My 3 brown Africans are about a month old and just beginning to grow some feathers. We call them Linus, Lucy and Sally. I let them out to free range with all my chickens during the day and at night I put them in a pen with my smaller chicks. (I plan to put them in the duck pen when they are older, but I don't trust my ducks not to hurt them yet) There were 10 little roosters sent with them for warmth and they all get along great together. Those little tiny chicks can do what ever they please and the goslings will absolutely not bother them. The other chicks that are a little bigger have gotten feathers pulled by the geese on occasion if they get too close. On the other hand, the big chickens have picked on them some, and when they get close the goslings take off running and whistling like it is the end of the world. But not today! I came outside this morning after letting everyone out and the geese had wandered into the big chicken lot. Several big chickens had them surrounded and I was about to go rescue them when it was like all three goslings had a light go off in their heads at the same time: "Hey, we're as tall as these suckers are now!" Next thing I know they were standing their own ground getting right into the face of each chicken one on one. Every chicken backed down too. It was the greatest thing I've seen since my Golden Retriever fetched his first stick.
I felt the same way when our gander told off our obnoxious Pekin drake . . . and all the other geese came rushing to help. It was great!
The funniest thing is to watch the little gander's hissing and charging the adult geese and my adult females that are twice their size run away
I have three Brown Africans also, they are my favorite of my birds, I love all that attitude. The gander likes to come to the fence where my dogs (Australian Shepherds) are on the other side and he waits until the dogs get too close and then he snakes his neck in and pinches them! (usually coming away with a beakfull of hair) Most of my dogs fear him now and just bark at him from a safe distance He will also chase the sheep away from their grain so that his two wives can get in and eat. On the other hand though I can put him in with young chickens and he's just as gentle as can be with them and he herds my ducks around to the best spots during the day. Love my Africans!
That reminds me of my last dog, the one prior to the current one. Being a springer spaniel, he was very intrigued by any kind of bird, but especially anything resembling a game bird. There was a small knot hole about the size of a baseball in the wooden fencing around my chickens just at the ground level. He loved to put his nose in there and smell them, and then try to look through the hole. Until one day, he stuck his nose in there and a chicken pecked it. After that, he wouldn't go near the hole, would just stay about 2-3 feet away and bark furiously at the dreaded attack chickens.
