Goose age...

[noahsgeese]

I think that somewhere I heard that geese can live up to 20-40 years? Is this true?

 

[ChickFila]

I've heard that geese can live 20-25 years and larger breed have shorter life span.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Yes- 20+ years. Larger breeds maybe less than that.

 

[Kim65]

Dave Holderread says he has a Pilgrim pair that are still laying fertile eggs at 30 plus years old.

The oldest living geese tend to be ganders, I read somewhere. Something about the stress of egg laying for the females. That makes sense, really. A goose will not produce quite the amount of eggs per year if she is given a "natural" goose diet of grasses and seeds (pure forage), and perhaps that's why Canadas tend to live 30 plus years. They don't get used up like the domestic breeds fed concentrates that support maximum egg production and body size. Something that's making me think . . . I don't care about egg production being maxed out and I'm certainly not eating my geese.

I saw a blip on the news a few years ago about a 50 year old (confirmed) gander, who was given as part of a breeding pair to a woman by her husband as a wedding present. The female lived to be in her thirties, and the gander had terrible arthritis, but hobbled out to where the female was buried often and sat on her grave

 

[noahsgeese]

That is a really SAD story