1 Gander trying to kill the other gander?

[MMelton67]

Hi, All. Last June we bought 4 geese (Pilgrims, theoretically. 2 female, 2 male) and I think 1 of the gander's is trying to kill the other.

We have them in a space roughly 45'x35' enclose with electric netting. They have a ~4'x8' house open on one 4' end.

They have had a 6'x2' stock tank about 18" deep as a pond for 5 or 6 months now.

Last week I saw from the house (they are in a small field about 150' down the hill from the house) that it looked like one gander was trying to push the other under water. I ran down and by the time I got there they were both out of the tank and walking around. I also seemed to notice the geese were being excluded from the water tank as well. So, I added a 2nd stock tank, one of the Rubbermaid ones about 3'x5' and 26 or 28 inches deep.

I just saw the same situation with the two ganders.

I'm guessing they are starting to get possessive about the 2 geese?

Do I need to isolate or get rid of one of the ganders?

We don't intend to breed.

I'll attach a pic of the set up later.

TIA

 

[sourland]

You may need to separate the ganders. This behavior is likely to increase as they get further into the breeding season. Water is like an aphrodisiac to geese and ducks and they like to mate there. The geese may be staying out of the tank to avoid the advances of the gander.

 

[MMelton67]

You may need to separate the ganders. This behavior is likely to increase as they get further into the breeding season. Water is like an aphrodisiac to geese and ducks and they like to mate there. The geese may be staying out of the tank to avoid the advances of the gander.

Ok. That is what I was sort of thinking. But, they aren't even a year old till April. Would they be trying to breed this young? I thought I'd read they wouldn't start breeding till over 20 months.

A pic of the set up. The red box on the left is their hutch.

The gander that I think is being the aggressive one is in the pond with a female. I watched them for 10 minutes or so, just like this, w/o any apparent interest in mating. I realize it's not probably a constant thing.

and a close up of the four of them.

Separating one gander from the other 3 seems like it would be traumatic to the gander?

And, creating a whole new living situation for one bird isn't particularly cost effective to me.

From what I understand, few people would want a gander by itself. So, rehoming one gander seems unlikely.

All thoughts and suggestions welcome.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Ok. That is what I was sort of thinking. But, they aren't even a year old till April. Would they be trying to breed this young? I thought I'd read they wouldn't start breeding till over 20 months.

A pic of the set up. The red box on the left is their hutch.

View attachment 3741818

The gander that I think is being the aggressive one is in the pond with a female. I watched them for 10 minutes or so, just like this, w/o any apparent interest in mating. I realize it's not probably a constant thing.

View attachment 3741820

and a close up of the four of them.

View attachment 3741821

Separating one gander from the other 3 seems like it would be traumatic to the gander?

And, creating a whole new living situation for one bird isn't particularly cost effective to me.

From what I understand, few people would want a gander by itself. So, rehoming one gander seems unlikely.

All thoughts and suggestions welcome.

you could get a few more females!! lol
I have Pilgrims. I started out with 3 goslings . 2 were the gray color (girls) and one the yellow (boy)
I got really confused when one of my supposed girls turned out to be a gander though. They were fighting and so I set up 3 separate swimming pools but the big mean gray gander just followed my smaller white gander around and kicked him out of any pool he tried to go in. It got worse and worse! The fighting was too much for me when my white gander was bleeding so I did rehome the gray gander. I posted on here and there was someone who wanted him .
Just saying ganders will fight especially more this time of year. I loved them all and sat out in the coldest weather with them for weeks every day to watch nobody got hurt or killed. Tried to train them to stop it. To no avail

 

[Jenbirdee]

Oh and mine were also just under a year old at that time

 

[Evadig]

I think they’ll fight it out eventually. I have three ganders and a goose, about ten months old. The boys fight frequently in the pool over the girl. So far no one’s dead yet…
Hopefully @JRies or @Miss Lydia or @Goosebaby will stop by to take a look.

 

[sourland]

I think they’ll fight it out eventually. I have three ganders and a goose, about ten months old. The boys fight frequently in the pool over the girl. So far no one’s dead yet…
Hopefully @JRies or @Miss Lydia or @Goosebaby will stop by to take a look.

I would be concerned that the ganders will try to gang breed the goose and inadvertently drown her. It happens.

 

[JRies]

I have one pen this year that has 2 boys both first season breeders and 2 girls. 1 boy is definitely domineering the other one has backed down. But for a few weeks there it was boy on boy. It dose to get under control. I have 2 other pens with 4 boys and 5 girls. But there is a mix of seasoned ganders with young ganders. The young boys will go at each other occasionally but the draw the line at my older boys and walk away. First year ganders do grow up. If you hatch out this year keep a couple of girls. Your dominate gander will probably hold on and defend the 2 girls you have now and not be interested in new girls. Then give the other gander some bonding time with the new girls. Just a thought

 

[Miss Lydia]

When I had 2 ganders 2 geese my oldest gander was dad to the gander and goose so he had the upper hand with mating and the young gander didn't fight it. I didn't get to keep the young ones but about a year because they were ganging up on the ducks and chickens and it was just a matter of time before someone was hurt or killed. So I really can't say how it would have turned out as they matured. I have heard a gander will sometimes even reject a goose if there are 2 geese and 1 gander. Sometimes things can get difficult.

 

[MMelton67]

Thanks for everyone's input.

I've had two main thoughts:

1 - get rid of the water. The deep water at least and give them some shallow pools instead. So they don't have the added 'sexual aid' of the deeper water to float in.

2 - an Easter Goose dinner.

and, after reading the latest posts...

3 - just let them sort it out.


The seemingly dominant gander is kind of a dick. The sub gander is kind of sweet in nature.

I had goals of 1 big happy flock of geese and chickens. But, after 4-5 weeks of introducing the geese and chickens in separate enclosures (barely a couple of feet apart) within a month of sharing the same fenced enclosure (~180' perimeter total 15 chickens, 4 geese) the geese almost killed a chicken via feather plucking. They had exposed the chicken's spine...I isolated the chicken and put some triple antibiotic on the wound and gave her a heat lamp with fresh water and food daily for a week. She lived and is with the chicken flock and I can't tell now which one she is.

And, the chickens have their coop and totally enclosed run and the geese have their space. Hundreds of dollars later, lol.

I don't want any harm to come to any animal. But, none of these animals are pets. I'd rather try to rehome (or, worst case, cull) one than there be a lot of stress and anxiety for all of them.

I've read that a good ratio is 1 gander to 2-3 geese. I'm honestly feeling a bit put on by the person who sold me this set of geese (if she's reading this...) as maybe she shouldn't have been selling a 2x2 set to begin with. This person knew I was new to the game and actually introduced me to this forum as she educated me on the fallacy of the 'guard goose' idea and recommended purchasing this quad so they would be a good 'social group'. I'm starting to feel she just needed to unload some birds.