Gander injuring goose - split them up?

[ShortHenTallPen]

Hi all,

We have a pair of American Buffs, and the gander has been pretty aggressive with the female - I'm assuming during mating, going by our experience with chickens.

We got them in spring as goslings, and it's just those two. They spent most of the summer in a fenced yard with our flock of Indian Runners, with a large hutch for sleeping in, but we've moved them to our barn for more shelter during winter, since we get hard winters up here. Their pen is about 10x14 I guess, and they are in there with the ducks again.

At the moment, over the last two days, the male has stripped the back of the females head, and it's clearly been bleeding, it looks very sore, and I feel sorry for her. He's generally being bossy and unpleasant with her - nipping at her wings etc.

So my question is - should I split them up to give her a break, or will this be too distressing for them? I can put her in a different pen on the other side of the barn, so it's not a space problem, but my lack of experience with geese that's the problem. Moving the ducks out may also be feasible, so that they have the pen to themselves, but not sure if this will help or hinder my attempts to give her a break!

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Rach

 

[Gray Farms]

Are you sure its a pair? Sure you don't have two males? Males can be more aggressive in their first breeding season but to the point of bleeding is very uncommon.

 

[KLestina]

Too many drakes in a duck flock will result in the females having stripped heads but I haven't seen it with geese. My recommendation is to split them up for her safety as he could injure her jumping on top of her. I've lost geese because the flock was too aggressive and jumped on one causing internal damage, dying about 8 hours later. You have to remember, geese are pretty big birds and a kennel doesn't give them a lot of space to escape another aggressive bird. I would take him out of the pen with her and the other birds and wait until they can all be released out into the yard again.