3 geese. 1 getting the snot kicked outta him

[Bjjjones89]

So i ordered 3 geese last summer they are suppose to be 3 male french toulouse. Well i suspect one may be female. The one i suspect is ever so slightly smaller than the other 2 and has always hung back away from me when i have hand fed them. My suspicions are only getting stronger at this point. They are housed in 120sq shed with 7 female ducks. And have access to about a 25x25ft run outside along with trips into the garden. So i had gotten sick and had my husband put them up for the night. When i went to release them the next morning one of them looked like it had gotten beat up his bill was all scratched up and had some minor bleeding but along the back of his head was all moist i caught him and checked him out it was red and probably seeping that clear fluid wounds typically do nothing was open and bleeding looked more like an abrasion than say a laceration. I called my husband to make sure he wasn't like that when putting him up the night before. He said they had been fine. The water buckets and food dish was strewn around the coop so i thought maybe a rat got in and he did his job but then that didnt make much sense as there was no other evidence of such a thing. Well he didnt want to come out with the other birds so now my deduction became he got into a fight with one of the others. And my other more bold bird had a tiny scratch on his bill but nowhere near as bad as the other. So I'm guessing perhaps maybe that third one is a female and they are fighting over her or he tried to mate with a duck and the others didn't like him doing that i dunno. But today everything was strewn about again and his eye even had a little bubbly discharge. 1.So in closing do you think i possibly have a female and thats why this is happening. And 2. Im thinking about culling him before his injuries get substantial their purpose was for meat to begin with but we have gotten quite busy with the sale of our house and the purchase of another so havent had alot of opportunities. Any thoughts are appreciated

 

[sourland]

Very possibly two ganders and a goose. Bottom line is that it is breeding season, and ganders will fight. I'd separate him as it may get worse.

 

[Bjjjones89]

Very possibly two ganders and a goose. Bottom line is that it is breeding season, and ganders will fight. I'd separate him as it may get worse.

I dont really have a place to separate him too thats why i was thinking it was just time to make dinner. Since that was their purpose in the first place. The only place would be with the chickens and im not really sure he will enjoy that as the roosters might be meaner than the gander.

 

[Bjjjones89]

Heres my poor guy and the 2 other culprits

 

[Bjjjones89]

Excuse my muddy yard its at the end of the rainy season for us there is little i can do especially when they love to creat the mud pit

 

[Goosebaby]

It’s still possible that all three are ganders, they will fight in breeding season regardless if there’s a female or not. Ganders can form strong bonds with other ganders but that doesn’t mean that they won’t still squabble in breeding season. Things become dangerous if you have a bonded pair of ganders who decide a third is a rival which looks like what has gone on here, and if they’re stuck with each other in a confined space where the victim can’t get away, the attack doesn’t stop because ganders have raging hormones they can’t switch off driving them to keep attacking the rival/invader.

For his safety you have to separate him from them, he won’t do well alone however so you either need to find him another goose friend or consider rehoming him to another home with a goose. It’s hard to rehome ganders but it’s going to be easier reforming one vs a possible two gander bonded pair. Given his injuries however you might consider reaching out to a waterfowl rescue to take him in. Poor guy has a tough lot in life.

 

[Bjjjones89]

It seems they really only get into it at night so i was locking him up in the brooder box we built to keep him from the others. I let him out of the brooder box during the day and he seems to be doing better. Injuries seem to be healing well and no further instances. But we just moved and no more brooder box so im gonna put him in the kennel at night

 

[Goosebaby]

It seems they really only get into it at night so i was locking him up in the brooder box we built to keep him from the others. I let him out of the brooder box during the day and he seems to be doing better. Injuries seem to be healing well and no further instances. But we just moved and no more brooder box so im gonna put him in the kennel at night

It is still breeding season so there’s a good chance he may get attacked again.