Another Goose Question

[cglem]

We've done a lot more chickens and turkeys than geese, so now that we're getting going again, I hope you here don't mind filling us in, if you can!

Briefly, our hisotyr is this: We previously had a single Roman Tufted and just loved her. We decided, though, that she needed company. And, dummy us, we came across someone getting rid of a few African geese (actually, we're still not sure if they were African or Chinese-- they were just noisy and not very friendly. . . . .) and thought they'd be perfect. Our Roman Tufted, whom we affectionaly called, Goose-goose, turned to them and soon was not very friendly with us any more.

So, we are currently in this situation: A friend gave us several of her goose eggs (the ones I mentioned in the previous post about goose eggs), and we've now got three little goslings from those growing. We've just found a place where we can get a Roman Tufted male and female gosling for a great price-- and we are sorely tempted. But we are not sure, at this point, if it would be a good idea to intermix these two breeds. We'll be using our other goslings for weeding and probably for the table. The Tufteds we want to keep as weeders and family pets.

Is something like this going to work, or will it be best to keep just a single breed?

Thanks again in advance!

- Cathy

 

[larkflying]

It depends on a couple issues . . .

A: Do you want purebred babies? If so, you will need to seperate them somehow in January through May/June for the breeding season.

B: Will you have more than one gander during the breeding season? Sometimes ganders get along okay during the breeding season, and sometimes they will pick on each other. Two of my ganders are friends and picked on the third so much that he almost died. Now I have two seperate groups of geese.

C: As far as the geese, they like big flocks. My geese were very friendly - all 8 of them, and they were raised in the barn together in a big group. During the summer whenever we did things in the chicken yard they would come over and visit and try to chew on whatever you were doing. Now that it is breeding season they aren't as socialable -- the females are thinking about eggs, and the ganders are being protective, but I have hopes that in the summer they will go back to being their loveable laid back selves . . . if you spend time with them, and train them appropriately they will respond well probably . .. .

As far as weeding -- be careful. My geese have eaten lots of things they weren't supposed to like . . . and chewed on things they didn't want to eat. I gave up the weeding idea for the moment . . . maybe I'll try a test patch of potatoes or something next year and see how they do.