Any Reason Not to Let Goose Hatch Eggs Her First Year?

[Iain Utah]

After I got the advice to not breed my yearling dewlaps, I asked an African breeder I respect about breeding my yearling Africans, and she said to go for it. She said that she has had some yearling pairs produce nicely, but others did not get going until their 2nd year. I have 2-3 pairs of yearlings that I hope will produce fertile hatching eggs.

 

[NEgoosegirl]

A question just came up in a conversation with a friend, about letting geese hatch their eggs during their first season. I have never heard of this before and am just curious what the reasons could be. I would really like to learn the answers to this some other way than the 'hard' way for a change.

I have actually been wondering the same thing. Thanks everybody for the info on this thread! Maybe I will let my yearling Sebastopol set after all...if she wants to. Does anyone have any breed-specific reasons not to allow yearling Sebbies to hatch their eggs? Also, I'm thinking I might take her first clutch and then see if she wants to hatch the second--with the thought that later eggs might be larger. I'd appreciate any feedback anyone might have on that! Thanks!

 

[NEgoosegirl]

Thought I would just check back in over a year later with this info: I ended up not letting my yearling Sebbie hatch her eggs for nest location reasons. I weighed her eggs that first season and then again this March. This year's eggs were bigger than last spring's. But, my goose was only 9 months old her first laying season. If she had been a year, maybe her first season's eggs would have been larger. Anyway, just thought I'd record the observation.