Insane attacking goose, goosie PMS?

[Hillsvale]

I raised my arms and made noise back at her... she kept approaching... then my toe on the beak... then the crotch attack!

She is missing feathers but holy hell!... I think there was the odd swear word.. thankfully I don't have close neighbours! lol

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

I LOL'ed ! You need more swear words ....Give her some chocolate and a bag of chips maybe the PmS will go away ...lol ....

 

[pips&peeps]

I think your bird is a male and is just maturing. I have never had a female actually attack me.

They will hiss and, if on the nest will bite, but never have they run at me in attack mode.

I also suggest the CMM that Cottage Rose suggested. The victory lap is optional, but I have witnessed them many a time.

 

[Hillsvale]

pips&peeps :

I think your bird is a male and is just maturing. I have never had a female actually attack me.

They will hiss and, if on the nest will bite, but never have they run at me in attack mode.

I also suggest the CMM that Cottage Rose suggested. The victory lap is optional, but I have witnessed them many a time.

Apparently the african's are hard to sex... basically wait for an egg!

... this is them when they were sweeter... about 2 months ago!

The one in question is the one on the right side... they look virtually the same but this one is a bit taller, a converse chest, had a bigger booty and belly fat and a deeper honk, the two with angel wing have thicker legs, slightly concave chest and a higher pitch honk... I was also told the honk was deeper in the females..

I am sure not about to try vent sexing them!​

 

[Olive Hill]

Well, I didn't want to be the bearer of the bad news but I do agree. The behavior you describe does scream gander, not goose.

The honk, ime, is relative to the goose itself. It's not as definitive as say, voice sexing with ducks. I've got known ganders and known geese whose honks sound the same and then some of each sex both higher and lower. Leg thickness, size, etc. It's sort of one of those things. Usually it goes one way, but usually may only be 50.1%. 49.9% go the other way. I've got geese with thicker legs than the ganders, ganders with thin legs, etc.

It seems to me behavior is pretty consistent for those that display it loudly, as this bird does, but then there are the ones that hang back and don't really give indication with their behavior too. So then those are hard. For example you may have 3 ganders, but because one gander is gung ho taking on the role of lead gander in the flock, the other two may not really show a lot of gander-y behavior. You'd have to look for more subtle clues and even then it may be tough. At least for now, come breeding season all of them are more likely to let their gender be known to the world.

 

[Hillsvale]

Quote:
I don't know that I would consider this as bad news... the nasty one is very different from the other two... the pouch, the head, the chest... if this one is a gander that I would be willing to bet the other two are females, that would be great actually... they are rare here (I simply assumed that the two with angel wing were male because they are the one's who primarily develop it). If they are all males then I dare say we will have a lovely roast or two and find another female next spring!

I must try and get a new picture of their heads... there is someone here who raised africans as well.

Here is where I came up with the honk thing:

http://www.cornerstonefarm.net/african.html

ETA... with this coming weekend we are going to grab ahold of the nasty beasty an "force" it to cuddle, be nice, perhaps take it for a stroll and have a chat with all the other animals.... that should be fun (thinks to selve to get out the video camera to upload the crazy person to youtube

)