Mother Goose

[InsanePoultryFarmer]

I have 5 white Chinese geese 1 gander and 4 females. My first 2 females have both been broody before but I had no Male. I bought a trio (1 Male and 2 females) at the end of last summer. All 5 geese have excepted each other and I've noticed the gander (Doc) mating with all 4 females in the last week. My question is if any of the females go broody on some eggs and hatch some goslings, should I separate the mother goose and goslings from the rest of the flock or allow them to remain with the flock?

 

[sourland]

In my experience, the entire flock takes up the care of the goslings. I would monitor, and make sure the setting goose had her own nest that was not accessed by the other geese. Staggered hatches can be disastrous.

 

[InsanePoultryFarmer]

In my experience, the entire flock takes up the care of the goslings. I would monitor, and make sure the setting goose had her own nest that was not accessed by the other geese. Staggered hatches can be disastrous.

K what if you have multiple broody females simultaneously or with different age groups

 

[Percheron chick]

Leave them all together. When one does start sitting, mark her eggs. The other goose will lay their eggs and you can end up with a month long staggered hatch. Not uncommon for 2 to share duties of sitting. Make sure the nest is well padded and large enough for 2. I keep giving them fresh straw to "redecorate" with. Candle them if you can do it without stressing them out or being attacked. Fire up the incubator, if you have one, to finish up any late developers

 

[Percheron chick]

K what if you have multiple broody females simultaneously or with different age groups

In my experience, they don't distinguish between her eggs and my eggs. Eggs are eggs. If one gets off the more desirable nest, another one will get off the nest she is on and claim the better one. When the first goose returns, they will share the nest. The problem will be if no one returns to nest #2. When the goslings start hatching on nest #1, the girls on #2 will stay with it. Problems happen when the babies start wandering around. If they have too large of an area, mommas have to get up and follow. I solve that problem by giving them a very small area until all the eggs have hatched or I've taken the late developers away.
Count your eggs! Those girls can be sneaky. You could find yourself overrun with 20+ goslings.