Hi, sounds awful! :)
Try separating them for a while and see what happens. How long have they been fighting? Have you changed something around where they are staying that might could have triggered them? Just a thought.

I have 1 Canadian Gosling and my baby ducks are mean to it. I am having to keep it separated from them until it gets big enough to take care of itself. It is younger than them, but I'm sure it will outgrow them in time.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes.

Genny

I've never had African geese, but I have never seen my goslings fight. Last year I bought two goslings to keep my single Pilgrim company: one American Buff and one mutt with, I think, some Embdem blood. He grew huge and was mostly white with blue eyes. They never fought... but then there was only one male.

This year the mommas are doing the work of raising their seven and two Pilgrims, which are a couple of days younger. My Pilgrim goose was a little rough on the young Pilgrims the first few days until they got with the program, but the seven goslings - and some must be males - welcomed the newcomers from the beginning.

Your brooder box sounds small to me. Why not try putting them in a day pen on grass and just bringing them in at night? I fashioned a very sturdy day pen in about ten minues using some second hand sections of wire shelving zip-tied together. It is light enough to move from place to place when they need new pasture. If you are worried about them fighting you could divide the pen and put one pair in each.

If you get to the worst-case scenario, think twice about which gander gosling to cull. If the dominant one is already so aggressive to other males, what will he be like to humans once the breeding season begins? We culled our gander as soon as the geese went broody. He was fine as a gosling but during the breeding season he became not only nasty, but downright dangerous.

Wish I could give you a better answer, but as I say, that problem is new to me. My feeling is, give them a larger area, preferably outside on grass and divide the pairs temporarily but in such a way that they can see each other and get used to the other's presence. Please remember they need grit for their gizzards once they are eating grass - either chick grit or coarse sand. Good luck, and please post how things turn out.

Thanks for your suggestions, and Maggie, I did read with interest your earlier entry "bootcamp".

Okay, having not time enough to employ the process of elimination, I did a couple of things. I seperated couples, Dom male w/Dom female & Submale w/sub female - atleast as best as I could guess with the females, that is. This should relieve the space issue (if it so existed). I also switched foods to a brand with more protein on the remote chance that the feather picking was motivated - not from jockeying for position, but rather due to a deficiency. (I've only read about this behavoior with chickens, but it is a phenom brought on by EXTREMELY cramped conditions and very poor nutrition).

Well, over in Camp dominance, things settled down immediatly. Amazing! Guess I got that combo right. Over in the subordinate brooder however, the male continued to take a beating from his new girl friend, although the population decrease surely gave him some relief. Hopefully this will subside as they destress from the move.

I can't figure it, maybe it's just his lot in life to be a hen-pecked husband. I just hope that we don't have to go through this again in a few weeks when they start double dating again.

We've heard so much back and forth about Africans, some saying they're feisty, others swearing that they more gentle than even the Toulous. Most agree that a lot has to do with their upbringing. (Have read that the Pilgrims take the cake, though. Too bad they weren't available).

It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Could pair bonding and mate selection really begin so much earlier than we presume?

Will keep ya posted.

Pilgrims are certainly gentle... as are American Buffs. Both are lovely breeds for a backyard flock, although the Pilgrims can have fertility problems due to excessive inbreeding -- something that people like me are interested in correcting by getting breeding stock from different sources.

I have no first-hand knowledge of other breeds -- except our late, unlamented mutt gander, who appreared to have Embden in him and perhaps Toulouse as well. He turned very mean when the breeding season started. So I wouldn't want to say anything against other breeds of geese because I simply don't know much about their temperaments.

But for myself, I'll likely stick to the Pilgrims. I like the auto-sexing feature and since they are smaller geese, the ganders should be easier to handle even if they do get belligerent.

Thanks all for your support.

We think things are perhaps settling down now. My conclusion is that it must have been a space issue. A perceived lack of resources on part of the goslings and survival of the fittest kicked in.

We've kept them separated and moved all of them into the biggest boxes we can find, even though it seems excessive. We brooded FOUR ducks earlier this Spring in a container smaller than either box we're using now. (We even kept them in an extra week and a half since one of them was feathering out so slowly and it was too cool to put them out). It required continuous clean up as you can imagine, but no fighting broke out.

I guess if I were growing as fast as they are maybe the walls would seem like they were closing in.

Will try to remember to update after on the temperament of Africans. We'll need to cycle through a year to make any conclusions.

It could have been a boredom factor as much as a space factor. Glad things are going better. I think they will do better still when they are outside on grass in the daytime, even if you put them back in their brooder boxes at night.

If my memory serves me, most domestic geese are descended from the European Greylag. The exceptions are African, Chinese and Egyptian... which could account for differences in temperament.

Yes, please do keep us updated as the goslings mature. I, for one, would be very interested in learning more.

I'd give the goslings a larger area. There are always fewer problems with birds that have more room. You could try separating the goslings with a fence for a few days but they need to be visible to each other. I would not brood them separately and re-introduce at a later date.