Ducks in love with my Gander

[zooweemama]

I have several Appleyards and 3 of the females are seriously in love with my Gander. Always head bopping and map map mapping at him. He mostly ignores them but every now and then he will mate one of them. They are big ducks and seem none the worse for wear and keep coming back for more. Every now and then my female goose (his mate) seems to get annoyed by the ducks and will mount them too. No one is ever hurt, the geese never attack- actually overall the geese pair have stationed themselves over the ducks like patriarch/matriarchs. Quite funny.

Is this normal behavior? I'm hoping the ducks being in love with the gander passes as breeding season passes because I plan on breeding the Appleyards and if they are always giving it up for the goose..I might struggle with fertility? LOL

Or maybe the male SAs mate them too when I am not looking. Possible!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have several Appleyards and 3 of the females are seriously in love with my Gander. Always head bopping and map map mapping at him. He mostly ignores them but every now and then he will mate one of them. They are big ducks and seem none the worse for wear and keep coming back for more. Every now and then my female goose (his mate) seems to get annoyed by the ducks and will mount them too. No one is ever hurt, the geese never attack- actually overall the geese pair have stationed themselves over the ducks like patriarch/matriarchs. Quite funny.

Is this normal behavior? I'm hoping the ducks being in love with the gander passes as breeding season passes because I plan on breeding the Appleyards and if they are always giving it up for the goose..I might struggle with fertility? LOL

Or maybe the male SAs mate them too when I am not looking. Possible!

My gander mated with my Muscovys last year and our fertility rate was awful. This year he has his own goose and so far have only known of 2 times he was able to get with a Muscovy, I usually hear him.

 

[zooweemama]

My gander mated with my Muscovys last year and our fertility rate was awful. This year he has his own goose and so far have only known of 2 times he was able to get with a Muscovy, I usually hear him.

Oh my goodness! I am glad I wasn't overthinking it. My top SA drake has challenged the gander before (not winning lmbo)- I think trying to establish his place. I'm hoping as breeding season winds down for the geese, so will the gander on duck parties. I won't start collecting eggs until later this Spring so I have some time to observe. I would hate to separate the geese and ducks because if you take the geese away- the ducks act lost and look for them. If you take the ducks- the geese wander around honking looking for them. It's so sad. LOL

 

[Miss Lydia]

Oh my goodness! I am glad I wasn't overthinking it. My top SA drake has challenged the gander before (not winning lmbo)- I think trying to establish his place. I'm hoping as breeding season winds down for the geese, so will the gander on duck parties. I won't start collecting eggs until later this Spring so I have some time to observe. I would hate to separate the geese and ducks because if you take the geese away- the ducks act lost and look for them. If you take the ducks- the geese wander around honking looking for them. It's so sad. LOL

Their just one big Happy family.

 

[zooweemama]

Their just one big Happy family.

They are very weird I know! We were going to build a goose house for my pair but they are so stressed out if we take them away from the ducks! Even though this is breeding season- my gander is mating frequently but he isn't cranky or sassy and he's never aggressive to the ducks.

 

[flockman]

I wish my gander would have been a little more understanding with our ducks. He wasn't horrible with ducks. To him all evil came from chickens! Especially the Rooster!

We originally separated the geese from the ducks because a very randy drake had laid claim to my goose. Then when Boris started to get a surge of hormones he took the ducks.

After about a week together they were inseparable and Boris did not like our Drake to come near her. Now I am just hoping that he really takes the little girls I have for him now. They are such cute little things.

 

[gryeyes]

I have what I thought was a "pair" of Toulouse, but it turns out they're both ganders. Kate (yeah, he's been "Kate" for about 18 months so it's hard to think of a similar but more masculine name) has been duck-centric in my flock and he's found a couple of bigger ducks - they're all Cayugas - to woo. He was very protective of the brood of 14 ducklings one duck hatched, which I thought was "motherhood." Apparently he was performing normal GANDER daddyhood with babies. He stays out with the ducks at night instead of cooping up with the chickens, as does Angus, the other Toulouse.

I found out/realized they were both ganders when they started to fight. It's all flapping, some neck wrestling, a lot of running and feather pulling, nothing serious. Angus always "wins" and announces his success. Kate pretty much sticks with his Cayuga flock.

Chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys all range freely on my property. Together. But they have their own groups in which they mingle.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I call my duck groups clans, I have 3 drakes and each has their own girls then my gander has his goose, they clans will go at each other mostly the girls, the drakes have their moments but the ducks are the worst, they will chase each other down and stand on top of each other while the rest kind of stand around and cheer. The gander[almost 6yrs old] thought he was a duck till he met his goose, it took him about 5 months to actually realize he is a goose but he still will try to slip in the pool if one of the ducks happens to be in it, but they usually will get out on the opposite side from him. It has been so much fun to see him change from giant duck to gander. Most of the time they can all live peaceable, but they do have their moments. I do know they could never all live under the same roof without some way to contain the clans from each other.