HELP ME! Duck attacking goose!

[Francis K]

Hello everyone, I'm very happy yo have found this place as I desperately need some help with my flock. Thank you in advance for your time and help!

Last summer I adopted 3 Chinese Geese and a duck, the duck I've never been able to figure out the breed but he is brown with a big clump of feathers on his head making him look like he has an afro! Regardless, his name is Quackers, the big leader goose is Gary, the all too friendly goose is Grabby and the docile smallest one is Greg. They are all males and grew up together and always got along just fine, they would never go anywhere without each other, but with Quackers it was always like he was just tagging along, the geese were always more concerned with their brothers than him. Aside from an occasional spat they got along fine all last summer and through the winter. For some reason this summer they started fighting a lot, I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with Chinese geese fighting but it is pretty intense, all 3 of them latch into a tripod and go at it with their wings. I assumed it was just brotherly infighting and broke it up whenever I saw it but the more and more I watched I realized that it was Quackers who always instigated the fight! Quackers would chase at Greg and jump on his neck and even looks like he is trying to mount him at times. This would rile them all up and one day I found Greg with what amounted to a very bad black eye and his neck all torn up to the skin. It's gotten to the point where Greg doesn't even fight back against Quackers because he knows it will just lead to an onslaught from the other guys. He even hides from them now in the middle of the day, but of course the Gary and Grabby want to be with him so they always seek him out and Quackers isn't far behind trying to attack Greg. I've started seperating Greg at night but this bothers me because eventually I'm assuming the other geese will stop caring for him and he will be all alone and I will have to seperate him completely.

So basically Quackers is the problem, he needs to stop attacking Greg but I can't get rid of my duck, he's MY duck. I was thinking maybe finding him a couple mates so he can be more occupied with them and maybe leave the geese alone entirely. I just don't understand how this happened, Greg is definitely the weakest of the 3 but at the same time Quackers never displayed this behavior until this Summer. All 4 of them get along with the chickens and peacock without issue, I've even had a couple instances where the geese protected the chickens from predators.

Does anyone have any suggestions, I could desperately use the help!


Thank you again,
Francis


(On a side note, yesterday my peahen appeared to have a broken leg. She was laying down and limping trying not to put pressure on one of her legs. I put her in the pidgeon pen so I can monitor her and make sure nobody bothers her. That same night when I went to lock up the birds and put her in the pidgeon house she was completely healed and walking normally! I didn't understand it at all, I looked around a little and saw she had laid a HUGE egg!! She's never laid before and doesn't have a mate, I know she doesn't need one to lay eggs, but I wonder if that had anything to do with her phantom broken leg?!)

 

[chickboss]

I am still new to the duck thing, and I don't have geese. However, I think you are right in thinking that you need some duck hens, and soon. You may need to start keeping them seperatly as well. I wouldn't seperate the geese, sounds like they still get along good. All and all it sounds like your boys are growing up! LOL. I bet that egg pinched a nerve in your peahen. That would be my guess, but I am pretty much inexperienced in that too...I have four peafowl, they are so pretty! Only two yrs. old. Hope this helps!

 

[Amiga]

I think Quackers needs at least three females. He is trying to express his prowess, and choosing the weakest of the geese. Based on his aggression, I would watch him carefully with females, too. The girls I would look for would be at least as large as he is, perhaps a little larger. I think he might be too rough on a smaller breed. Or, he might mellow out overnight.

 

[sourland]

Your boys have discovered that they are boys. The duck trying to mate the one gander has fired up the same behavior in the others. It will continue all breeding season unless you seperate them or get some females of both species.

 

[Francis K]

Hello again everyone and thank you very much for the replies. I think you're all dead on with the asessment, Quackers needs some ladies in his life. I just need to find a place to pick up a couple fully grown large breed female ducks in Michigan. Although I don't think getting some female geese is really feasible for me right now. I have 3 male geese so I would have to at least get 3-6 female geese in order to make it work or else I would just be making things worse and the 3 geese I have now are a handful as it is, I feel bad already that all they have is a little kiddie pool and an acre or so of accessible land for them to roam. The geese get along fine without Quackers around, like I said they consider Quackers more of a tagalong than a part of their little group and he is the one who gets them riled up. What I need to do now in the short term is seperate Quackers, and while it would just be a wire fence between him and the geese I have read that Ducks need to be in a flock or else they go nuts. Does anyone think that would be an issue for a short while until I get some female ducks for him?

Or perhaps will this behavior just stop after a certain amount of time of him being seperated? Is it unhealthy to have Ducks and Geese without mates?


As for Ms. Peacock, yes a pinched nerve or something of that nature sounds like it could have been the culprit. Does that sound like something common with poultry laying large eggs?


Thanks again!


-Francis

 

[Amiga]

If you separate Quackers with poultry wire or similar material, he can still see the others, so he won't be totally isolated. He will probably complain, at least for a while. But if you can get him some mates, I think he will be content.

Once Quackers is out of the equation, you will have to wait and see how the three geese reestablish their relationships. I hope it returns to normal.

As far as I can tell, all female flocks and all male flocks mostly do okay (always exceptions with critters). It is imbalances that I think get in the way. I have a friend who had two male muscovies, who were best buddies. She brought home four blue female runners, and after a couple of months (although they are kept in separate areas), the muscovies were duelling (is that with one L or two Ls?).

I think it is likely for large eggs to pinch a nerve from time to time.