Breeding Size into White Africans

[WhiteAfrican923]

Hi Everyone, I have been owned White Africans for 4 years now. I purchased my first pair from Ryan Gartman. He shipped them through the mail as adults. I bought another pair from Butch Gunderson. The gander was from his stock and the goose was from Rodney Haefs stock. I got my first and only gosling last May. Factors such as leaving a light on during the Fall resulting in the first egg on December 21st or moving them from the main barn to the pasture for the spring have caused limited success in hatching and raising babies. I have 10 eggs (all under geese). I do not no if any will watch. My big question is how do I breed size into the White Africans. I have been to many shows and seen brown ganders with beer keg bodies and tree trunk necks. Mine are between the mediocre Chinas with dewlaps and the big show mammoths. I have heard suggestions like breeding a brown gander to a white female and breeding only the brown daughters with white chest blazes to an all white gander. The other more laborious way is breeding Embden to Chinas in hopes of a dual lobed china and breeding them to show quality browns. IDK!!!! I have heard that diet plays a big part which I believe. I feed them 16% Armada Duck and Goose Pellets but switched to a combo of 50 lbs Producers Pride scratch grain/ 50 lbs Purina layer crumble/ 50 lbs Producers Pride crack corn/ 15 lbs Manna Pro poultry conditioner. I want a feed schedule in place from the time they hatch, grow, finish, breed, lay, show, and maintenance. The most common brands in my area are Dumor and Purina while the limited access brands are Armada, Kent and Nutrena. Please somebody help me. I want to save this breed so any tips are welcomed. Also these are the only breed that I show so I am not bogged down with 40 other breeds I have to worry about but I do have other chickens,ducks,geese,guinea fowl, and peafowl that I keep for pleasure. NOTE: I posted this message on ShowBirdBid.com.

 

[WhiteAfrican923]

Well I am going in the right direction. I hatched my first baby today. The little button is out under mom right now. No High-Toned incubators for me. Leave it to the mom.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Most folks I've seen with good Whites have but them through Browns. There's a color equation, just make sure you're clear on it before you begin.

 

[WhiteAfrican923]

What is the equation?

 

[Yellow House Farm]

I once knew, but I've since forgotten. Call Dave Holderread at Holderreads Waterfowl Farm, and he'll explain it to you for sure.

 

[destiny_56085]

Lance Ewert from up here in MN has a really nice flock of white Africans! We have a couple from him and some out of the old Hauger/Schulte stock too. As you can see from my pics below, they are really catching up to the browns. Raise as many as you can and keep on culling at the end of the year. Its been a hard winter and we're finally getting goslings here.

 

[WhiteAfrican923]

Those are nice white africans. I have seen some pretty bad "white africans" which are chinas with dewlaps. I have three babies that hatched out over one weeks time. My big thing is people do not show them when they have them. I would love to walk into a show room and see 50 whites along side the browns. I hatched one gosling that looks like he/she will be a giant. He weighed 8 oz when he/she was hatched and he/she's feet measure 1 3/4 inch across per foot. He/she even has a knob which the others do not and he is only two days old. The mom and dad are from Ryan Gartman which got his from Brian Schulte.

 

[destiny_56085]

Our geese are pretty much done laying. Random egg found here and there but they are turning up infertile now. I managed to get 4 white African goslings and a fair number of browns. Couple of the brown/white crosses with the white on the chest which we won't be keeping. Maybe I will get around to showing a few of them this fall. We used to show waterfowl more when my brother wasn't working so much and could help. I already usually have 30-50 birds along when we do go to shows though and truck/trailer is pretty full.

My brother used to deal a lot with Brian Schulte. Brian Hauger bought out most of his flock when he moved out to SD and we got birds from him several times too. Haven't seen Mr. Hauger at any shows for the last couple years though. We had a problem with bald eagles about 3-4 years ago and they wiped out most of our waterfowl. Replenished a lot of birds from Lance/Sheila Ewert and Don Roscoe.

As for feeding, I guess we really don't do much special. 23% starter/grower mash from the local mill for first couple weeks and then everything is kicked out onto grass as soon as possible. Those birds have access to cracked corn/mash mix. We used to feed the 18% Kent Multiflock pellets... Loved them but prices shot up dramatically over last few years.

 

[pigeons in ak]

I thought white africans would look like this