I AM SO STUPID!! When to BLEND the FLOCK?

[ellenmartin]

Need advice on situation:

We have 2 females and 2 males. I accidientally put the wrong gander in with the wrong goose and when they hatched the wrong mate helped raise them. Goslings are 6 weeks old now. We have 4.

I have the parents with the goslings running around property enjoying life. The other pair (did not hatch btw eggs went dud) are in their pen and want out to join the flock.

Problem is that the gander in there is the mate to the one of the parents.

Whenever I did let them out the two ganders get into big fight and I have to separate and get bit usually in process. Upsets goslings/gooses/etc.

At what age can I blend the flock or can I ever blend it - I hate to get rid of that gander because one of the parents is his mate and he misses her terribly but I am afraid he will fight with other gander to no end.

The one time I let him out he went to the goslings on the pond and started what looked like trying to climb on top of one of them - looked like he was doing a mating dance in the water with his head and made me very nervous and I put him up.

The other goose is just laid back Embden and the parents tollerate her they just keep her at a distance.

At what point can they all get along and at what point can goslings defend themselves? I have a cross-beaked one that I guess will never be able to defend herself, huh?

Having 2 separate shifts of feeding/cleaning and in and out of penned areas day/night is KILLING ME!

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
I can't think of a nice way to say this, It sounds to be so screwed up now that the only answer now is to get rid of one of the ganders. I would save the one that fathered the goslings the other one may be the dud. One active gander can serve two geese, even if faithfull he will turn to the spare goose when the main goose goes broody. Good Luck!

 

[Goosehaven]

I have multiple ganders in different subsets of flocks that all coexist together. They have mated with some of the females in my other flocks. The first time my ganders would fight I would do the same thing you did and try to break it up, yelling and screaming and waving my hands. I've since learned in my flock of 17 that they will fight now and again but the ganders establish dominance over each other. Once that is determined they pretty much leave each other alone except in mating season. I've had them in some pretty rough and tumble fights but one always gives up and I've never had any injured from it. If you don't want to get rid of one of your ganders then let them out together and let them make their peace with each other. I always introduce any new goslings at a time when I am home for a good part of the day to see how all the adults and babies are reacting to each other. Good luck with whatever you decide to do

 

[goosedragon]

But sometimes, not often you will get a gander that is clearly dominate but will try to kill another gander. I got a rescule buff that beat my old african boss gander as soon as I turned him lose to join the flock. After about a minute it was clear to me and the african that he had been beat bad as he turned tail and ran away.( the sign of defeat in ganders) The buff caught his breath and took off after the african again and knocked him off his feet so he couldn't run and proceded to literally beat the poop out of him, when he started to bleed I stepped in and beat off the buff, doctored the african and put him in with the ducks. The buff didn't seem to understand fences since he would hit the fence hard trying to get at the african. The african never returned to the goose flock he became grandpa to 4 years of young ducklings (drakes are usually very poor fathers) but he loved the ducklings and they loved playing with him. He died standing off a fox from his ducks long enough for me to get out there with my shotgun. I buried the goose and left the fox for the buzzards, they have to eat too...~gd

 

[ellenmartin]

GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is a sad sad sad story. I don't want to go through that for sure. I put my geese up at night to protect them fortunately. I don't trust any predator - they are all PREDATORS and can get the geese.

I have broken up many fights. I might try it again but want the goslings to be old enough that they don't get hurt..... how hold should they be when you decide to let others around them??

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
I put my birds up at night too, but contrary to popular myths, fox hunt during the day too.
Can't really help with your question, other than my starting day olds, I was old-school and let the geese hatch and raise theirown goslings. They were much better at it than I could ever be! ~gd