Can ducks and geese crossbreed???

[DuckRange]

Yes they can.. goose, pekin, runners, mallards... I have had several cross breeds.. color and size of eggs vary tho. it seems the cross breeds have a higher risk of birth defects..My ducks are free to roam. they bring many wild ducks back with em.. the cage is only for protection for the babies and predator scares.

 

[Miss Lydia]

ducks and geese, although able to breed, are unable to produce offspring due to different chromosome numbers (same species and interbreedable species have the same number of chromosomes, this produces viable, fertile offspring).
basically what you have between your duck and geese is the very common species barrier, rendering it impossible for the duck and geese to have offspring, but it is not impossible for them to mate.
Another thing, having experience with this myself, except it was a duck and a pelican, the duck will lay eggs, that's what they do, they've mated and figure they should, but none of the eggs will be fertilized unless another boy duck snuck in one night.
A horse and donkey can gowever. Horses and donkeys can interbreed to form a mule, but the mule has an odd number of chromosomes. Horses have 64 chromosomes, giving 32 in a gamete to a mule, whereas donkeys have 62 chromosomes, giving 31 in a gamete to a mule.
The thing that keeps mules from reproducing is the fact that they have 63 chromosomes and are therefore incapable of making gametes (sex chromosomes that have half the chromosome count) because 63 is not evenly divided by 2. they can mate just fine, but they cannot create viable sex cells (eggs and sperm). Some also believe that this hybrid cross is infertile because the chromosomes line up incorrectly, completely stopping the spermatogenesis process (the process that creates sperm).
Sources: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080526102720AAZu3Ou
[Found this on line]



Before I got a female goose for my gander. He lived with Muscovy ducks and one was his mate. They never produced any off spring.5years

 

[Nikosbirds]

I came here this morning because I saw my Buff gander mating one of my female Pekins. Like some of the comments above, I had planned on keeping the breeding geese and ducks in the same run this summer. Now, I guess I will have to re-think that!

 

[Nyla]

Very Interesting Topic!

 

[daveSm]

My grandfather regularly crossed Muscovy ducks with short-neck ganders. The result is a larger meatier "duck" without the grease of a goose. This was wonderful eating every Thanksgiving, Christmas and Eaasteer when wwe wwere kids. I highly recommend it.

 

[Nikosbirds]

Wow, that's really interesting. Were the offspring noisy or quiet like a Muscovy? Thanks!!!

 

[Nikosbirds]

My grandfather regularly crossed Muscovy ducks with short-neck ganders. The result is a larger meatier "duck" without the grease of a goose. This was wonderful eating every Thanksgiving, Christmas and Eaasteer when wwe wwere kids. I highly recommend it.

Wow! that's really interesting. Quiet offspring like the Muscovies or noisy like the ducks?

 

[michaeleric]

http://www.gobirding.eu/Photos/HybridDucks.php

 

[MarChelle1326]

The one that we thought was the gander laid an egg today. The male runner duck was on her a couple of days ago and appeared to be doing his job well. When we broke her egg open today it was fertile. It had a very large bullseye. I have one other goose that I am not sure what it is but I do think it is also a female. Here is a pic of them. The 2 in front are 100% females. The one in the back is the one we are not sure about but we think she is a female. We never seen IT on the ladies but we have also never seen the male runner duck on IT either. They are almost a year old. Anybody got any thoughts? Am i gonna have GooDucks?

We had Chinese browns too, the males will be bigger than the females, and as they get older the bulb on top will get bigger too. From the picture it looks to me like the one in the back is male. It's been awhile since this post, so you probably already have your answer, but maybe it will help someone else.

 

[Clucklandia]

Actually, I’m having the same issue!! I have only one goose, she’s 100% Female Toulouse. I have 2 Muscovy drakes and one mallard drake. The Muscovys get on the goose all the time and for quite a while. Her eggs always end up fertile and now I have a broody goose. I candled one today, and saw what seems to be a small embryo.