Goose behaviors/ sudden inter goose aggression- help please

[Colorfulchickens]

Hello,
I have two geese, both born May 2021, a Chinese and Sebastopol. Both obtained when they were only days old, raised together. Two females by DNA sexing to IQ genetics. The Chinese started laying eggs ~ 6 weeks ago. The Sebastopol has not laid. I know they can be aggressive during “breeding season”, but she’s not staying in or defending the nest. I’ve noticed over the past several weeks that she’s getting increasing pushy with the Sebastopol. They’ve typically been inseparable friends. But the past few weeks I noted some head butting/ herding first, then some preventing access to resources, etc. I noticed one or two episodes of mounting, but my research told me that’s hormonal and “normal”… didn’t want to interfere.

However, the past 24 hours the behavior has escalated rapidly. The Chinese is mounting and smooshing the Sebastopol into bedding and the Sebastopol is screaming, a severe distress scream (which I’ve never heard until today, but it was loud enough to hear from a building and two stories away). The Sebastopols submission does not stop the behavior. I really feel like if we don’t intervene (hear the screaming and come investigate) she wouldn’t stop. The Chinese is quite a bit bigger than the Sebastopol. No wounds, but I’m getting nervous about it and def worry about her asphyxiating her with all that weight on her back. I’ve separated them for the evening since it was repeated behavior today. I feel bad for the Sebastopol not having a buddy tonight.

What is this behavior? It can’t be normal? The Sebastopol is super docile and has never questioned her submissive role, def has always been second in line to the Chinese. Any corrections beside separating… I know they hate being solo.

Both birds are still behaving normal towards us, zero aggression. Thanks for any help.

 

[Yardfulla poopers]

In my experience, Chinese Geese are just meaner then most, but my saying that doesn't help you at all.
I hope someone with more experience can help, or that it has improved since you posted.

 

[DiYMama540]

Sounds like they need to be separated. The goose laying eggs is probably trying to protect her nest. It wouldn't surprise me if the Sebastopol was checking out the nest and thinking of taking over. Calmer heads will prevail after mating season

 

[JRies]

One thought, when my African geese want to be bred they get a little (understatement) aggressive with the male. pecking mounting flirting you would think they were the male. As soon as he agrees to mount they settle down and get themself s in position.

2nd thought take the eggs away build 2 new nests far away from each other put one egg or fake egg in both, Make sure not to take any of the nesting material with you. Its possible that one of the eggs laid was from the sebastopol and your other girl claimed it as hers. Some geese can be a little possessive of any eggs or babies.

Take all this with a grain of salt though. Had a Gander, Gander, Goose, Goose fight in the middle of the night a few days ago and my favorite boy got clobbered by all. Gotta love breeding season mine haven't even started laying yet.

 

[Dementra]

We've had the same issue recently with our flock of 8 Roman Tufted Geese. They recently started attacking one of their flock mates who has been with them all year. I am sure they are probably coming into breeding hormones, and I'm wondering now if the one they are attacking is a subdominant male. We had not been successful at sexing the three that our original mated pair had hatched. We did not attempt to sex them as day-old goslings, not wanting to disturb the parents, or take the chance of injuring them as we are still relatively inexperienced. As juveniles it is difficult to vent sex until after they get to maturity and go through a breeding season and have some hormones that swell things up a bit.

We separated out our one goose who was attacked and tried to put him back after he was mostly healed, but they ended up attacking him again- worse this time- so now we have permanently separated from the rest and we will choose a female to put in with him after he has healed so he will have a mate. I feel terrible about letting them beat up on him a second time, but we have definitely learned our lesson, and we will get him healed back up and he ought to be just fine with a bit of babying.

This time of year is definitely not too early (January) to start seeing breeding behavior in geese, I have seen people with older Roman Tufted geese who start getting fertile eggs in December and have goslings by February!

Good luck!

 

[Goosey Girl]

Never realized how brutal they could be, but splitting the pen with a roll of plastic fence and some posts has made a world of difference to the gaggle. When things escalate, something has to be done.