Breeding behavior in teenage ganders?? HUH??

[Miss Lydia]

My pair of geese are refusing to leave the front yard, staying right by the window to the brooder room, and are constantly calling to the ducklings. I shooed them back yesterday. This morning at 7am, I had my dogs bark at them from back fence line. Now, they are back again.... honking under window nonstop.

Should I put the ducklings in a safe pen outside? They do seem a little fearful of the honking.

Sounds to me like your geese want to become adoptive parents to the ducklings. Maybe on nice days you can bring out the ducklings to meet your geese. That way they will start to get use to each other. Then when the goslings hatch they will just be some more babies to raise..

 

[Iain Utah]

There is no doubt that my geese want to adopt the ducklings. They have officially taken up residence under the brooder room window. No matter how often we herd them back to the horse property, within an hour, they are back in the front yard.

Only 2 weeks before goslings are scheduled to hatch.

 

[littledear]

I would take the ducklings out to the geese and see what they do. I bet they would adopt them especially since there have been documented cases of geese adopting young offspring of other birds. You could even try just a pair of ducklings at first. I plan on taking my goslings out when they hatch to see if my geese will adopt them because every thing I have read indicateds that they will take them in and take care of them. Good luck!

 

[nivtup]

We raised some goslings in a brooder by the sliding glass door.

The geese could not stand it.

After a few weeks we relented and let the goslings outside. They were immediately adopted, and very well taken care of.

I think it is a good plan if your are done breeding for the year.

 

[Iain Utah]

Thanks for the tips! I got the goose eggs specifically for my geese. I am very excited to see their behavior indicating they will adopt the new babies when they hatch. Hatch date is less than 2 weeks away... Hope they can wait for the goslings because the ducklings are mine.

 

[SouthDakotan]

I was just reading from a book, Poultry and Poultry-keeping by Alice Stern, (pg93) "Geese will frequently adopt goslings, even if they are a different breed and not newly hatched, since they always organize themselves into family groups." Also they are likely thinking of being "foster parents" to this batch they hear, as they likely notice no adult chatter going on. It may be that you have two volunteers at your door/window!

In the book, Stern says "chickens, turkeys and ducks are not wholly vegetarian as geese are, and since goslings take their cues (as due ducklings) from the assumed parent bird, they will become confused." She mentions the down side to allowing chicken hens to foster baby water fowl, since chickens see water as a danger & water-fowl treat it in the opposite way. But two geese would make descent foster-parents to baby ducks, and likely protect them more so than you could imagine once they start moving about the yard.

Since the geese "belong" on the other side of the road, what is the owner's view of them being in your yard?

 

[SouthDakotan]

I raised a lone gosling with my ducklings and never had any problems, but I didn't have any adult geese around. Mind you my problem was my ducks saw my young gander as their preferred mate, and refused to accept the drakes for mates! So there was some "identity" issues later in their lives.

 

[SouthDakotan]

Thanks for the tips! I got the goose eggs specifically for my geese. I am very excited to see their behavior indicating they will adopt the new babies when they hatch. Hatch date is less than 2 weeks away... Hope they can wait for the goslings because the ducklings are mine.

Why not let them raise both? From what I read, they will happily adopt young of different breeds, ages and species! So if you have it that they don't get to adopt the ducklings until the same time you introduce the goslings, I bet you'd find they adopt the whole batch and parent them all very nicely! The beauty is the ducks would have a head start on the growth, which in the end would be overtaken by the young goslings....

But predators would have a heck of a time against two determined goose parents!!! And the ducks would grow up safe and still yours

 

[Iain Utah]

Since the geese "belong" on the other side of the road, what is the owner's view of them being in your yard?

My place is technically two parcels. My house sits on 1.5 acre on one side of the street and my horses/geese live on a 9 acre parcel across the street.

As for not giving my geese the ducklings.... The geese came with the property and are not pets. Even though they fully expect me to feed them, I have never touched them, nor would they allow me if I tried. Nor do they understand treats. They live 24/7 free range, even in bitter winter. I planned to let them take over the goslings 100% and not human-raise them, as I prefer them to have the more natural instincts being free range. The ducks, on the other hand, are total pets. They may not even wind up over on the horse property and instead get their own set-up on the house side of the street.

 

[SouthDakotan]

Interesting perspective. Thanks for sharing.

I'm of the perspective that I'd prefer my birds to all be "wild enough" to be safe. Gander/Goose parents are always going to be nearby -- while us human foster-parents tend to go off doing other things and thus the ducks are "own their own" whether we've given them the means to protect themselves or not.

If you have been raising the ducklings already, they must have imprinted on you somewhat already. So it wouldn't matter, I'd think if a 2nd set of foster parents were involved. But that's just my perspective. I think of coyotes and fox, skunks, coons, dogs, and cats -- let along rats that can harm ducklings and even ducks. They however tend to have "respect" for the hissing and fighting gander.

My ducks and chickens, while not pets all saw me as "food provider" and any time I was out in the yard, they'd come over to be closer to where I was. Sometimes to an annoying degree! LoL