does anyone have experience with toulouse geese?

[sydney13]

i have a little toulouse gosling and she is a week old. ive heard some people say they are very loud and other people say the are quiet. in you experience are toulouse geese quiet and are they very friendly? how much would a production toulouse weigh? do you think my goose could fit through a 1.5 by 1.5 door on the coop? I know that the giant toulouse geese cant fly well but how high could a smaller production type of toulouse fly? and ive heard that some of toulouse geese have lived for over 100 years but ive also read that toulouse geese dont live long because they are so big. how long do yours live?

 

[snowydiamonds]

I have a ten yr old goose and she's quiet unless she's talking about something such as the neighbor bringing her goodies or my car/me coming home or danger. She flew over a 6 or 7 foot fence (chainlink, dog kennel fencing) to come to the window this past Spring to tell me some important news but the snow was deep and made the fence only 3 feet high. She was telling me her adopted daughter wasn't doing too well. Mine's a great broody and great mama. I'm her third and last owner, she's here to stay.
Grayzie (she came w/her name) can be held, she shares goslings w/me, has never tried to bite me but I'm not sure that would stand w/people she doesn't know. Geese are territorial and I became the owner of her and the (white) Embden named Snowflake because they almost killed the previous owner's BO rooster named Fred. I don't keep any other birds or animals w/my geese for that reason and the fact that they killed my favorite crested Magpie duck when I wasn't home one day fishing. I thought the ducks had enough space to get away from the geese if need be but I was wrong.

She's the gray one nearest the goose barn, you can't see her head. She's the meatiest, heaviest goose I've got but the 2 yr old American Buff ganders are catching up in weight.

 

[Goosehaven]

I have one toulouse gander. He is just a little over a year old but so far he is friendly and quiet. Actually more laid back and quiet than my roman tufted geese. I will say he can fly though and if he wants out of the pen in the morning before I get to them he can fly over the 4 foot chain link fence with no problem. I have seen him get pretty higher in the air when he has flown than I would have thought when he has flown back to the house from across the lake. It is probably best to trim a few of the flight feathers if you don't want to risk them flying. I keep his long because he hangs out alot with the canadians around the lake and in his case I feel like it keeps him more safe from predators because he could fly to get away from them. None of my other adult geese even make an attempt to fly, just my toulouse.

I don't think a 1.5 high door is quite high enough for a fully grown toulouse. The door on our goose shack is 3 foot tall but that leaves them alot of room and room enough for me to duck under it to get in. I would say 2 foot tall would be sufficient if you can make it that high.

I know a lady that has a toulouse that she says is around 19 years old. That's the oldest I've heard of.

 

[laughaha]

I have 2 Toulouse girls. I love them to bits!!!! They are only loud when something isn't right with their world. Of course this could be a leaf blowing through their pen, lol. Mine are only a year old. They are friendly with me but hate EVERYONE else, but will still let strangers feed them grass and weeds through the fence. They have no problem getting into the chicken coop via a chicken size door.

This pic is from last year sometime around August or so.

 

[19hhbelgian]

I've had toulouse geese, and they were always very nice. They weren't loud unless something (like a predator) was near by, they would eat out of my hand, and my "Mommy goose" was a great mom

Mine never flew very high - maybe a couple feet above the ground/water, but they really had to get going in order to do that. My geese were with our ducks and we never had any trouble - but they were also raised with the ducks.

 

[Kim65]

My first flock were Toulouse. The imprinted ones were very sweet lap geese. They weren't loud unless they "vanquished" an enemy or there was an intruder (read: innocent visitor, mailman, neighbor, hawk, finch/tweetie bird/large butterfly).

 

[amity3520]

I love one production toulouse female and she is very sweet. Of course, this may be because she has a big bad Am. Buff gander to do all her protection work for her, but she's only really loud when another dog gets in the yard. She'll also "talk" to you, like if you honk at her she'll honk back, loudly. They definitely can be loud when they want to be, like they get excited when you get home and they know it's about their dinner time, but it's not like they're constantly squawking out there. And mine aren't loud at all until someone lets them out of the barn in the morning, so it's not like a rooster crowing at sunrise if you're concerned about neighbors...

I'd say she's about 16 lbs, not positive on that though as I've never weighed her. She laid eggs (her first year) from the end of January to mid-April, and they were delicious and perfect for the most part. She wasn't even 1 at that point so I expected a kind of odd laying season, but her's wasn't too weird at all. Both her and my Am. Buff gander flew a about 10 ft or so off the ground before their first winter. I think at this point they've gained a bit too much weight, and we also don't have the same opportunity for them to be flying anymore. I mean, they could easily clear our fence but they choose not to. If you want a friendly goose just try to handle her as much as possible, we didn't really do that enough with ours, and we got them when they were about 3 weeks old so they'd already gotten very bonded with each other, but they definitely bonded to the caregiver, my dad, at least.

 

[JinxieKat]

At what age have your female Toulouse started to lay eggs? I have a 9 month old, which I believe to be female but haven’t received 1 single egg from yet. My brown Chinese on the other hand is a regular layer.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Where are you in the world. Geese breeding season starts late winter and laying not long after.

 

[JinxieKat]

I live in Washington state. I bought them March 8, 2019. They were both 1 day old at the time. The Brown Chinese started laying late June/early July. This is my 1st time owning geese.

I wasn't sure if there was a difference between the two breeds on when they would lay eggs or if the Toulouse isn't really a female. I don't really know how to sex them as an adult or know what I be looking for (behavior, features, etc.). Pip (Toulouse) is very quiet and friendly and so is Squeak (Brown Chinese). They are only really make noises if they are happy to see us in the yard or something is in the yard (our dogs, visiting mallards, the muskrat, etc.). Squeak will get a little more vocal when she wants to be picked up and carried around the yard.

I know Squeak is a female because she lets you know when she is going to go lay an egg. She stays there with it then goes and gets you to tell you all about it.

Geese are so much more different the the ducks I have owned. So much more personality.