Help me, dramatics from my goose

[Sore Thumb Suburbanite]

Hey guys, I've got 5 ducks and one female tolous goose, i've discovered recently that one of my ducks happens to be a drake, and since he has reached maturity he has been very excitedly mating with whomever he can pin down except my goose who is the same age as he is (19 weeks monday). This doesn't bother me, the problem is that my goose makes an awful racket every time the drake mates with one of the ducks, her screetching starts out angy and low and then just escalates to complete fury, she is always right next to him with her head down and she doesn't shut up until the drake stops mating.

I don't like this behavior because it turns out my drake has middle of the night escapdes and my goose vocalizes then too, earlier this week she woke me up 5 times in one night! I can just imagine what my neighbors think, my flock used to be silent during the night and now its ridiculously loud because of my goose.

I tried separating her from the others (they go in their coop at night) and she just paced around mumbling non stop for hours so I finally, for lack of sleep, put her inside with the others.

Why is she doing this, how long will the drake to stop mating and what can I do to limit her outbursts in the mean time--especially since the nights will be longer and longer.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Oh no! I suppose she is trying to protect the female ducks. Maybe you could sequester the drake in a crate within the coop at night or some how separate him from the other ducks. Hopefully after a while your goose will not make such a ruckus, and your drake will be a little less randy as he matures. Thank heavens you only have one drake in the group.

 

[desertdarlene]

A couple of feral Chinese geese at the lake used to break up fights with ducks as well as nibble on drakes' backs when they tried to mate the ducks all the while screaming at them. I think it's a protective thing, too.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
I call it the Old Maid thing, She isn't getting any and resents those who do.

 

[Sore Thumb Suburbanite]

ok, I think I've found a solution for the night tantrums; I have been penning her and the drake under the coop separated from the girls inside for the last two nights and its pretty silent during the night with only one to three random/isolated short screams from her througout, but now the duck hens want out extra early without their company. So I let them out early and the drake immediately pins down a hen so now its just early morning tantrums from the goose. I'd rather have that than the middle of the night ones I guess, I'm sure my husband will agree when he gets home from his travels.

I hope this crazy reaction of hers doesnt become the status quo, because from what I hear the drakes are always ready to mate.

 

[sourland]

Quote:
I call it the Old Maid thing, She isn't getting any and resents those who do.

It's that green eyed monster - jealousy.

 

[desertdarlene]

They were actually ganders. Maybe they were jealous of the drakes because they were getting some.

 

[Miss Lydia]

My Emden gander does not like any kind of comotion in his yard, he will holler and even try to break up any squabbles, it's just his nature he likes his yard calm. lol.

 

[gryeyes]

My Toulouse pair DO NOT like ANY commotion in the yard. They break up fights and they perceive the chasing and flapping and clucking of the unwilling pullet or hen to be a problem and will break up the pair of chickens. They go after the HEN, not the rooster, because the hens are the noisy ones in these escapades. For the Routine As Usual hens, who simply squat and wait out the process, there's no reaction from the geese. They DO watch, as if to see if it's gonna get fractious, but they don't intervene unless somebody gets loud.

 

[goosemama]

Our Brown Chinese gander has always broken up the "sexual exploits" of the ducks. We had two species of duck and the males always were chasing the other drake's females - non stop(grass is always greener syndrome I think). The Chinese gander would get so upset, honking and swim after them to break it up. We tagged him as the local policeman who didn't want any hanky panky on his watch! We had some disastrous raccoons attacks this summer and are left from 6 ducks down to the 2 males. I love to watch them waddling around and swimming in our pond but have no plans to buy some females to increase the flock - my increased goose flock makes enough noise of their own. This must be a pretty typical behavior for geese?