GEESE: What is normal behavior with new babies?

[monicarick]

I have a pair of 2-year old American Buff Geese. "Bernice" started sitting on about 8 of her eggs 2 months ago, but after a few weeks, I candled them and confirmed my suspicion that they were not fertile. (They don't have deep enough water to mate successfully.)

So I took about 10 fertile Blue Swedish duck eggs and Bernice successfully got 5 of them to full term. However, I was very concerned about hatching day, as I didn't know if Bernice would be able to hatch the ducklings without squishing them. Sure enough, when the first baby hatched, Bernice accidentally suffocated it. So I took the remaining eggs (switched them for some other day-old duck eggs so she wouldn't get upset) and put them in the incubator. 2 ducklings hatched on Friday and last night, I successfully swapped Bernice's eggs for the 2 day-old baby ducklings.

Her mate "Bernard" has been by her side this entire time, and the switch last night was so incredible to watch! When they figured out they had babies, they made such wonderful noises - as if they were saying "The babies are here! The babies are here!". After a few minutes they settled in and I continued to watch quietly for the next few hours, just to make sure all would be well.

The ducklings finally learned to go under Bernice's wing for warmth and this morning the new family seemed to be doing well. So here is my question... While watching Bernard interact with the babies, he does something that I don't know if it is normal or not. When the babies stray from Bernice, he picks them up by their heads and it seems like he is trying to move them back towards Bernice. The babies are not ultimately hurt by this, but they move even farther away to try and get away from Bernards "nips". Is this normal? It seems like it would be - but I'm nervous because these are ducklings and not goslings. Maybe they can't tolerate this behavior?

I'm keeping a very close eye on the family right now, but any advice would be appreciated if someone has been thru something like this before. I am also concerned about the babies getting stepped on and hurt by their parents. (Bernard accidentally stepped on one of our ducks' 4-week old ducklings and his foot is now paralyzed.)

Thanks!

[goosedragon]

My gander never did it with ducklings but he would pick up goslings as you describe. I think it was a learning experience for the goslings as they soon learned to head for Mama whenever he "spoke" to them. He would babysit ducklings if he didn't have a brood of his own to keep him busy, but them he just herded. now my gander isn't your gander, but picking his kids up was normal for him.

[monicarick]

Thank you! This makes a lot of sense! (And my gander also spent hours herding and guarding the ducklings that hatched last month, while his mate was sitting.) Throughout the day, I kept checking on them and the 2 ducklings are doing great. Everyone seems to have adapted to one another - the geese to having teeny tiny babies, and the little ducklings to having big mammoth parents. :)