[oor wullie]

We have a small flock of geese which will hopefully grow this year. 

In order to ensure we have fertile eggs at what stage will we need to think about keeping a second gander? (currently we have 1 gander and 6 geese).

How do people manage more than 1 gander without them fighting?
2 of our geese were hatched and raised by a hen and, although they have been part of the goose flock for the last 8 months they are still not fully accepted by the others, I fear that introducing new birds would result in violence.

Our birds free range (to the extent that they won't use any shelters / housing we provide, preferring to sleep outside even through the winter and are not fenced in at all so hopefully the space will help them be a bit more laid back.

[Clansman]

If they have enough space they will split into groups if more than one gander, they should be fine after that, you will likely get the odd face-off between groups but usually one is dominant and the other backs off.

We have two groups, the biggest one led by the oldest/biggest gander with 7 geese, the other group has two young ganders and a two geese.

When they cross paths there is a lot of noise and the odd chase, peck but nothing serious.

Failing that you'd need to keep them in separate areas

[hughesy]

We are in a similar situation. 8 or 9 geese and 4 or 5 ganders. We had intended to thin the ganders out a bit maybe keeping two but now they're laying don't want to upset any breeding set ups they have. Our ganders have a bit of a wrestle at the start of the laying season but otherwise get on fine and all live together in one group.

[shygirl]

we never had a problem with our flock of 12 but maybe it was because they were all related from the original trio.
ours were also completely freerange during the day and in a barn at night.

[Clansman]

we never had a problem with our flock of 12 but maybe it was because they were all related from the original trio.
ours were also completely freerange during the day and in a barn at night.

Could be, ours were made up from different sources, the original trio, then 3 geese which joined in fine, then when the young group of 2 ganders and 4 geese arrived two of those geese joined the original flock and the others stayed separate

[sokel]

We have 3 geese and 3 ganders they roam around 25 acres together but split into the same 3 separate pairs in the breeding season. They never fight at all

[HesterF]

I've got two pairs and have split them for the breeding season. They're mainly split for tracing - so I know the goslings (if I manage to get any) are unrelated - but I was worried they might fight. They are either side of netting and actually there's been little sign of much blood shed. I've had to split the cockerels further apart because they were getting at each other through the fence and at least one lot of drakes keeps fighting through the netting but the ganders seem to be relatively OK.

H

[lilfeeb]

We get a lot of wild geese in the fields around us at this time of year. You can see the ganders collect their own little group of geese within the hundreds spread out over the field and defending them with a hiss and wings stretched every now and again. but then go back to grazing side by side.

[oor wullie]

Thanks folks, that has reassured me about introducing other geese.
I want to be careful as when we started with geese we had 2 pairs.  One night when they were in their house (no longer in use) one of the ganders attacked the other and battered it so badly we had to put it down - I want to avoid anything like that again!

[goosepimple]

Oh that's interesting OW, what a pity though. 


I have a gander and 2 geese and just over a week ago bought (same breed) another 3 geese except one of those has turned out to be a gander  , I can see he's now the dominant and although they stayed as separate groups they have all been going around together from day 1.  They've now merged as one group and I can see the lassies are house hunting at the moment.  I've put out 2 pot goose eggs (craft eggs from ebay) so we'll see what happens.


Geese antics    do love them though.

[oor wullie]

Goose antics are the highlight of the croft, who needs reality TV when you can look out of the window and watch the geese!

Last year I concluded that the geese can count.  When taking eggs from the nest, if I left no eggs or 1 egg they would know that eggs were going missing and start hiding them in other places, if I left 2 eggs they were happy to keep using the nest.  Therefore I concluded they can count to 2 but no higher!!

[goosepimple]

Yes, it's 1, 2, more than 2.  That's 2 eyes, 2 wings, 2 legs ....... I know that if our Muscovy ducks have a hatch then lose some and are left with 2 then it's ok, if they're left with 1 they're not interested in it.

[Penninehillbilly]

I thought it was only mine who could count
I also found I had to leave 2 eggs in nest.
And I'm sure they are laying somewhere but haven't caught them at it yet.
 

[dislaney]

My geese have a child's abacus, so they're learning to count to more than two!     Because I'd seen how they like fiddling with the beads on the wire fencing, so figured they'd have fun moving the coloured beads along the abacus ...

Does anyone else have Greylag geese, btw?  Because I've got some sex/egg confusion questions, if so - thanks!

Di

[lilfeeb]

Our lovely embden goose from womble is up to 25 eggs so far. She is a great layer and her eggs make fab pancakes.  The gander scolds us continually and is very protective. They are great to have around.