Ducks and Agressive Geese, Can they live together?

[incubatornewbie]

So I am back, once again with crazy ideas and a question that may match the crazy.

I have a fantastically beautiful pair of Embden Geese. (Ugh I love them) My Gander (named Ozzy) can and has been on many occasions, rude, loud, obnoxious and even aggressive with the men of the house. He is very protective of his love, Harriet who is incredibly sweet and loves to be hand fed treats and grass blades.

I'm posting because Harriet has amassed 7 eggs in her very well put together nest inside the coop, which they only use when she is laying. All other times (even during hard winters) they seem to much prefer being outside in the run. I would love for her to hatch more gorgeous little goslings though I'm afraid that even if she decides to brood, they will never hatch due to cold night time temperatures and (unfortunately) she has been quite slow at building her clutch, accidentally crushing several on the nest. she doesn't seem to want to keep much bedding under the eggs despite how often I gently pad them underneath, she always removes it the next day. So she has had some set backs but I still believe she will eventually go broody.

I was considering all options and (being the worrier that I am) have been looking into ducks to replace her nest with if she sits for too long with no luck. Essentially the goal would be to sneak baby ducks into her nest to replace the eggs while she is off bathing, etc. I would buy embdens instead but they're just so expensive

I was thinking that Pekin ducklings would be best since theyre of good size and very comparable in looks. Possibly the geese wouldn't even be able to tell a difference until they stop growing.

Will Ozzy kill the babies?
If I let them raise the ducklings, will they end up aggressive like my gander?

Ozzy and Harriet are very bonded to each other, if needed, can they be safely separated so that Harriet can be alone with the little ones?

I feel like if they're raised by the geese, they'll be more like family in the future and we would have less fights/problems? Am I right to think this way or am I just crazy?

Bottom line, I love my Geese very much and want to expand my flock but am a very Nervous Nilly. I don't want to spend $80 on ducklings only to lose them or upset my sweet girl.

Any input or opinions/experience is very much appreciated!!!

Photos of my geese will come later, they're quite beautiful and will be happy to show them off!

 

[TheTwoRoos]

If she adopts them they will just view them as their children.The gander generlly wil assist in care.

Ducks and geese have different personalities.Geese are much nore territorial and more likely to be human aggressive.Most ganders have problems during breeding season,thats when you see tons of arguing and fighting between most waterfowl anyways.

When it comes to the right to mate and to own territory,drakes can be just as bad,some worst.Just yesterday I found my drake and my gander attacking my ancona drake.They get in big groups and fight and knock eachother off hens.

My pekin drake and my subordinate gander share a hen.The gander and pekin get along .The gander ignored the pekin drake acts like he isnt even biting him or shoving him off the girl. I do not think the subordinate gander can tell the difference inebtween genders.He also tries mating the boys
The alpha gander has been messing with the pekin hen only and run the males off.

These geese were broughg in as teens back in October.Wasnt until spring they became mates and friends.The aggression towards the ducks has calm down.My paired chinease,Popeye and sweatpea still need seperate cages,they cant really bare so well cooped up with everyone.The 3rd goose the subordinate gander paired up with my ducks.My 3 anconas want nothing to do with the two pekins nor gander.

Things go haywire in spring.Ducks and geese can live together,but be prepared for possible problems.

 

[incubatornewbie]

@thetworoos I did have to separate all of my chickens from the geese at the beginning of spring this year. Too many times I ran after the sound of one of my chickens screaming bloody murder to find Ozzy on top of them. Every time this happened Harriet would get really upset and start running in circles and yelling. I would not want to keep more than one Drake for my ducks so maybe it wouldn't be a huge deal or I could possibly just separate the ducks from the geese once the little ones start reaching maturity. I would most likely seperate the extra drakes into a grow out pen anyway.

Do you think I would also need to build a secondary water bath? I read on one of the forums earlier about someone's duck getting drown by the geese. I couldn't imagine it.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Drowning was probably due to a gander mating a hen.

I would add extra 2 kitty pools.Geese try covering as much land as they can,and making sure everybody knows they own this and that and them.