The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Gidde on March 29, 2022, 11:12:44 am
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Hi there
I have som questions about geese.
We have bought 3. We thought we had bought 2 females and a gander, but now the gander (or so we thought) is staying on the nest... is it the ganders job to do the hatching?
Best regards and thanks,
Gidde
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Our gander used to sit right outside the open door of the goose house when the female was sitting on eggs. He never sat on the nest himself. Have you seen him treading the females?
How long have the eggs been incubated? We have never had much luck with letting the geese do the job, and even using the incubator was not much better....
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Actually... I have never seen any treading at all. But I have seen the two that we believe are females trying to drown the one who is now sitting on eggs.
We have had ducks for about 15 years now with great succes, so these geese are really bugging me with their strange behaviours and secret gender.
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Not trying to drown but treading. I would say you have two ganders and a goose. You need another goose asap or get rid of a gander.
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Harmony beat me to it,
As soon as I read the bit about trying to drown one, sounded like 2 ganders.
Unless 3 females and it's a dominance thing, but unlikely.
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Our geese (shetlands) have sat and hatched goslings very successfully, 9 out of 10 (unfortunately only 3 were female but you can't have everything :D )
I agree with the others that your 2 'trying to drown' the third are males and the third is female.
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Well our gander did drown one of his two females... it was very upsetting and one of the few things that put me off breeding geese.
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Our Lavender Muscovies so nearly did the same thing - too many drakes to one duck, but they tasted good :yum: Fortunately our pond is not deep so easy to wade in and rescue the duck.
That must have been very unpleasant Anke with your geese.
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Not trying to drown but treading. I would say you have two ganders and a goose. You need another goose asap or get rid of a gander.
I have had one strange goose which was trying to tread on another goose (had a trio at the time) and it was definitely not a gander - they used to give me 2 eggs in one morning.
I think she just wasn't sure which side she's supposed to be on when mating :roflanim:
They were African geese btw
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Female geese can display dominance by treading but it is usually fairly half hearted. At this time of year a female will have bite marks on her head where the males hold her down to tread her. Males will not have these marks. Males also have longer necks than females although this is sometimes harder to spot. I have kept geese for years and still get caught out now and again ::)
Agree with the others about you having two boys and one girl.