- Nov 30, 2012
- 18
- 18
- 89
I have three geese, two girls and a boy. My older goose Megan has taken to bullying the younger goose Poppy whenever the gander Roger tries to mate with her. She'll run over and knock him off of Poppy. Yesterday my husband saw her just standing on Poppy's neck until Roger got off her back. Now both of my geese have bald spots and sores on their heads. Roger is a just over a year and a half old. I've been chalking up him hurting them a little to inexperience. Him and Poppy are at least half siblings from the same clutch of eggs. At the time I had a different gander and two geese, Megan being one of them. I lost one goose to predation and my original gander was getting too aggressive with me specifically. He went to live on a different farm with an equally foul tempered emden goose. This gives Megan a 50% chance of being my current geese mother but as animals don't care I don't think it matters.
So I'm wondering if Megan is competing for Roger's attention? Do geese have a pecking order like chickens with a dominant female? Will ganders have an awkward phase where they bite too hard? Will he grow out of it? If he doesn't and Poppy keeps taking a beating from both him and Megan, Roger is going to have to go. I don't actually need him to get eggs. He's not good for breeding due to him being so closely related to my other geese.
So I'm wondering if Megan is competing for Roger's attention? Do geese have a pecking order like chickens with a dominant female? Will ganders have an awkward phase where they bite too hard? Will he grow out of it? If he doesn't and Poppy keeps taking a beating from both him and Megan, Roger is going to have to go. I don't actually need him to get eggs. He's not good for breeding due to him being so closely related to my other geese.
