2013 Sebastopol Breeding/Gosling Thread

[Goose and Fig]

Nice!!!

Mine have been busy training for the X Games.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Nice!!!

Mine have been busy training for the X Games.

Hope they bring home some gold!!!

 

[flaming007]

2013 hatch female

 

[FarmGirl9494]

Hello everyone! I will be posting in the Sebastopol goose thread as well but I have 2 pair of white Sebastopol's! My geese are last year(2013) March-April hatch and my ganders are June-July hatch! My girls are on their second laying period, they layed for the month of December when they were about 8-9 months old and the boys were 5 or 6 months old and there were no fertile eggs! I thought it was probably because they weren't mature yet and didn't know what they were doing! But at least one of my girls have been laying for 3 weeks now and there have been no fertile eggs! I just put 2 in so I don't know about those yet but I mean after 6+ eggs that have not been fertile I'm concerned! The boys are 9-10 months old now and I know they are male!!! I vent sexed because I had that sexing problem already! I bought my two boys who were supposed to be vet vent sexed females and after a bit I checked myself and they were 100% not female! Bought them because I thought I had two boys, but they both turned out to be girls! So I had that sexing problem but it turned out to be perfect and fixed my problem quite quickly!

What are some reasons why they aren't fertile?
Should I cut vent feathers? I had that problem with my Jersey Giant chickens because my girl had such a fluffy butt! once I cut vent feathers fertility is 100%! I read that some people do and that some recommend doing it, but I also read that it doesn't matter and lots of people don't!

Like I said before I know for sure I have two males and two females! Any info or knowledge from experience or papers will be greatly appreciated! I looked in December but couldn't find much more then vent fluff cutting and maturity! but even then I questioned myself because I know males usually mature faster than females! Ugghhh soo frustrating! lol!

Plus I have a Chinese goose and gander with them, I'm not to worried about my Chinese gander doing the job..... he rather be with humans and stands on them sideways... but my Chinese goose has been laying and I'm pretty sure they can cross breed (Please correct me if I'm wrong) but even her eggs aren't fertile and she is 'easier' to get at then my Fluff Ball seebee's!
Thanks for reading and thank you in advance for your words of wisdom and help!

 

[RURU]

Hello everyone! I will be posting in the Sebastopol goose thread as well but I have 2 pair of white Sebastopol's! My geese are last year(2013) March-April hatch and my ganders are June-July hatch! My girls are on their second laying period, they layed for the month of December when they were about 8-9 months old and the boys were 5 or 6 months old and there were no fertile eggs! I thought it was probably because they weren't mature yet and didn't know what they were doing! But at least one of my girls have been laying for 3 weeks now and there have been no fertile eggs! I just put 2 in so I don't know about those yet but I mean after 6+ eggs that have not been fertile I'm concerned! The boys are 9-10 months old now and I know they are male!!! I vent sexed because I had that sexing problem already! I bought my two boys who were supposed to be vet vent sexed females and after a bit I checked myself and they were 100% not female! Bought them because I thought I had two boys, but they both turned out to be girls! So I had that sexing problem but it turned out to be perfect and fixed my problem quite quickly!

What are some reasons why they aren't fertile?
Should I cut vent feathers? I had that problem with my Jersey Giant chickens because my girl had such a fluffy butt! once I cut vent feathers fertility is 100%! I read that some people do and that some recommend doing it, but I also read that it doesn't matter and lots of people don't!

Like I said before I know for sure I have two males and two females! Any info or knowledge from experience or papers will be greatly appreciated! I looked in December but couldn't find much more then vent fluff cutting and maturity! but even then I questioned myself because I know males usually mature faster than females! Ugghhh soo frustrating! lol!

Plus I have a Chinese goose and gander with them, I'm not to worried about my Chinese gander doing the job..... he rather be with humans and stands on them sideways... but my Chinese goose has been laying and I'm pretty sure they can cross breed (Please correct me if I'm wrong) but even her eggs aren't fertile and she is 'easier' to get at then my Fluff Ball seebee's!
Thanks for reading and thank you in advance for your words of wisdom and help!

OK, the first thing I am going to ask you did you feed corn to you geese? In Sebastopol's we find feeding corn can cause fat around the breeding organs. If you feed a lot of corn that can be the cause for either low fertility or none because there is too much fat around the fertility organs.
feed 50% all flock feed and 50% whole oats....

 

[FarmGirl9494]

OK, the first thing I am going to ask you did you feed corn to you geese? In Sebastopol's we find feeding corn can cause fat around the breeding organs. If you feed a lot of corn that can be the cause for either low fertility or none because there is too much fat around the fertility organs.
feed 50% all flock feed and 50% whole oats....

I was wondering if food had an effect. was not expecting it to be that but I was wondering in the fall/winter if they should be on corn. My mom only let me feed corn and because she likes to make things easy peasy she would heep their food up and let them have access to as much as they wanted if I couldn't go to the barn. I would mix half half corn with duck pellet to them! I always always give them extra duck pellet every chance I get and when I do it often enough egg production increases! this happened for my bantams too, I just need to put my foot down and not allow corn because it causes problems.... I am 17 so I get some say but not about some things and this was one of them.
ughhh..... Thank you RURU you have helped me in the past with these same Sebastopol's of mine! It's my first year with them so I was bound to run into problems.

now 3 questions .... First off How do I fix that? take them off immediately, change food, and ration their daily food quantity? or is their no fix? LOL I need goosey diet/weight loss pellet! they have been able to finally go out side all day now and get lots of exercise and can go inside to eat but don't. so they only get food at night now. I don't know if that will help?

