I think what you read was something to the extent of "only having 1 goose would be considered cruel" - geese dont need to be the same breed for company, having different types of geese together is okay.
2 geese or 2 ducks would have been best. If you didnt want them to breed, you could have gotten a pair of the same sex, either 2 females or 2 males (in my case, I got a straight run [that means un-sexed] pair and I was really hoping for them to be both females, because I also didnt want them to breed & we'd get goose eggs as a bonus! But as luck would have it, my pair turned out to be 1 male & 1 female. So what we do is take her eggs as she lays them. Goose eggs are great to cook with.)
The reason I say that 2 of a kind are better is because when they grow up with babies of different species, they sometimes have trouble identifying what species they are.
But since you only have those two, I would say the duck + goose combo is way better than being alone. Miss Lydia on here had a solo goose who was raised with a bunch of ducks & for a while, it behaved like a duck. It wasnt until Miss Lydia found him another goose for company, did he learn how to be a goose - ducks are foragers whereas geese are grazers.
Your little guys should be okay. Another myth out there is that geese mate for life, domestic geese (and ducks, for that matter) mate with anyone thats available.
Good luck & welcome to the forum.
You're trying to hatch 23?! Wow!! Good luck!! There are some REALLY good threads that I think you should read, so you're not flying blindHi, I am new to the goose area of BYC, I have mainly been a chicken gal until a friend gifted me with a big incubator as a Christmas gift. So I have hatched out Muscovies, and some quail, and last Saturday I came across a woman with some goose hatching eggs. I drooled, and told her I would happily buy the three eggs she has out. Turned out that was the top layer, she had 23 and of course I bought every one of them.
So, I need help! I am totally and completely new to this, just consider me a complete dummy and please throw any and all advice at me, pm's, comments here, help me! I THINK I have a pretty good idea of how to take care of them in the incubator, but once they hatch, boy golly, I am going to need help! I set them that evening so this last Sunday is their official day one.
Help me! The box says they are "Brown Chinese Swan Geese".
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/491013/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/618185/raising-geese-101#post_8210407
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/547739/when-can-i-give-my-gosling-different-foods#post_8774369
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/676562/which-feed-is-better
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/688889/mazuri-maintenance-feed-question#post_9334293
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/611666/feeding-for-feather-quality
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/706494/can-should-i-feed-same-food-year-around
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/714644/am-i-supposed-to-give-them-grit
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/561849/geese-training#post_7245388 <--- VERY GOOD THREAD. focus on post # 18 (or was it 19...)
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/671863/how-do-you-tell-your-geese-apart-sex-wise
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/725175/banding-iding-your-birds-its-important#post_9985866
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/360141/medicine-for-geese#post_8858253
- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/733453/geese-love-to-chew-anything
Um... I didnt realize there would be so many. But all have good info, I promise!!
And there's actually a current Goose egg hatch-along thats going on right now you might want to check out, https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/747720/lets-have-a-gosling-hatchalong
Goingducks & Impress, if you want to see what your brown chinese will look like as they grow, start from page 1 of this thread - prepare for cuteness overload
