Goose Flock Integration—Age Gap

Waterfowl newbie here. I have a flock of 5-week old birds (ducks, two female Toulouse, chickens). The ducks and geese are mostly separate from the chickens now (obviously a huge size difference) save for a few hours a day. Here's my question—someone is giving us a Toulouse gander. They needed to re-home him (lost his mate and is trying to mate with their ducks), and we wanted a gander for our female Toulouse. However, this boy is 3 years old. Is it a loss cause to try and integrate him with our flock of babies while they are still so young? I'm sure he could hurt them if he tried to mate with them, but I have no idea if he would know they are just babies. My other two options are my flock of older hens (I would think the mating would still be an issue here—I know he could seriously injure chickens if he tried) or just to keep him separate until breeding season is over (is this a thing...?) or everyone is older (still leaving him lonely). I would love to hear anyone's experience or thoughts on how best to do this. Thank you in advance—so excited to finally be a member of the group!

Hi and welcome to Permies!!

I think you could totally try introducing them! Often ganders can be really protective of young. I've known other people who had geese, and the ganders adopt any ducklings/goslings they can.

Our gander was hissy when we reintroduced him to his gosling and some ducklings (long story--gosling hatched a day early and so they abandoned it. We took it in, and tried to reintroduce it to it's parents multiple times. The both mom and dad goose were super hissy for a week or two). Now they all get along wonderfully, and the gander is very protective of the babies that are all a little over a month old. They've been getting along great since they were all about 3 weeks old.


I would introduce them carefully, being ready to intervene if the gander gets aggressive. I've actually never seen an adult drake or gander try to mate with babies, so I don't think you'll have a problem there. But, I've also always had adult females around for the guys.

Breeding season is a thing with geese, and they can get aggressive, especially of a nest...but without a female, he probably wouldn't be as aggressive. But, I honestly don't know.

I'd give it a try, and make sure you have alternative housing (large dog kennel should work), in case he and the ducklings/gosling don't get along. If they don't get along at first, just fence him off so he can see the babies and not get to them. He should hopefully get used to them. I was super surprised at the paternal instincts of my gander--my drakes don't really have parenting instincts, but my gander sure does! (You should have heard hims scream and wail when we took his lady's eggs. He WANTED to have babies!)

Thank you so much for your reply. You are making me feel much more hopeful about this integration!! I was worried I would have a lonely gander for a while.

I think I need a little more help to think through this integration—

The gander is here. He is overall pretty calm, but he is lonely and depressed (barely eating). Poor guy! It makes me anxious to get him integrated with the flock, but I know I have to do some sort of biosecurity quarantine. I know they say 4 weeks, but man, it's hard to watch how sad he is! Any thoughts on that? He can see the flock for part of the day.

I'm also not sure how to do the integration itself. I know a gander to two females (and some ducks) should not be a problem, but it's the size difference that makes me a bit nervous (3 years versus 6 weeks!). He is in a big stall right now, so I was thinking of bringing one gosling in at a time to let them meet so I could easily intervene if needed. But now, I'm thinking that little gosling really has no where to escape in there, so perhaps it would be better to let the gander out of the stall and interact outside? The little flock free ranges during the day, so it makes me a little nervous to let everyone out in the wide open, but I think it might be a better option, as long as both my husband and I are there to watch closely. My third option is to let them meet where the little flock sleeps at night (in electric poultry netting), but there are tons of 6-week old chicks in there, and it might start to get crowded. I eventually wanted all of the geese and ducks in the stall that the gander is in at night, which is why I was originally thinking of just doing the introductions in there and letting them bond overnight if everything went smoothly before turning them out to free range together. I also have no idea what a gander will do free ranging on a new property, (I keep thinking how can I catch him or teach him where to go at night if he won't eat??), but the area is very secure and it's clear he wants so badly to get out of that stall.

Okay sorry for the rambling—can anyone give me any advice at all or share their experience as I think through this process? Thank you in advance.

Geese get depressed when moved. When I got my pair, both we depressed and didn't eat anything for a few days.

Is he calm around you? If so, you could try bringing in the gosling in your arms if she allows you to carry her.

Though, honestly, I had better luck integrating the adults with the ducklings when they were out in the open. Granted, my confined spaces were his nest, and so he was protective. Since you've only had him a few days, he might not have become possessive of the nest.

I'd try it out in the open. Just staye close by, and use herding instincts on him if he gets hissy. Having the ducklings and gosling being little might be helpful, too. My gander likes to take care of the younglings...he still doesn't care for the older ducks in my flock. But he cares for and protects the gosling and ducklings he helped raise.

Geese truly are impressive animals--so much more intelligent and human-like than chickens or ducks!  

Thank you so much—this was so helpful. I will try it out in the open. My husband did hold a gosling up at his door by a big opening, and it was very uneventful. The gander didn't really walk up to her, but he didn't hiss. He flapped his wings once and that was it. My thought is, out in the open, he can get his space if he wants it (and so can the little ones).

I am really seeing what amazing animals they are—so different from chickens or ducks. I am amazed, but I think that's also why I feel a bit out of my depth! It's amazing spending some time in his stall and watching how he reacts to everything—always aware of everything, so regal and slow-moving, and definitely trying to reply back to my chatter, though I'm sure it will take me a while to understand what he is saying! I think my next task will be to read up on some goose body-language.