Breed Details:
A stately and impressive large breed. Generally quiet and placid in nature. This is a slow to mature breed and it is often up to 3 years before their full potential is reached. Show quality birds should appear massive with loose broad feathering, deep in the body, strong head and beak, large dewlap (often double loded), large bowed keel that appears to touch the ground. Overall the bird should appear 'box' shaped. These large birds are easy to keep but prefer a quiet environment with access to shallow bathing pools. Fertility is sometimes low in some lines but it is untrue that the large Ganders are unable to mate. However they must be fit. Fertility is often higher in younger ganders before they are fully developed. Females lay approx 30 eggs starting in March and may go broody but their large size sometimes makes them clumsy with eggs and/or goslings. The eggs appear to be difficult to incubate as they fail to lose sufficent moisture to reach a weight loss target of 16%. Incubate at 37.2C and low relative humidity. Eggs usually internally pip on day 27, externally pip on day 28 and hatch on day 29. Their eggs DO NOT require lockdown conditions until External Pipping. With this breed it is worth tracking down good quality stock and paying a little extra. Goslings appear to be no more difficult to rear than other breeds.



GANDER

GOOSE

Egg

GOSLINGS