GOOSE BREEDING THREAD - for breeding, incubating, hatching and rearing.

[SolarPoweredMe]

Solar, not sure what your set-up is, but I would not be disappointed with Chinese in terms of pet-like breed. Some of the most pet-like geese I have met are Chinese. Three of my Africans are "hatchery" quality, ie with Chinese in them. They are among the friendliest geese in my entire group. Sure, Chinese can be a loud breed, but I find noise level to be largely individual, and not so much breed specific.

Having raised Africans, production Toulouse and dewlap Toulouse, I am a big believer that (with the occasional exception) a goose's disposition toward humans is largely determined by how much and how well they are handled when very young.

Everything we've read say Chinese are the worst for pets because they are super noisy, way more aggressive than the other common types, and territorial. I've thought that the characteristics were greatly breed specific with slight variations for individual character! We plan on spending TONS of time with our pets, so socialization won't be an issue, and we both have lots of experience with animal psychology and how to train... Might be ok yet! Thanks for the info. Onward to another rampant google search!

 

[8GeeseALaying]

ROFL I can soooo see it happening! The hatching is so addictive it's insane. If I had the space I might be inclined to, but at least for now we've got to be careful not to overcrowd and get in over our heads. I WISH we had the means and space to spread out! Not till after I'm done with school though. Have you incubated the eggs from your flock or let them do it solo? I can't imagine the surprise of finding babies under mom one morning!

I'm terrified at the moment. The little giant incubator the other 6 eggs are in went nuts. Checked on the temp/humidity and it was at 108. Don't know how long it was like that, the eggs didn't feel that hot to the touch. Then the **** thing just turned off and quit heating all together. It's been a mad dash to clean out, disinfect, dry, and prep the one that just hatched these 3 to see if they are savable. Some are moving... We'll see. Although these babies are painfully adorable, all 3 are unmistakably Chinese, the one breed we preferred not to keep from the mixed flock we got these eggs from. We already have diapers, pool, food, brooders, and names picked out for our 2 pets... We can't keep Chinese if they're as noisy and temperamental as I've read. We don't want watch dogs, we want pets that will spend a large amount of time indoors with us. Color me heart broken. We brought the broken, saddled, unlikely to survive smashed shipment to term, and somehow screw up the ones that arrived pristinely and have developed perfectly. AARRGGGGGG!

When incubating eggs things can happen no matter what. Whether its human error, mechanical error or an error of nature. There is never a garuantee when you put eggs in that you will get anything out. If you get one or a dozen to hatch you are lucky.
I have mostly incubated most of my eggs. I allowed one goose to sit on 15 eggs last season. She successfully hatched 10, of the 5 left 4 had developed but never hatched. She made it out of the nest with 7 and succesfully raised 5 to adults. The two that didnt make it was of no fault of hers. One broke its hip the other dropped dead from birth defects at 3 mos old. Even with natural incubation things can go wrong.
Chinese geese are not as bad as most say they are. As Utah said its largely on the goose's disposition and the way it is raised. Some of mine are loud and some are not, right now my loudest geese are the toulouse and Tufteds and NONE are aggressive not even the ones i didnt raise.
If you want them as a pet i dont see why a chinese couldnt fill the position like all geese they are smart and can learn.

 

[hotcurltr]

Everything we've read say Chinese are the worst for pets because they are super noisy, way more aggressive than the other common types, and territorial. I've thought that the characteristics were greatly breed specific with slight variations for individual character! We plan on spending TONS of time with our pets, so socialization won't be an issue, and we both have lots of experience with animal psychology and how to train... Might be ok yet! Thanks for the info. Onward to another rampant google search!

Hi, I'm reading on here all the time but usually don't post. Howerver, I have to in the defense of my chinese geese. All my breeds are awesome, but JC, my white chinese gander is a love. Yes he is a watchdog, but is always underfoot, follows me everywhere, Gives kisses, etc. Loves to be held, gets his feelings hurt easily. however, and as far as noise, I can't see that he is any noisier than the others. I so have a brown chinese gander who is noisy, but only if he;s seperated from the rest. They make as good a pets as any others. I have 4 different breeds and love them all. As far as loving me, my JC seems to love me best, and possibley Huey My pomeranian

 

[servpolice]

First ones african and second is white chinese

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

We have babies!!!! 2 of the 3 from the first batch hatched! The third is still fighting hard, not out yet. We set up one of our surveillance cams up on motion detection alarms and it woke us around 6am. The next came about 5 hours later. I can not believe ANY made it from the first shipment! The solid yellow one had an air cell so bad that we didn't know which way was up. ARG! Can't wait for the third one.... And the 6 surviving from the replacement shipment just went into lockdown.

Anyone care to guess at breeds?!?!?!?

What sweet goslings! I'm going to show these to my ladies and tell them to get eggin'!!

ROFL I wish I could!! Don't know if we could handle 20 geese though lol They are soooooo friggin CUTE though.

