getting day old baby goslings

[Sugar Sand Farm]

We are expecting to get 6 day old baby goslings next week. I am trying to set up the brooder. I have alot of questions. We have never had geese so young. Our other geese were 1 month old when we got them. What all do they need. I know they need a heat lamp, but what temperture. I also have a waterer and a feeder. I have heard its best to put marbles in the waterer to prevent them from drowning. Is that so. How old should they be before we take them outside during the daytime. We live in Northern Florida and its been 85-90 here. Also how old should they be before we let them swim. I know its alot of questions but I don't want to loose any of my new babies.

 

[DuckLady]

Hi, Sorry I didn't see this post.
Congrats on your goslings! They will need a waterer and feeder. What I do is when I am brooding more than one webfoot (duck OR goose), I use the bathtub in the spare bathroom. I line it with "duck towels" (towels I buy cheap by the bag at the thrift store) I put the waterer by the drain and the feed nearby in a dog bowl. Once or twice a day I remove the towels and hose the tub off with lukewarm water. If the babies get a little wet, it is ok. Or if I have the time, I let the tub fill an inch or so with warm water so they can play a bit. I drain the tub, use a towel to get most of the water off and reline with new fresh towels.
Heat lamp use is up to you. It might be warm enough where you are not to have one. If the babies are crowded together and seem cold, then turn on a heat lamp. Just use your best judgement. I would use one for the first week at night at the very least.
As they get bigger, I move them into the garage into a baby pool with a couple inches of shavings and closely surrounded with 2 to 3 foot chickenwire, pulled tight so there are no gaps for babies to get caught in. If it is warm enough, I let them play in the grass for a while each day. Goslings will start to graze on the grass almost from the time they see it.

Feed them non medicated gamebird starter and lots of water. You can chop greens for them right away. THey are messy but way worth it!

You can check out Duck Rescue Network (link in my sig line) for more tips. I recommend Dave Holderread's The Book of Geese for outstanding advice.

Good luck and in return for all this typing, I will want pics to go "Awww" over!

 

[eggchel]

Questions are never a problem, Im just sorry that everyone was busy and that you didnt get an answer more quickly.

What are your night time temperatures?
Usually brooder temps start at 85 to 95 degrees and are dropped 5 degrees per week, but I start about 85 and drop the temp a little more quickly for waterfowl. Just make sure that your heat lamp does not heat the whole brooder. In fact, in your warm weather, you probably dont need an actual heat lamp, more like a regular light bulb in a clamp or desk lamp that can be over one end of their brooder. Not over the water.... It should only heat one end so that they can get away from the light if they get too warm. Be especially careful during the day to make sure they arent overheating.

Marbles or rocks are usually put in the waterer for chicks and can also be used for goslings but only if you make sure that there is still enough room for them to get their bigger beak into the waterer. They are less likely to fall in and drown because they are bigger, but then I guess it depends on how big your waterer is. Certainly it would be fine for the first few days or a week, but after that it really shouldnt be necessary. You will more likely be trying to stop them from swimming in their waterer by then, LOL. If you put the waterer up on top of something to raise it to their chest height, they will still be able to reach it and will not be able to get in it.

Waterfowl are very hardy and in the wild would be swimming right away. The problem with having them swim when you are their "mom" is that they .... and you..... dont know how to preen them to get them dried and fluffed and waterproofed. Without feathers and preening, they get soaked to the skin and can chill, plus may drown if not watched. So, if you take them for a swim, just dont let them stay in the water for more than a short swim until they are bigger, starting to feather on their belly, and preening themselves. That said, within days they can have short swims in your sink or a pan of water and then you can dry them with a towel. Currently, I have some ducklings being raised by a goose, and they started swimming in their water pans the first chance they got, but werent allowed full access to the kiddie pool until they were big enough to climb in by themselves, at about 3 weeks old. I just always checked to be sure that they could get out, too.

You can take them out during the day right away, in your warm weather, but they are too young and small to be outside unattended unless they are in a cage of some sort. And then, make sure that they have shade. Waterfowl tend to overheat quickly.

I think that they are quite capable, with supervision, to be outside and swimming and sunning themselves, eating grass, and running around at a fairly early age. But again, if they dont have a mom to protect them..... then you have to be sure that nothing gets a chance to eat them.


If it has water in it....... week one.

Waterfowl grow really fast...... Week three.

Walking tall ....... week five

swimmer..... week five

chel

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

Thank you Terry and Chel
Tomorrow is the day!!!!
We tested the brooder light but have to change things as it went up to 100 degrees. It was 80-82 degrees in there without the light. Today I'm goiing to try to raise the light up some. I have a regular gallon poultry waterer so I guess I won't need to worry about drowning in it. My grandkids are counting down untii they arrive. I notice Chel that you have ducks with your goose. Someone told me not to do that. They said the geese get territorial in the house and will attack the ducks. I was planniing on houseing the ducks separately after he said that. It would be more convenient to house them together but I do have a smaller house that I can use for the ducks later on. We have two 12 week old gosliings as well. Do you think I will have a hard tiime introducing them when the time is right. I want to be able to house them all together eventually. I will put a partition in the house at first so they can get used to each other. We couldn't find any game birid starter We drove 70 miiles to get a unmediicated chick starter/grower made by Dumor. It says its for chicks,ducks and geese. It has a picture of them on the bag. Thats the best we can do around here. Thanks agaiin i'll try to get some pictures on here as soon as I can. Micki

 

[eggchel]

I have a regular gallon poultry waterer so I guess I won't need to worry about drowning in it.

It depends on how big the accessible water trough is. Raising it up a few inches will keep shavings and babies from falling in.

It was 80-82 degrees in there without the light.

You probably wont need the light for more than a week or two at most.

I notice Chel that you have ducks with your goose. Someone told me not to do that. They said the geese get territorial in the house and will attack the ducks. I was planniing on houseing the ducks separately after he said that. It would be more convenient to house them together but I do have a smaller house that I can use for the ducks later on. We have two 12 week old gosliings as well. Do you think I will have a hard tiime introducing them when the time is right. I want to be able to house them all together eventually. I will put a partition in the house at first so they can get used to each other.

The goose in the picture is the adoptive mom of the ducklings. I put the ducklings under her and took away the infertile eggs that she had been sitting on. I also gave her two older ducklings a few weeks later. She tried a couple times to chase the older ones off but they werent having it. They were determined to join the flock and she accepted them pretty quickly.

I have often housed geese and ducks together, generally without problem. If you have too many ganders, you will have to watch to be sure that they dont get too amorous with your ducks in the spring because they could drown the smaller ducks. You could just separate them during breeding if they have problems.
I am currently introducing 5 adult Giant Dewlap Toulous geese to the goose and ducklings in the photos. Yesterday, during their hour together, the big geese didnt bother the ducks but chased the goose a little, causing the ducklings to scatter. Today, they did better and only kept the ducklings away from the pool for a little while.
I dont think that you will have much trouble introducing the older and younger goslings. I have found that adult geese show a great deal of interest in goslings and all waterfowl seem to want to flock together.

chel​