Secondly, what is all flock feed? I know there is game bird pellet, duck pellet, duck grow, layer mash and chicken grow but never heard of all flock feed around here before! can you just explain the contents of it? I know food differs on where you live and the names are different sometimes. so I will try to get the closest thing possible to that around here!

Thirdly, would anything else other than fat from feed be effecting my problem?

Thank you soo much! By this time with absolutely no fertility at all I knew something was majorly wrong!!!

 

[RURU]

I was wondering if food had an effect. was not expecting it to be that but I was wondering in the fall/winter if they should be on corn. My mom only let me feed corn and because she likes to make things easy peasy she would heep their food up and let them have access to as much as they wanted if I couldn't go to the barn. I would mix half half corn with duck pellet to them! I always always give them extra duck pellet every chance I get and when I do it often enough egg production increases! this happened for my bantams too, I just need to put my foot down and not allow corn because it causes problems.... I am 17 so I get some say but not about some things and this was one of them.
ughhh..... Thank you RURU you have helped me in the past with these same Sebastopol's of mine! It's my first year with them so I was bound to run into problems.
THE PROBLEM WITH CORN IS IT IS SUGAR AND IT CAUSES THE GEESE TO GET THE FAT BUILD UP AROUND THE FERTILITY ORGANS.
You need to get them off the corn period. If you give it just a few as treat every now and then.


now 3 questions .... First off How do I fix that? take them off immediately, change food, and ration their daily food quantity? or is their no fix? LOL I need goosey diet/weight loss pellet! they have been able to finally go out side all day now and get lots of exercise and can go inside to eat but don't. so they only get food at night now. I don't know if that will help?
Stop feed it period so they can work that fat off......... Let them mainly eat grass.


Secondly, what is all flock feed? I know there is game bird pellet, duck pellet, duck grow, layer mash and chicken grow but never heard of all flock feed around here before! can you just explain the contents of it? I know food differs on where you live and the names are different sometimes. so I will try to get the closest thing possible to that around here!
Put them on just gamebird pellet. I feed Blue Seal all flock finisher.


Thirdly, would anything else other than fat from feed be effecting my problem?
Not that I know of but really believe it is the fat around the fertility organ because that can make them throw blanks and the females to not conceive as well from being fat.


Thank you soo much! By this time with absolutely no fertility at all I knew something was majorly wrong!!!
Yep, they got all fattened up from the winter feed of half corn...........

 

[livininbrazil]

Hi guys....just my 2cents....mine eat corn every day. It´s not masses, as they´re free-range on grass, but they get 80 - 100% fertility.
Other thing. Farmgirl, you may find this a stupid question... do your geese have a pool of water deep enough to breed in? I know that some people say they don´t need it, but it´s got to be better.

 

[SilkieSensation]

I was wondering about the pool as well. My geese last year weren't fertile until I got them a deep enough pool. Even a kiddie pool 8 inches deep is better than nothing.

 

[FarmGirl9494]

Okay!! thank you! Ya if they want to go and hunt down corn in other pens or leftovers on the ground they can but I will get them off corn!! they actually think the duck pellet is a treat so I don't think I will have any trouble with the gamebird pellet! it just contains a few extra ingredients and they won't know the difference! But whole oats may be a different story! It may work if it's mixed with the pellets but I have a feeling that may take some time to get used to! but I wont be feeding them much, definitely no fee feed all day, only one dish enough for everyone at night! so if they want it they can eat it. if not they can think they are being neglevted and starving but they can just deal and eat grass and bugs they have to get on their own!!

Yes I am stopping corn period but should I still not free feed pellet and oats and only give the smallest amount just enough for daily consumption? Or did you mean stop all feeding for a bit? But if I should still feed some food nightly what quantity of food should I give to 6 geese in total, but I'd only give food for 5 in the pen because my Chinese gander hardly eats anything anyways!!!!

Okay thank you!!!! Yupp!! winter is always a killer!!! I love my fatties to death but I would love for them to be healthier and to produce babies!!! geese are my fav and I really want seebee babies!!!!

Hi guys....just my 2cents....mine eat corn every day. It´s not masses, as they´re free-range on grass, but they get 80 - 100% fertility.
Other thing. Farmgirl, you may find this a stupid question... do your geese have a pool of water deep enough to breed in? I know that some people say they don´t need it, but it´s got to be better.

Ya that's what my mom said!! that the geese have always eaten straight corn and have always been fine so that's all they need! Just like the chickens(but was scratch not corn)... till I got 2 out of 20 eggs hatched and that was it, hopped on here and their food was the problem, changed it and now I can't stop the things from laying and hatching out babies here there and everywhere!
So I will be switching food but I think my main problem is that they gorged out wayyyy too much on all that food during winter! if I would have fed less and more half half stuff, which only got fed half the time because my mom would only give corn and I couldn't get the food out once it was in their feeder to mix it, I think theywould have been fine or atleast a lot better!!!

They have a 6 foot deep pond that they have full access to but haven't started to use it yet. They have a kiddie pool by the barn that I think is filled, a small 6" deep pond/puddle that is the size of two and a half kiddie pools just a td bit shallower and muddier! they also have about ten 3+ inch deep puddles all over the yard and field that they bath in constantly! I don't really see them mate but my mom she sees them do it! but only in their bed! never outside!!!!