Gander to Goose Ratio

[Strawberry74]

I have 9 sebastopol geese as of now. I hatched several and sold most. I kept a few to see how they grew out. Well I got tired of waiting to figure out how many males or females I have and did DNA tests. All 5 in question are ganders. I was certain at least 2 were females, but the results says otherwise. That means my current flock is 3 geese and 6 ganders. I know that's not a good ratio, but will they work it out safely during breeding season or do I need to plan ahead to either rehome or separate some ganders into their own pen?

 

[Goosebaby]

I have 9 sebastopol geese as of now. I hatched several and sold most. I kept a few to see how they grew out. Well I got tired of waiting to figure out how many males or females I have and did DNA tests. All 5 in question are ganders. I was certain at least 2 were females, but the results says otherwise. That means my current flock is 3 geese and 6 ganders. I know that's not a good ratio, but will they work it out safely during breeding season or do I need to plan ahead to either rehome or separate some ganders into their own pen?

Ganders can and do bond with each other very well, but due to their individuality dynamics can vary quite a bit. From what I’ve seen with my own flock bonds between ganders can be the deepest but also the most tumultuous when it comes to rivalries between different groups of bonded ganders because they can egg each other on, though so can the girls so there’s that too.
You can make it work by having different bedtime enclosures to separate the groups at night or during the day if the squabbling is particularly bad in breeding season, if that isn’t a possibility I suggest trying to rehome some.

 

[Strawberry74]

Thanks for the advice. Not sure how I missed it until now. They all get along.... for now. We shall see once December/January gets here. I have a few feelers out to rehome but no interest so far. I have other pens to move some to if need be.

 

[Berd Man]

Ganders can get along just fine. I had a male heavy gaggle during the winter months and into spring one year. I noticed that the males would hang out together, but only one was mating the females. They do wrestle and establish dominance and the dominant one may prohibit other ganders from successfully mating. Sometimes the lower ranked ganders can even knock the alpha off a female and prohibit him from a successful breeding. This will probably result in lower fertility in the eggs laid. I’m not telling you what to do with your flock but I feel like I wouldn’t want to feed and care for that many males and deal with the headaches involved during breeding season. Just my opinion