Will two different colors split into their own groups?

[Goosehaven]

My white geese tend to segregate themselves from my lone toulouse. They tolerate him but he always stands at a distance. He actually prefers to hang out with a couple families of canadians who hatched on the lake during the day. He did try to breed one of the white ones in early spring and she was having none of that. I really need to get another toulouse for him.

 

[Pidgey104]

all my geese stay in a group. I ahve white chinses hen that paired with a candian mix gander, My white gander breeds anything that moves. My africans stay to together. but all or in one group.

 

[CityChicker]

What I really think is that if a person sees them pairing off by color, they are likely seeing what they want to see (ie. their eyes are playing tricks on them). I can't even count the number of groups of waterfowl that I have kept over the years (probably hundreds of "groups"). I have virtually never seen them not interbreed. I think seeing them paired by color is probably just your imagination. Not only that, but it is giving the domestic birds credit for a much higher level of self-awareness than they probably have.

 

[shelleyd2008]

chickensducks&agoose :

I vote yes. all my ducks paired off based on color, not breed or age. I've got 3 2 year old blue, black and splash swedes, and they each paired up with a similarly colored duck. the splash paired up with our 1 year old pekin, the blue paired up with a runner, and the black swede paired up with a 1 year old cayuga.. so i think they prefer their own color. Birds of a feather, and all that.

My ducks did that too, for the most part, but I had a group of 4 that were hatched together, 1 duck and 3 drakes. The duck was a blue cayuga, the drakes were 2 rouens and a rouen/cayuga mix. They stuck together all the time. My pekin group has 2 rouen drakes as well, though I think they are mostly body guards. Most of the pekin eggs I hatch are pure. Then I have a pair of rouens that have matched themselves up. My other black cayugas (1 drake and 2 ducks) grouped themselves together as well.

But in your case, I wouldn't count on it. If you raised them from babies in their own color groups, they'd be more likely to stick with their own groups. But geese are different, I recently bought an adult toulouse who promptly made friends with my embdens. Granted, the only other toulouse I have is a baby, so the adult either had to be alone or with the embdens, but it had no hesitation whatsoever moving in to their little family and taking care of the babies

If you want to make sure you have pure colors for breeding, just be sure to pen them up from about February through June, depending on where you live

 

[Kim65]

Birds of a feather . . .

I think it is instinctual.

 

[GoodEgg]

I would SOMEtimes see my chickens sort themselves -- Somewhat. -- by color. Then again perhaps it was only coincidence since more often they would mix. Geese and ducks -- no. Or only very temporarily. Ducks especially will breed very indiscriminately. Geese of course pair up but according to thier own preferences which seldom, if ever, seem to take into account color. The only really reliable poultry self-sorting I have seen has been between species (ducks with ducks, chickens with chickens) and sometimes even those boundaries are crossed. The main exception I have seen was silky chickens. They often kept in groups by themselves, and I think that had more to do with their docile temperament and self-preservation than looks. At any rate, they were assorted colors.

Just my experience.