Newly hatched goslings killed by adults

[SamLou]

We have 2 embden geese, an embden gander and a pomeranian goose all in their 2nd year. First year of laying. And a 8 week old gosling. one of the embden went broody and was sat on about 14 eggs, 3 were kicked out of nest and she seems to have broken and eaten at least 3. On friday 1 hatched and we found it dead Saturday morning. Its face had been pecked at. Sunday 2 more hatched in the morning and by lunchtime the same had happened to them both. Has this happened to anyone else and who would be the one to be doing the attacking and why?

 

[Goosebaby]

We have 2 embden geese, an embden gander and a pomeranian goose all in their 2nd year. First year of laying. And a 8 week old gosling. one of the embden went broody and was sat on about 14 eggs, 3 were kicked out of nest and she seems to have broken and eaten at least 3. On friday 1 hatched and we found it dead Saturday morning. Its face had been pecked at. Sunday 2 more hatched in the morning and by lunchtime the same had happened to them both. Has this happened to anyone else and who would be the one to be doing the attacking and why?

I’m so sorry! This is unusual as geese are generally good parents but new and young parents can sometimes be stupid. The usual danger is if they trample the goslings but outright attacks are unusual. It’s possible that one of the adults doesn’t understand that they’re babies and is mistaking them for some sort of threat to the eggs. If you have any other goslings hatch remove them from the nest immediately.

 

[skeeeter]

That's sad. Is you nest off limits to all but the momma goose? We once had a gander(human inprinted and hand raised by some one else) who would kill every baby animal he could get to, including all his own goslings. He reached right up under the goose to drag them out and murder them. We suspected it was caused by being terribly inbred combined with being human imprinted.
I hope you can save what're left, if any.

 

[SamLou]

ThWe are so upset and confused by the whole ordeal. The pomeranian went broody first and only managed to hatch a single gosling (2 more had developed but didn't hatch) the gander and 2 embden aunties were amazing with that one. The gander was the first to lead it out on its first adventure while pom-pom was still sitting. Its now 8 weeks old. He/she is nicknamed baby g as we've never been able to get close enough to sex it as they are very protective. Which is what we expected and why we are shocked and horrified by the 3 newborns being killed.
Its been 3 days now and nothing else is happening with the eggs so we are going to remove her from nest tomorrow and take them away. They all share a shed together and her nest was right at the front so we are going to build a nesting area at the back of the shed that we will be able to block off the broody goose from the others just in case.