Multiple Ganders

[AndreaV636]

So, nature has played a trick on me...

Last spring, we hatched our first goslings, a goose and two ganders. We were completely in love with them until their first mating season. From what I have read of others' experiences with ganders, one of ours was an absolute freak of nature. He was OVERLY aggressive to the point where we were unable to properly care for our birds without being injured. We were sad to do it, but we sold our trio and hatched their eggs in an incubator this past spring. I had totally sworn off ganders. I opted for DNA testing their egg shells after hatching in order to identify and keep only females. Well, the craziest thing happened: we had seven eggs successfully hatch and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WAS MALE!!! We kept the three with the best conformation and we love them dearly, but breeding season will be here before we know it...

So I have a few questions. If ganders are raised together and do not have any females around during breeding season, will they still exhibit breeding behavior and aggression? I'm wondering if we could just keep boys only and not bother with any of that...? Assuming that females bring about their poor behavior, will a female duck have the same effect? One of the ganders was raised from day 1 with the duck...

Thanks in advance for weighing in on our situation. We are really only interested in birds as companion animals and I'm still trying to find the right flock/combination. I attached pictures of two of our boys for fun.

 

[sourland]

Beautiful birds. Come spring they will be looking for love and anything including the duck hen will be targeted.

 

[AndreaV636]

Thank you!

What do you imagine our situation would be like without the duck? If the three ganders were the ONLY birds on the farm?

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Iain Utah if I remember correctly had 2 ganders on some property she lived on. Hopefully she can give you some advise. Your ganders are beautiful.

 

[The goose girl]

Your three ganders may get along beautifully in spring, but if one of them falls in love with someone or something, he'll probably get very protective and aggressive towards the others. The duck is a very likely candidate for gander affection, and I wouldn't take my chances keeping her with the ganders.

But other objects could also cause trouble. I had two ganders once, and one of them fell in love with his own reflection in the window. He became vicious toward the other gander, until I finally figured out what was going on and covered all goose height reflective surfaces. Twenty minutes later the two were best friends again! I've also read about ganders falling in love with a person, a bucket, or a wheelbarrow.

Ganders only fight when their loved one is present. So if you keep an eye out in spring, you should be able to prevent or put an end to any fighting by removing whatever they may set their heart on.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I had two mature ganders once with 2 female geese and the younger respected the older as dominant that meant the dominant gander got to mate with both ladies and the lesser got to mate with only the younger of the two females but always after the dominant one had been with both first and him and his only walked away . If only they didn’t want to kill the chickens and ducks I had to find a new home for the two younger ones

 

[AndreaV636]

Thank you all for your replies! I can't get over your experience, @The goose girl - so funny!!! Well, I guess only time will tell what will happen here. I'll start working on separating the ganders and ducks at least and then just wait and see. Thanks again!

 

[Helloworld]

If you have zero females, they are like brothers.

The breed choice is very dependent on their type of behavior.

If you have all females, they won’t lay eggs. At least my breeds do not.

I have 2 ganders with 7 geese and a duck sent by accident with 3 other geese. He thinks he is a goose. He is my leader. They also surround and hide him in a pile of feathers when hawks come around. He also has claimed his own pool. My 3 yr old has his own girl and my 1 yr old has the rest. The duck hangs with larger group. All is well during normal time.

During breeding season, it is the girls who bully the duck to bully the ganders to do what they want. The ganders run after the duck. Lol

My oldest gander is 3 1/2 and aggressive towards my other male during breeding season only so we split them up during this time.

3 ganders are louder but great protection for chickens to for-warn them about sky monsters. And people.

The duck could be killed if not careful. I raised them with geese for a long time but during breeding season, the ganders AND females will try to drown him because they are looking to mate or if male take out the competition. In my experience

I love our environment better with same sex or one gander. Too much bickering and feather pulling!

 

[Kkrista123]

Hello! Just wondering if anyone’s ever heard of dna testing a duck to find the breed? I haven’t been able to find anything on it but they invented it for dogs so I thought I’d give looking for it a shot!

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Pyxis Maybe able to help you find a place.