Manager's Updates - State of Michigan

Fennville Farm Unit Manager’s Update
2013 Season - Week of 12/8
Weather
COLD! SNOW! This ought to (and seems to be) bringing geese into the area. The Farm accumulates
more geese as it freezes up north and snow covers the picked fields.
Waterfowl Abundance
Geese continue to trickle in slowly. We are loaded with ducks right now and had a really good last
week of the duck season.
Hunting Conditions
Some of the corn strips have deteriorated but cover is still sufficient in all the areas I’ve seen.
Hunter Numbers
Hunter numbers have been down with parties mostly in the teens. We had 1 party through the draw
yesterday (and a few that came in later through reissue) – they harvested 5 geese though so hunter
success has been decent.
Waterfowl Harvest
We are up to 282 geese as of Monday. We’ve harvested 225 ducks through the drawing which is
actually better success than we’ve seen in past years. This is nowhere near the total duck harvest for
the Farm as most of our duck hunting takes place after the goose hunt on Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, & Sun
and we were also open early during the duck season before the goose season started. Currently, we
are at 19 geese per 100 hunter trips but adding in the ducks brings us up to 1 bird per every 3 hunter
trips which isn’t that bad for a goose hunt. Really, what we saw over the last 2 weeks was hunters
focusing on ducks and not paying as much attention to the geese which is part of why the goose
harvest has been below average and the duck harvest above average.
What To Expect This Week
Nothing out of the ordinary, just come and hunt. We are expecting cold weather and snow which
should help success.
Upcoming Events
The Farm Unit is closed on Christmas (but the rest of the Goose Management Unit will be open).
December 28th is the PM Youth Hunt so hunters through the 5:30 AM draw will hunt til noon – the
youth hunt drawing will be at 11:00 AM with lunch probably provided by Macatawa Bay Waterfowlers
– our local chapter of the Michigan Duck Hunters Association.