1 Gander trying to kill the other gander?

[MMelton67]

Hi, All. Last June we bought 4 geese (Pilgrims, theoretically. 2 female, 2 male) and I think 1 of the gander's is trying to kill the other.

We have them in a space roughly 45'x35' enclose with electric netting. They have a ~4'x8' house open on one 4' end.

They have had a 6'x2' stock tank about 18" deep as a pond for 5 or 6 months now.

Last week I saw from the house (they are in a small field about 150' down the hill from the house) that it looked like one gander was trying to push the other under water. I ran down and by the time I got there they were both out of the tank and walking around. I also seemed to notice the geese were being excluded from the water tank as well. So, I added a 2nd stock tank, one of the Rubbermaid ones about 3'x5' and 26 or 28 inches deep.

I just saw the same situation with the two ganders.

I'm guessing they are starting to get possessive about the 2 geese?

Do I need to isolate or get rid of one of the ganders?

We don't intend to breed.

I'll attach a pic of the set up later.

TIA

 

[JRies]

I have one pen this year that has 2 boys both first season breeders and 2 girls. 1 boy is definitely domineering the other one has backed down. But for a few weeks there it was boy on boy. It dose to get under control. I have 2 other pens with 4 boys and 5 girls. But there is a mix of seasoned ganders with young ganders. The young boys will go at each other occasionally but the draw the line at my older boys and walk away. First year ganders do grow up. If you hatch out this year keep a couple of girls. Your dominate gander will probably hold on and defend the 2 girls you have now and not be interested in new girls. Then give the other gander some bonding time with the new girls. Just a thought

 

[Miss Lydia]

When I had 2 ganders 2 geese my oldest gander was dad to the gander and goose so he had the upper hand with mating and the young gander didn't fight it. I didn't get to keep the young ones but about a year because they were ganging up on the ducks and chickens and it was just a matter of time before someone was hurt or killed. So I really can't say how it would have turned out as they matured. I have heard a gander will sometimes even reject a goose if there are 2 geese and 1 gander. Sometimes things can get difficult.

 

[Miss Lydia]

If you decide to rehome one of the ganders I would choose the sub gander there is no guarantee he may change once in charge but he may not. But he will defend his females. Hopefully both of them.

 

[MMelton67]

Breeding season shenanigans….

It sounds like they may have been trying to breed with each other, that’s normal. With two ganders it usually turns into a wrestling match for who can be on top, fairly often it can turn into a fight. After the fight they’ll parade around congratulating each other about the fight and be best buds again. Ganders are funny little weirdos.

They‘ll be more prone to fights until hormones subside sometime in summer. If they’re otherwise getting along and it isn’t non stop warfare between them I don’t think you need to separate them.

If you don’t want to breed just keep removing the eggs.

that's the direction I think I'm heading. I had already planned to just remove eggs as they appeared...still not thinking I would see any till next spring. I recently modified their main hutch by hinging the roof for easy access to cleaning and checking for eggs.

In general, they are not combative with each other. Just once or twice a day that I've seen, and always revolving around the ponds.

 

[sourland]

You may need to separate the ganders. This behavior is likely to increase as they get further into the breeding season. Water is like an aphrodisiac to geese and ducks and they like to mate there. The geese may be staying out of the tank to avoid the advances of the gander.

 

[MMelton67]

You may need to separate the ganders. This behavior is likely to increase as they get further into the breeding season. Water is like an aphrodisiac to geese and ducks and they like to mate there. The geese may be staying out of the tank to avoid the advances of the gander.

Ok. That is what I was sort of thinking. But, they aren't even a year old till April. Would they be trying to breed this young? I thought I'd read they wouldn't start breeding till over 20 months.

A pic of the set up. The red box on the left is their hutch.

The gander that I think is being the aggressive one is in the pond with a female. I watched them for 10 minutes or so, just like this, w/o any apparent interest in mating. I realize it's not probably a constant thing.

and a close up of the four of them.

Separating one gander from the other 3 seems like it would be traumatic to the gander?

And, creating a whole new living situation for one bird isn't particularly cost effective to me.

From what I understand, few people would want a gander by itself. So, rehoming one gander seems unlikely.

All thoughts and suggestions welcome.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Ok. That is what I was sort of thinking. But, they aren't even a year old till April. Would they be trying to breed this young? I thought I'd read they wouldn't start breeding till over 20 months.

A pic of the set up. The red box on the left is their hutch.

View attachment 3741818

The gander that I think is being the aggressive one is in the pond with a female. I watched them for 10 minutes or so, just like this, w/o any apparent interest in mating. I realize it's not probably a constant thing.

View attachment 3741820

and a close up of the four of them.

View attachment 3741821

Separating one gander from the other 3 seems like it would be traumatic to the gander?

And, creating a whole new living situation for one bird isn't particularly cost effective to me.

From what I understand, few people would want a gander by itself. So, rehoming one gander seems unlikely.

All thoughts and suggestions welcome.

you could get a few more females!! lol
I have Pilgrims. I started out with 3 goslings . 2 were the gray color (girls) and one the yellow (boy)
I got really confused when one of my supposed girls turned out to be a gander though. They were fighting and so I set up 3 separate swimming pools but the big mean gray gander just followed my smaller white gander around and kicked him out of any pool he tried to go in. It got worse and worse! The fighting was too much for me when my white gander was bleeding so I did rehome the gray gander. I posted on here and there was someone who wanted him .
Just saying ganders will fight especially more this time of year. I loved them all and sat out in the coldest weather with them for weeks every day to watch nobody got hurt or killed. Tried to train them to stop it. To no avail

 

[Jenbirdee]

Oh and mine were also just under a year old at that time

 

[sourland]

I think they’ll fight it out eventually. I have three ganders and a goose, about ten months old. The boys fight frequently in the pool over the girl. So far no one’s dead yet…
Hopefully @JRies or @Miss Lydia or @Goosebaby will stop by to take a look.

I would be concerned that the ganders will try to gang breed the goose and inadvertently drown her. It happens.