Can a female goose mother chicks?

[TaaDaaGina]

Hello I am going to be adding 2 baby chicks to my backyard flock. I have the SWEETEST goose Lucy. Lucy is one year old. I raised her as a gosling with baby chicks and she is my only goose. She is laying eggs right now - but she leaves the coop - so she is not broody. I was wondering if she could be a mama to the baby chicks? Maybe after they grow a little? Would she need to be able to sit on them the whole day? Just thinking out loud. I think she is sad when I take her eggs.....

 

[Goosebaby]

Well geese do love babies and will adopt babies that aren’t theirs, I’ve heard of ganders adopting chicks.

On the other hand chicks are a very different looking and sounding babie than goslings so there’s a strong likelyhood she may not recognize them as babies in need of her care, especially being only a year old. 1 year olds don’t always have it together enough to even incubate their own eggs fully.
I also think it’s a stretch that she would sit with chicks, and being a goose she’s probably heavy enough to injure them if she actually sat on them, ususally they don’t completly sit on their goslings, the babies actually snuggle into their feathers on the sides or under the wings, a chick might be small enough to fall under and get squished or smothered.

 

[neo71665]

I've had geese take over a mallard nest and raise them.

 

[TaaDaaGina]

Well geese do love babies and will adopt babies that aren’t theirs, I’ve heard of ganders adopting chicks.

On the other hand chicks are a very different looking and sounding babie than goslings so there’s a strong likelyhood she may not recognize them as babies in need of her care, especially being only a year old. 1 year olds don’t always have it together enough to even incubate their own eggs fully.
I also think it’s a stretch that she would sit with chicks, and being a goose she’s probably heavy enough to injure them if she actually sat on them, ususally they don’t completly sit on their goslings, the babies actually snuggle into their feathers on the sides or under the wings, a chick might be small enough to fall under and get squished or smothered.

Well I AM so thankful you said what you did about being 1 years old. I kinda got that impression with her not sitting on the eggs she laid. I think I will play it by ear - letting the chicks get bigger - I am thinking maybe try at the point the chicks do not need the heat lamp? I am going to watch her reaction to them when I bring them home. She was "mothering" the chicks she was raised with trying to remove some goo from their feathers. It was SO funny... the chicks put up with it - but looked up at me like => are you going to do something about this ;~D

 

[Goosebaby]

Well I AM so thankful you said what you did about being 1 years old. I kinda got that impression with her not sitting on the eggs she laid. I think I will play it by ear - letting the chicks get bigger - I am thinking maybe try at the point the chicks do not need the heat lamp? I am going to watch her reaction to them when I bring them home. She was "mothering" the chicks she was raised with trying to remove some goo from their feathers. It was SO funny... the chicks put up with it - but looked up at me like => are you going to do something about this ;~D

Yeah that’s a good idea, maybe wait until the chicks don’t need their lamp.

I always figured the first year is like their teenage years in geese because they just don’t completly get things until they’re 2 it seems like. I did have one that managed to hatch a gosling her first year, but it was 1 out of probably 20 eggs and she had help from another first year, so not great odds.