wow. i know that waterfowl sex is rough and that sometimes rape can be involved. i even read recently, actually, that (if i'm not too graphic) their vaginas can be the opposite corkscrew direction than the penis so that at least if they are raped, then it doens't generally fertilize them. the female has to do something with the muscles for it to take the sperm all the way in.

that being said, yeah, it sounds like two males just isn't working for you.

i have one boy duck and a pair of male/female geese so thankfully haven't had this problem. as i get more, though, i would imagine i might. eeek.

i would get rid of these two, honestly, and start over. it doesn't sound like you would want to put any innocents out there with them.

i would think if the territory were too small to support them that you would have had problems before.

maybe get rid of these and start again. could you get one male and two females? or just one of each?

i don't want to be offensive, but to me, it reminds me of a rooster. i would probably eat them. but then i can eat something with a bad attitude, some people can't. or would't want to and taht's cool, too.

a big hug to you. this would totally freak me out, too.

Gosh! What a loss. Sorry for you. I lost my favorite pair a summer before last. We had the same set up - 2 pair of Chinese. A roving dog did in two of them. They were quite chummy too. With only one remaining gander and goose, we added two more hens to round out his harem from which he selected two lovers. We ended up with a slew of goslings this spring.

I googled gander drowning goose, but couldn't come up with anything. It would seem mother nature would prevent this sort of thing, but since they're domesticated, perhaps it could happen....or, to add to your theory,,,is it possible that she was trounced twice in a row and was so spent she drowned as a result? Or could she have been injured or compromised in some way and THEN met up with your gander's advance? I can only tell you that in our case, our gander managed to have his way in about 20 seconds at best, with a lot of splashing around. I don't know if this sheds any light onto your last sighting of wreckless behavior, but that's OUR norm. I DO know that birds - all birds, are suspectible to and wither under stress.

We have a similar situation (2 perfect pairs) in both our Muscovy and Indian Runner department. Duck love is tough love too, and I occasionally see a single hen doing double duty, so I sometimes wonder if we have almost, a surplus of males. I'm keeping an eye on it.

Can you add more females? It helped us. This spring we too will be entertaining another gander. We've decided to keep one of the 'sons'. This will give us 4 females, two males. Hopefully, there will be enough love to go around.

I appreciate the responses very much...

Picklespickles, I think you might be right about starting over. It would be hard on me to do, but the thing is I am not sure if we could at this point. You mentioned getting another female or two. WeÂd love to but donÂt know where we could find them and donÂt know of anyone needing a couple of ganders... personally I could never eat the culprit (those who can, thatÂs great) and besides, heÂd make a mighty expensive Christmas dinner!

lfrj, I donÂt think she was compromised in any way as far as I know. Just that morning when my dh let them out they were all strong and vigorous. This happened a couple of hours later. During the day they have a large grassy area for ranging behind our house including a 2 acre pond. My kitchen window overlooks it so most of the time theyÂre in my sight. We put them in a secure enclosure every night and they are glad to go there. We have lots of coyotes around and some creature has tried to dig itÂs way into the enclosure several times so I think it gives them security... also we had a small pen right next to them where we were trying to nurse a badly injured goose back to health (coyotes had gotten into our neighborÂs pen and killed all but her). This pen was sturdy and heavy but I went to let them out one morning and something had dug its way under her pen and killed her. I felt pretty sick. Must have done it for pleasure because only her neck was injured besides her former injuries. My geese had some less serious injuries as though they had been terrorized. The largest gander seemed to have a broken foot (the wire of the pen was bowed out on the side nest to the small pen and I think he must have kept hurling himself against it wanting to help while the other trauma was going on), three had missing toenails, all their beaks looked roughed up, etc. For days they didnÂt even want to come out which was very unusual. But they soon were back to normal, altho the gander limped for quite awhile.

I wonder if your first theory could be right. IsnÂt this a little out of season for mating behavior or can that happen anytime? Maybe she wasnÂt receptive? Now I am worried about the other goose if the gander keeps up this behavior, which I see no reason why he wonÂt. There is a lot I donÂt know about geese, I guess. IÂd thought we were somewhat experienced.

i am wondering if they were overmating her as a dominance thing between the two males. good luck. gee.

When there are compeating males in waterfowl this happens. I had the problem with ducks, after the males bred the females to death they did it to each other.

I am sorry for your loss. I know how hard this is to go through. I just lost my male duck to a dog)-: It was heartbreaking. Anyhow my first thought was a hawk. We have them here and they dive down and smack the geese/ducks etc and usually come back if they don't grab them at the time. I have lost many birds to hawks.)-: The good thing is they seem to be dead instantly unlike other preditors. It seems late for mating geese but then since they are domestic maybe not. I know ducks can be brutal with each other just like roosters. So that is possible. Male geese can also be very protective like watch dogs.

A friend of mine had a pet female goose she had raised from a gosling. The bird had the run of the place including the small pond in the front yard.

One day my friend was in the house and heard loud squawking from the pond. She looked out the window just in time to see two wild canadian geese drowning her goose. My friend grabbed her bb gun and went to the goose's rescue.

She fired a couple shots at them and they took off. The goose was ok, but was very indignant. My friend kept her inside at night after that.

My friend said she also had problems with raccoons eating her eggs.

I have read about how rough ducks can be when they are breeding. Seems to be the case with other waterfowl as well.

Wow, I've seen rough waterfowl and have wondered about the drowning thing myself, but have never actually seen it. That's too bad. :(

Velvet ~:>

I have 3 African ganders, a Chinese gander and three each African and Chinese females. I bought them unsexed as babies and couldn't sex them until they were full grown. Maybe it's the weird mix of males and females but mine seem to be displaying some weird sexual behaviors... My three female Chinese constantly pester the male Chinese until he mates with them. This happened again today but then afterward the other three African males all lined up and mated with the Chinese male........ Is that behavior normal???

As far as rough mating goes my largest Super African male does seem to hold the females under water for quite a long time but the females seem to like him and he's their favorite. There is no paring off though.... any and all of my males and females intermingle and mate freely.

All in all they all get along with very little fighting and this fall, at 6 months old, my girls all started laying eggs like crazy! I've been getting a minimum of 2 eggs a day for two months now. Occasionally there will be a whole clutch of eggs hidden in the barn. I hope they're still laying in the spring so I can hatch some more. I can't wait to see the mommas raising their kids.....

I saw a goose drown another goose on the river ....also a few gossllngs drowned and the mother goose made it back to shore with only 4 gosslings left