The difference between two and twenty geese is the amount of feed they consume! Believe me, I know. Started out with a juvenile pair of American Buffs...now I have 28 geese tromping around. Anyone need a goose or two? ; ) LOL






Blessings -

~ Aspen

 

[SolarPoweredMe]

They're moving! All 6 eggs are moving around. Can hear chirping from inside the incubator.

This is the first 3. I'm so totally smitten by the little girl, she's so animated. She's the only one that will turn her head and look at us when we're messing with them like "I seeeeeee you!". You guys are totally right. We did a lot of looking into Chinese, and scoured the Chinese thread here and we're going to pick whichever ones we fall totally in love with... The most.. Since it's apperantly hard not to love them all. We've thought about it, and we didn't think it would be fair to let them imprint on us if there was the possibility of wanting one of the 6 coming soon. I know I'm "counting my chickens before they hatch", but I'm hopeful. This was they'll be ok with being with other geese, but still ok with humans too. We finally got the mother goose book in, and we're half way through it. Got our diapers in too! It's very hard not to play with them constantly.

 

[SolarPoweredMe]

Aspen, I want to come to your place with a bucket of peas and play for a while!!! We've gotta be careful or we'll forfeit the bed space to them lol Do you have favorites? Are they all pets or more production animals now? I can't imagine dozens of geese all wanting to hang out and have your attention all the time!

 

[livininbrazil]

They're moving! All 6 eggs are moving around. Can hear chirping from inside the incubator.

This is the first 3. I'm so totally smitten by the little girl, she's so animated. She's the only one that will turn her head and look at us when we're messing with them like "I seeeeeee you!". You guys are totally right. We did a lot of looking into Chinese, and scoured the Chinese thread here and we're going to pick whichever ones we fall totally in love with... The most.. Since it's apperantly hard not to love them all. We've thought about it, and we didn't think it would be fair to let them imprint on us if there was the possibility of wanting one of the 6 coming soon. I know I'm "counting my chickens before they hatch", but I'm hopeful. This was they'll be ok with being with other geese, but still ok with humans too. We finally got the mother goose book in, and we're half way through it. Got our diapers in too! It's very hard not to play with them constantly.

I´m pleased you changed your mind about how to rear them, you´ll have happier geese. And you´´ll enjoy them more, too. And please don´t get all offended again...I was simply relating experiences that people have had. I´ve learned a lot from other peoples´ experiences, as well as my own, as you are obviously doing now through your research. Sounds like you´re having a lot of fun. Enjoy your gozzies.

 

[SolarPoweredMe]

I´m pleased you changed your mind about how to rear them, you´ll have happier geese. And you´´ll enjoy them more, too. And please don´t get all offended again...I was simply relating experiences that people have had. I´ve learned a lot from other peoples´ experiences, as well as my own, as you are obviously doing now through your research. Sounds like you´re having a lot of fun. Enjoy your gozzies.

Livin, we still plan on imprinting our pets to us individually. Again, the work is not the issue, we're prepared. The ones we keep will be inside pets, and we want them to think they are human, and think we are mom and dad respectively. Since it is fact that the first larger living thing it sees is mom, the second dad, and they will be imprinted as such as long as it's fostered for a period of time. So for the first 48 hours or so, we will be their only contact. After that they'll be able to hang out and play with each other, but will still sleep separated, each with their human for a week and a half or so in order to make sure they are more human geese than geese geese. We've got it all set up so they can see us at night and won't be lonely. I originally got offended because you approached a newbie here (me) with the assumption, or at least the impression that we're out to harm them in some way. Or worse, that we were about to imprint goslings before knowing what it meant for them. When in fact we do everything we can not to hurt animals. Especially the ones we're responsible for. We thought about getting these, and were reading up months before pulling the trigger. The yard, the house, and everything was set up before we got the eggs. We've been reading over a lot of Konrad Lorenz's work and discoveries with imprinting, as well as Nancy Townsend's, and we're entirely committed to taking care of what will essentially be an eternal 2 year old for the next 2 decades plus. The only difference from now and my first posts here, is that I understand how quick the imprint process is, how strong it can really be if done properly, and that geese form more than the parent bonds, they understand siblings as life long friendships too. We're still separating them for a period of time, it just won't be for as long as originally intended. We didn't do it with any from the first 3 because we're afraid we'll want one of the 6 that are starting to pip and felt it wasn't humane to attach them if there was even a little chance we weren't going to commit to that particular animal. Instead of coming off condescending or passive-aggressive, perhaps you could be a little more personable, inviting, helpful, and open minded. There is more than one way of doing things, and your ideas, opinions, and ways aren't the end alls. I invite you to open your mind to the possibility that we're smart enough to know it's serious and totally prepared for the labor intensive duties ahead. I'm looking forward to showing you that our babies will be just fine as super spoiled, well mannered, and well rounded people geese which we intend to thoroughly enjoy for many years to come!

 

[flockman]

Best of luck!