Any advice please....
We have 5 geese:
One Toulouse goose (hatched by us) now aged 17 weeks
Two village geese (possibly Pomeranian) given to us by a neighbour now aged 21 weeks
Two market brought geese (probably Toulouse) now aged 15 weeks
Up to a couple of weeks ago all these geese were getting along well however recently one of the village geese has taken to bullying the Toulouse goose often chasing and pulling out clumps of its feathers, this bullying also takes place in their rest area at night, last night we actually pulled the bully out and kept him separate from the others.
We do not currently know what sex any of them are we were hoping to vent sex them at 7 months which is the age we read when this can be done.
After reading up on goose behavior we have our suspicions that the bully and the one being picked on maybe males as there is no trouble between these two and the other geese. The Toulouse goose who is the victim never fights back and just runs to escape the screaming bully and his open beak. We are planning on keeping the bully separate at night from now on and will also place "it" in a pen when we are not around to supervise them. Currently our victim is like an outcast from the others keeping a safe distance away at all times.
So any ideas as to the reason this has all started? Are we doing the correct thing in separating the bully away especially at night? Can this issue be resolved without consigning one to the pot?
We have 5 geese:
One Toulouse goose (hatched by us) now aged 17 weeks
Two village geese (possibly Pomeranian) given to us by a neighbour now aged 21 weeks
Two market brought geese (probably Toulouse) now aged 15 weeks
Up to a couple of weeks ago all these geese were getting along well however recently one of the village geese has taken to bullying the Toulouse goose often chasing and pulling out clumps of its feathers, this bullying also takes place in their rest area at night, last night we actually pulled the bully out and kept him separate from the others.
We do not currently know what sex any of them are we were hoping to vent sex them at 7 months which is the age we read when this can be done.
After reading up on goose behavior we have our suspicions that the bully and the one being picked on maybe males as there is no trouble between these two and the other geese. The Toulouse goose who is the victim never fights back and just runs to escape the screaming bully and his open beak. We are planning on keeping the bully separate at night from now on and will also place "it" in a pen when we are not around to supervise them. Currently our victim is like an outcast from the others keeping a safe distance away at all times.
So any ideas as to the reason this has all started? Are we doing the correct thing in separating the bully away especially at night? Can this issue be resolved without consigning one to the pot?