Discovered the sex of my geese -- can they produce viable offspring?

[SkyWarrior]

I purchased two goslings on April 8 of this year without an idea of what sex or even what breed until they got older. They turned out to be an African and a production Toulouse. Well, today I got a surprise. The African (Ee'qua) climbed on top of the Toulouse (Louis -- Louise?) and clumsily mated.

After thinking about Ee'qua's displays, this isn't such a surprise. He's really snotty towards the roosters in the pen next to him. Even so, I'm delighted I have a mated pair. Now, my question is: can they produce offspring? Are geese broody or am I going to have to incubate the eggs? When will Louise start laying eggs?

I'm not really concerned about having pure Toulouse or pure Africans. Their goslings will be cool and probably be used for meat and eggs down the road.

 

[Kevin565]

1. yes they could produce offspring but they may be too young at the moment.
2. Geese are very good at going broody.
3. She could start this year but most likely will not until next spring.

 

[SkyWarrior]

Quote:
I figured she'd be too young for a while. Good that geese go broody -- very, very cool. I'll need to build a nest box for her. I had thought I wouldn't know their sexes until spring, but surprise!

 

[queenbeezz]

Just an little amusing story. I bought two geese a couple of years ago, saved them from a butcher. One was a white Chinese, the other a Embden. I was told that the Chinese was male, the Embden a female. About six months later they started "mating" in the pond and another month later the Embden went broody (and mean as a snake). She built a nest and started sitting. She laid eggs, and laid and laid until there were near 20 in the nest. I could not get near enough to lessen the number if I wanted to. She sat and sat and sat. The male would get into the nest with her and sit too. Finally I could not stand it anymore, she had been sitting way past time for hatching. I distracted her (actually, I ran, she chased) while hubby cleaned out a nest of exploding rotten eggs.
A few months go by and the male starting building a nest, eggs appeared and HE started sitting. Come to find out I had two females. Both were laying in that first nest and that "mating" that was going on in the pond must have been a dominence thing, but you could have fooled me. And they did.

The moral to this is never be sure what you have until you see them lay.

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

But its soooo hard to wait !!!!! but thank you ....