Advice please

[gooselove]

I have 9 Toulouse geese-8 girls and 1 gander. I know the ratio of geese to gander is way off. Should I rehome some of the girls or just leave the family as is? Everyone is happy right now but breeding season is right around the corner. Also-the gander is 6 years old, five of the girls are 4 years old and three girls are 2 years old and they’ve all been together since the girls were goslings.

 

[Goosebaby]

I have 9 Toulouse geese-8 girls and 1 gander. I know the ratio of geese to gander is way off. Should I rehome some of the girls or just leave the family as is? Everyone is happy right now but breeding season is right around the corner. Also-the gander is 6 years old, five of the girls are 4 years old and three girls are 2 years old and they’ve all been together since the girls were goslings.

If you don’t have problems then there really isn’t any reason to change anything.

Issues to look for are bullying, individuals not being allowed food or water, or individuals being excluded and being off by themselves, but if there aren’t issues then there’s nothing to worry about.
The gander will probably have 2 or 3 favorites and will shoo the other girls away, but usually the other girls will just form their own posse. Some ganders can have up to 8 mates I’ve heard so it might just work out.

 

[Percheron chick]

The only problem I see is if you want to hatch. Good chance that 50% or more of the eggs are not fertile. At some point the girls will be sitting on duds and having to take eggs away from them everyday is a chore. Super easy to sell females. I'd look into swapping a female for a young better quality gander.

 

[Goosebaby]

The only problem I see is if you want to hatch. Good chance that 50% or more of the eggs are not fertile. At some point the girls will be sitting on duds and having to take eggs away from them everyday is a chore. Super easy to sell females. I'd look into swapping a female for a young better quality gander.

There’s a good chance they could end up with squabbling ganders every winter spring unless they’re lucky and the boys end up bonding.
Most of my geese are ganders so there are ways to deal with yearly hormones but it does make life more complicated.
There’s upsides and downsides to every scenario.