns add to the nutrient load being carried into the water. Docks, yards and beaches offer secure loafing sites for preening and sunning, and people complain of the goose droppings in areas of human use. Compounding our creation of optimum goose habitat is their prolific reproduction. Geese live long lives, often ten to more than twenty years. They become sexually mature when they are two or three years old and they nest every year once they begin breeding.
Pairs mate for life, and if one of the pair dies, the other mates again.
They have one clutch of eggs a year, with an average of five eggs in each clutch. About half of the eggs will hatch and become free-flying birds in the fall. A single female may produce more than fifty young during her lifetime. Although nest sites are solitary rather than colonial, breeding densities vary greatly and appear to be influenced by the availability of suitable nest sites rather than by territorial behavior. Within a few days of the eggs hatching, goose families may relocate to brood-rearing areas, such as ponds bordered by lawns.