Is it Agnes and Magnus… or Angus and Magnus?

[KMHart]

We bought these two Chinese geese as a breeding pair in February. The breeder named them Agnes and Magnus. They were about a year old then. We are starting to suspect that the goose is actually also a gander. The “goose” is the lighter coloured one, who is also a bit smaller. Since we got them, the lighter coloured one’s knob has grown. It is also extremely aggressive and does not show any interest in nesting (definitely hasn’t laid any eggs). They pal around together a lot, but they recently have started attacking us. They hang out at our front door to go after us as soon as we try to leave the house. So anyone more familiar with Chinese geese? Do we now just have two aggressive ganders on our hands?

 

[Goose Smith]

My opinion is that you seem to have a pair of ganders.

Chinese in general are pretty feisty, at least when compared to the American Buffs, Pilgrims, etc… that’s not too unusual even if you have female Chinese geese.

Ganders carry themselves a little differently (more erect, neck stretched out) and their vocalizations are slightly more high pitched and louder than females.

If these were hatched in February I would say they both have prominent knobs and I would definitely be suspicious that you have two ganders. You’d have to catch them and manually sex them to be sure. If at some point the breeding hormones kick in, they will mount and wrestle and appear to be “mating”, which can often add more confusion for a keeper.

You mention not finding any eggs, is there any nest at all anywhere that perhaps they could hide them? If no, and you are certain there’s been no eggs, for Chinese female geese that would be unusual, they tend to start laying early and lay much more consistently than some other breeds.

 

[KMHart]

My opinion is that you seem to have a pair of ganders.

Chinese in general are pretty feisty, at least when compared to the American Buffs, Pilgrims, etc… that’s not too unusual even if you have female Chinese geese.

Ganders carry themselves a little differently (more erect, neck stretched out) and their vocalizations are slightly more high pitched and louder than females.

If these were hatched in February I would say they both have prominent knobs and I would definitely be suspicious that you have two ganders. You’d have to catch them and manually sex them to be sure. If at some point the breeding hormones kick in, they will mount and wrestle and appear to be “mating”, which can often add more confusion for a keeper.

You mention not finding any eggs, is there any nest at all anywhere that perhaps they could hide them? If no, and you are certain there’s been no eggs, for Chinese female geese that would be unusual, they tend to start laying early and lay much more consistently than some other breeds.

Thank you very much for this!

They did start to mount and wrestle, which we thought was mating. We looked for nests all the time, but we never found one. Never an egg.

Unfortunately, we decided to cull them yesterday, as our postie couldn't even get out of the van to deliver a parcel, and we had to have a stick by the door to leave the house. We also have some ducklings that are about ready to go outside, and we worried about their safety with these two prowling around. They had the same sex organs, so that solves the mystery.