Integrating old & new goslings: question (pics included0

[chickabella]

[did a search on the forums, but no luck; perhaps my search-fu is lacking]

Hey all! I've two Roman Tufted's who are about 8 weeks old, and some newer RT's who are about four weeks old. We've tried introducing the older geese to the newer geese (with the "new" geese in a protective pen), and the older geese will shake their necks in annoyance or fear, and try to bite the little ones. We really want to integrate all the geese into one flock. Anyone gone through this before, or have any advice/links to share?

Here's some photos from the other week:

Godzilla & "Queenie" Kong

The "New Kids on the Block"

 

[austinhart123]

i put my adult geese with my 4 week olds and they got along. i would try putting them all together where the older ones live and watch them. its normal for them to be dominant at first, but they will all settle in

 

[greyfields]

It will work since the age difference isn't that great. You just can't force it to happen.

Eventually the younger ones will start walking behind the older ones, creeping closer and closer as they make their ponderous parade about your yard. There may be nipping and pinching though early on. But, I don't think you'll have any problems.

It's rather funny in my ducklings/gosling pen I have 5 adult geese (Roman Tufted and Pilgrims). They are parenting all 50 odd babies. In the morning when they're doing their strut, all of them will be behind the 5 larger ones walking in complete time to one another. It's so funny!

We'll see how it goes, though. Some of the 9-10 week old Embdens are already bigger than the 'adults' in there.

 

[DuckyBoys]

I am going through the same thing with my 7 week old buff geese and my 4 week old giant toulouse. The big guys will chase the "little" guys and nip at them until they move away from the pack. Poor little guys - they really seem to want to be accepted. I am hoping that as they get bigger maybe they will fight back a little and claim their spots in the "herd" - but they are very docile...unbelievably tame and trusting. So maybe not.

At any rate - the pasture is huge so as long as they keep running the buffs give up rather quickly, but if they are left out there all day I can hear them doing the "help me" squawk at least 3 or 4 times before evening. They even have night pens right next to each other but I have a huge piece of cardboard up between to keep the draft away from the little guys. They "talk" to each other through the rips in the cardboard - they seem to want to get along.

I dunno - will have to wait and see.

 

[RoyalHillsLLC]

I am curious too. this weekend i bought 2 pilgrims and three Africans. they dwarf the 6 Muscovies we got in today. I hope they are close enough in age to mix. I was debating whether I should put my Muscovy hen in with them any. She is very calm.
When I tried it with chickens, they killed the younger birds in a matter of minutes. My last failed attempt with chickens was with introducing 2-3 month old chicks with grown birds.
We spent memorial day weekend building a new pen for the ducks and geese. We free range most of the time and pen in the mornings and at night. The babies we usually cannot free range at all. I only had one Muscovy out of seven survive last year due to predation during the 2-6 month old stage.