Gander sitting on eggs?

[rootandbloom]

My gander is very friendly and quirky but he's now sitting on and protecting eggs. His mate doesn't seem broody. Is this a thing that ganders do sometimes?

 

[Jenbirdee]

yes! there was someone else here with a very similar situation just recently

 

[rootandbloom]

yes! there was someone else here with a very similar situation just recently

This is a bizarre goose whose sibling died so he decided I was his mate - I had to get him another quickly because he was obsessed with me and would make a ruckus on the deck until I came out or he'd spend the day staring through the glass door trying to talk to me and then follow me all over the farm one step behind me.

 

[Goosebaby]

My Roxby likes to sit on eggs too, he got it from his dad “Parsnip” who gets broody with his babyegg also. The only difference is Parsnip‘s “babyegg” is an overturned bowl Parsnip doesn’t have the same attachment with real eggs. At least Roxby knows that eggs are eggs and bowls are bowls.

A few of my other boys get parental with eggs but not as much as Roxby and Parsnip. Usually ganders won’t brood eggs as long as the girls will however. In general most ganders do get parental to an extent over nests and eggs, they’ll get the nest building bug and construct little nests at times and they’ll get defensive over nests with eggs. They’re great dads.