[maurice]

After a year of keeping our young gander we finally got a goose friend for him yesterday from our neighbour farmer who has a small flock of about 20 geese. Our gander has been sharing the garden this past 12 months with a drake, two ducks, a cockerel and four hens. He tolerates the hens and ducks but gets on great with the cock and drake.  He and the drake are almost inseparable! We thought the new goose would give him company of his own kind. Not knowing too much about geese, we put her in the garden with him. He walked around her a bit then attacked her. She didn’t defend herself and didn’t even run away so we thought this was just their way of sorting out the pecking order. After 5 minutes of him nipping, trampling and pulling her feathers out, he walked away while she just lay down in the grass. This has happened several times now. She looks forlorn and spends almost all the time sitting down in the long grass or in a bush. Today we moved her into a different garden to separate them. She had difficulty walking and stumbled towards a bush to hide. She doesn’t appear to have eaten or drunk since she got here. Is this normal and should we give them another couple of days or should we return her to her flock?
TIA for any help.
Maurice

PS The gander is an embden, I don't know what the goose is but I 've attached a photo if anyone can identify her? She looks like an embden to me but I'm no expert!
Thanks

[HesterF]

Can you fence her off for a bit so they're close to each other but not in the same pen? I've not generally had a problem with waterfowl when introduced although I do have a very dominant drake at the moment that will bully anything that goes in with him and the rest of his 'flock'. But with chickens you normally have to have them in close contact for a  while without actually be housed together - then you can sneak them in at night or something (might not work with geese given they're still active at night). Certainly not a normal pecking order thing for geese to attack each other. When introducing them, I'd bring the gander to the goose so he's away from his usual territory and away from the drake that might be exacerbating the situation. But I guess it depends on how much room you have.

H

[shygirl]

did you hatch him yourself? maybe he imprinted onto duck?
can you put a fence between them for a week?

[maurice]

HesterF, Shygirl-
Thanks for both your replies. We got the Gander when he was two months old.
The goose is currently on her own in a separate garden. I'll follow your advice and fence the garden in half then re-introduce the gander from his own usual territory to her garden.
Unfortunately she is still just lying down and rarely moving. She has been drinking some water but I haven’t seen her eating yet so I may wait for another week or so before re-introducing them.
I should have mentioned, the first two photos of the white/brown goose is the new female. The white gander is shown with his drake friend.
Thanks again.
Maurice

[shygirl]

she is not grazing? thats worrying, never experienced this with our geese so cant really help, but hope it sorts itself soon.

[HesterF]

Could you borrow a couple of her former friends from your neighbour for a few days to see if that perks her up? It does sound very worrying to me but geese are sociable creatures so she could just need a couple of others with her.

BTW, she's not an Embden - they're pure white. She's got something like Brecon buff in her - something with the brown colouring.

[waddy]

Have you tried her on lettuce? My geese will kill for it!


Helen

[maurice]

OK, things are looking much better now. We kept the goose in her own garden for a week, then put a wire mesh fence down the middle of it. I introduced the gander into her garden, separated by the fence for two days. He was disinterested, she perked up a lot, started walking about and eating then continuously pacing up and down the fence trying to find a way through! After two days of this we opened a gap in the fence to let them mingle. He gave her the odd nip now and again but nothing serious. Another two days in the small garden together then we drove them 75 yards up the road to the orchard to share with the chickens and ducks and nine new ducklings. They are getting on fairly well together, she is still very keen on him, he is not so bothered and continues to give her a gentle peck now and again. So, fingers crossed, we seem to have solved the problem with help from the advice given here. Thank you all!
The next problem might be the ducklings, the gander was a little over interested in them yesterday…..

Waddy-
Now that she seems happy, we haven’t tried anything other than grass and mixed corn with her. But the gander is very fussy, we’ve tried an assortment of salad leaves, various vegetables and fresh fruit, white and brown bread but he only ever eats grass and mixed corn. Fortunately the chickens eat all those other items. We’ll go through the same testing routine with the goose later in the year when the grass gets low.

Maurice

[waddy]

Mine have all gone through lettuce training! They will follow me anywhere for it. Good luck with your menagerie!


 


Helen

[HesterF]

Yay to a happy goose! You should be happy with a goose that just wants to graze - grass is pretty key, they really don't need a lot else, certainly at this time of year. Mine get a mixture of waterfowl growers and mixed grains and very occasionally the odd brown bread leftovers but nothing else.