Surragoose?

[chickensducks&agoose]

My ducklings lost their mama. random daytime fox attack.. a few weeks ago. The duckings are feathered, and stick together. recently, my lone gander has been really interested in them, which has made me nervous, in fact one time he seemed to want to sleep with them, so i let him in, and he was biting them... not injuring them, but i think it hurt... so anyway, they escaped from their duck run into the wide outdoors today, where my chickens and goose free-range... anyway, we've got a few inches of snow on the ground and the goose has been especially evil lately. So, the duckies started following the goose, like they used to follow their mama, and he was just letting them. Usually at night, the duckies go into their duck house, the goose goes into his goose house (with a little wrestling) and the hens perch up in the hen house. Tonight however, the goose led the duckies into the hen house, and curled up with them.... i decided to let them sleep together tonight, am i making a huge mistake? Am i going to have extra sleepy duckies and chickens tomorrow? BALD duckies? Is it possible that the nasty, scary goose is trying to be a mama duck?

 

[wellssmall farm]

I have had a goose do the same thing and now I am not sure if he thinks he is a mother duck because they are all grown up. He will get onto the male duck if he thinks he is hurting one of the females. It is a good laugh when it happens. I would just watch him. To tell the truth he has now taking to getting eggs and setting on them. I have had two people (vets) tell me it is a him. Good Luck!

 

[greyfields]

Ducks/geese will cross surrogate. You've done the very best thing for your ducklings. Geese are simply amazing parents, where both the father and mother share the duties. The 'biting' is probably just him correcting their behavior, since geese are very structured in how they behave.

None of my adult ducks have shown any interest in the ducklings we hatch from eggs. When we put the ducklings on the grass for the first time, the geese always come to investigate and make them part of their flock. I had one this last Spring, Supermom, who had no fewer than 30 ducklings and 20 goslings following her every move across the fields.

 

[BeakSanctuary]

I mean no harm in pursuing this a bit off-topic subject of the goose flock. Have precious little experience in this behind me, just since spring, but I'm in awe of exactly who/what belongs to the goose flock!

For example, mine is 6 Africans from two separate hatches, 11 American Buffs, two black versions of Swedish duck, 1 golden hybrid duck, two hen turkeys, and a couple of turken roosters. Weird, eh? These always hang together.

By contast, several younger Blue Swedish were never invited or ever aspired to join that flock, nor were the Chocolate Runners, nor the pair of Rouens.

I'm so excited sometimes just what an organized society they seem to have formed for their own purposes - actually, societies plural. Would love seeing the geese treat others so nicely as to be surrogates, though, as I have a feeling maybe this power-holding group of mine is of a different ilk. Maybe breeding season will bring surprises.

 

[greyfields]

I have 3 flocks of geese, who all come together at night to sleep together (along with the ducks). This situation is by no means our making. Simply on their own, we have The Collective, The Sopranos and The Numbers. We know how many should be in each and occassionally some will jump one flock to another... but, they are like little gangs strutting around, making chaos when another group comes too close to the grass they're eating.

 

[BeakSanctuary]

Awwwh! Such cute names for the flocks, too! Mine also sleep together at night if only because birds of every feather pile into the house at night. Sometimes, one of the more obnoxious Africans wants to play "gatekeeper inside the house and intimidate others who want to come in for the night - else, his intention is to intimidate me when I have to hand-carry some of the younger turkeys in from their perches on the park bench and such. Aw well, they're more fun for me than problematic.

It's a beautiful day here in VA - not even that cold, so should be good for bird errands and watching outside.