Gaggle of Geese Lovers

[elenamia]

Ah yes, it’s breeding season and I’ve gotten some propositioning myself
Truthfully it’s a good thing though, ganders are going to get hormonal no matter what and they either get territorial and aggressive towards people they don’t like or they try to get romantic with those they do like, it can’t be avoided and it’s better to be the subject of amourous behavior than the alternative. Also adding girls won’t change their behavior towards you.

Ganders can get along well with other ganders but introducing a bonded pair of ganders to a new gander or a set of ganders is a bad idea. If you really tried you could get them to get along maybe, but it would take a long time and alot of effort so I would advice getting two girls.
You could get goslings but introduce them slowly and supervise them together until the girls are feathered and are big enough to get away if they need to.

Sometimes when introducing new geese to each other if one is shyer than the rest it can get bullied out of the group so that’s something to watch for and work through if it happens, sometimes it takes another year for everyone to settle in with each other and learn to get along.

These are my first geese & they are still young. Their advances can be shut down with a firm "no" or just getting up & walking away. You're very correct to say it's better than the alternative!
So it looks like the best thing might be to find two young hens to introduce my boys to. I've been poking around & there are a lot of grow-out ganders, fewer females for sure.
Thank you.

 

[elenamia]

Is it correct in thinking it would be best to add any new birds until after breeding season? Part of me wants to do the 'natural order' thing & acquire two female goslings, hand-raise them, & let them interact with my boys when they're ready. Another part of me has a growing anxiety about the possible necessity of more housing, the dietary needs, & maternity complications of having hens.
Would raising two young male goslings by hand, & gradually introducing them, provide adequate company for everyone? Even if they are lusty & loud a few months a year it may be better, for me for now, than two hens.
I have time to decide, but any additional insight would be appreciated.

 

[Amer]

Whenever Charlie hisses it be like

 

[telandra2]

Got a nice e pair of Embdens for free off Craigslist a month ago before a butcher got to them. 'He's real sweet, but started hissing at my (20 year old) son.' Still 0 hisses... maybe he is saving up.

 

[Amer]

Got a nice e pair of Embdens for free off Craigslist a month ago before a butcher got to them. 'He's real sweet, but started hissing at my (20 year old) son.' Still 0 hisses... maybe he is saving up.

In breeding season they get more ornery. I wouldn’t go so far as to call Charlie aggressive. He’s not, he just hisses because hormones.

 

[Aunt Angus]

New goose owner here after adopting two abandoned geese and the gander who fell in love with them at the shelter - lol! They are GREAT birds, and I wish I had started with geese sooner!

I am planning on getting more geese in a few months because they are far more enjoyable to have around than I ever expected. I am planning on getting a trio of Cotton Patch goslings (two geese and a gander) in the hopes of maybe possibly breeding them in the future. Maybe.

I'll have a ratio of 2 ganders and 4 geese. Is that manageable? They have about an acre to roam. I will absolutely separate during breeding season if I do decide to breed the Cotton Patch.

JD (my current gander) is the only male waterfowl I have. He gets protective of Louise (his "wife") when she is laying, but the most he has done so far is hiss at me from a distance. He's been a very good boy so far.

 

[Isadora]

How long did that water stay clear? lol

2 minutes tops, lol

 

[telandra2]

I'll have a ratio of 2 ganders and 4 geese. Is that manageable?

My gaggle has currently divided into a quintet of 2 dominant ganders and 3 geese, and the docile group of 2 ganders and 1 goose. No one is being flirty yet, so maybe it'll change.

 

[fangedknight]

Hey all! I am so glad we have this thread, especially now that I've caught up and read the entire thing.

Firstly, hello I'm Jack, and I'm out in Southeastern PA! I'm so glad to have found a cool group of crazy goose people! Also it's nice to know I'm not the only Buff Pomeranian Saddleback breeder around here. I swear it feels like I'm the only one anywhere or even online that has them sometimes. It's nice to know I'm not alone.

Buff Pom Saddlebacks are the only geese I currently work with, I might get into Toulouse at some point (maybe). But I fell in love the minute I picked up my very first gander when he was a couple days old from the feed mill and well... the rest is history. That was back in 2017 and I still have him, so Klaus (my original gander) is going on 6 years old this year!

I'll grab pictures here in a minute, but currently I have 9 geese. All of them are Poms, only one is a Grey Saddleback (I was desperate for an adult female back when I only had Klaus and couldn't find any buffs anywhere). And my younger geese hatched out 8 babies, 4 of which survived, all of them girls! These are the first goslings I've ever had hatch ever!

I just had to expand my second goose pen, and separate everyone out since my males haven't stopped fighting since last spring. That was loads of fun with the amount of mud I have in my run... my mother and I looked like Jackson Pollock had teamed up with Nickelodeon by the time we were done.

Currently I have Klaus, Sophie, Greta, and the 2 unnamed younger girls together in gen pop with my chickens (Need to fix up their coop and separate run soon, it's on the to-do list).

And then Max, Brunhilde (Bruni for short), Elsa, and Helga are together. (Helga and Elsa are 2 of Max and Bruni's daughters from last spring). Helga has not shut up one iota. I know this is the first time the kiddos have been separated from each other in their entire lives since they hatched! But for the love of all that is good and holy! You can still see each other!!

I have so many stories. Klaus got his name because he was so loud in the car ride on the way home I immediately started yelling at him in German and Klaus was the first name that came up. (There may also be a couple Wolfenstein references in my flock)

My most visible, non-surgery scars came from Klaus when I picked him up one day and he was trying to brace his feet on my forearm.

But the best one is this: After trying for six years to get goslings, when I walked around the corner to the run with a bag of feed on my shoulder the day I saw we had goslings for the first time. That feed bag nearly knocked me upside my head because I fell to my knees and started crying.

I'm hopeful that this year we'll have more goslings, though I know I'm gonna have to start selling them, and I have no clue what to price them at or how well that's going to go.

Anyways, I'm super happy to be here!

 

[Goosebaby]

My geese have now encountered chickens for the first time.

Technically they had a few years before when my neighbor’s favorite silkie somehow made her way through the woods and into our yard. My geese kept their distance from that one, the sentient moving ball of fuzz was a terrifying sight to behold and they hovered around stalking, watching the little alien from a distance until I captured it.
Being that it looked like a pom pom with fluffy slippers I don’t really consider it their first chicken expierience though.

But now the last few days my other neighbor’s chickens have slowly been encroaching onto our property and only today did my geese finally realize this when they saw the mob creeping through the woods foraging.
Delphi immediately started squawking an alarm, Parsnip and Leo rushed over, froze in shock staring at the invaders before they started huffing in horror themselves, then the three of them bolted to the backyard and refused to leave the rest of the day in fear of encountering the roving band of raptors again.

So now my geese have are probably convinced that they’ve expierienced both extraterrestrial life and Jurassic Park.