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

[SolarPoweredMe]

AARRGGGG!!! She's been FINE all friggin day, no sign of ANYTHING on her neck and now, in a matter of minutes is back.

 

[Miss Lydia]

AARRGGGG!!! She's been FINE all friggin day, no sign of ANYTHING on her neck and now, in a matter of minutes is back.

Can you post pics?

 

[blueraven]

does anyone know good items that are great for geese to lay eggs in or under or how to make geese nesting boxes. my geese are laying eggs in the straw on the floor of my building they stay in at night

 

[LTygress]

That's a good nest right there. Just keep adding straw, so they can keep "fluffing" it if they want to.

For all of my poultry, I make my own nesting boxes. Nothing special needed except plywood, measuring tape, and nails. For chickens, I do 1-foot squares, and just nail a bunch together. For geese, I do 2-3 foot squares (depending on breed) and just nail a bunch together. If you have a tiny gap between the pieces here or there, it won't matter - it either provides a LITTLE bit of ventilation, or it gets covered up by the straw. The chickens/geese don't notice either way.

The only "special" thing I do, is cut about 1/3 of the TOP piece off, to make the FRONT piece. That's it. Add straw, and most birds jump right in.

But if they find a quiet spot on the floor, and they've piled up the straw and lay in the same spot each time, let them have at it.

 

[blueraven]

That's a good nest right there. Just keep adding straw, so they can keep "fluffing" it if they want to.

For all of my poultry, I make my own nesting boxes. Nothing special needed except plywood, measuring tape, and nails. For chickens, I do 1-foot squares, and just nail a bunch together. For geese, I do 2-3 foot squares (depending on breed) and just nail a bunch together. If you have a tiny gap between the pieces here or there, it won't matter - it either provides a LITTLE bit of ventilation, or it gets covered up by the straw. The chickens/geese don't notice either way.

The only "special" thing I do, is cut about 1/3 of the TOP piece off, to make the FRONT piece. That's it. Add straw, and most birds jump right in.

But if they find a quiet spot on the floor, and they've piled up the straw and lay in the same spot each time, let them have at it.

cool i am not letting them set yet but when it gets warmer I hope my geese go broody

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

does anyone know good items that are great for geese to lay eggs in or under or how to make geese nesting boxes. my geese are laying eggs in the straw on the floor of my building they stay in at night

My geese like to lay in the mud...or sometimes they lay in their stalls in the Goose House. I can usually spot the nest pretty easily. They will dig out a straw nest, lay their egg, and then bury it. When I go to collect eggs several times a day, I have to dig through the whole Goose House to find them! lol During the day, the ducks like to go in there and rummage around in the hay, so it looks like there might be eggs buried all over..when really the ducks were just playing a trick on me.

That's a good nest right there. Just keep adding straw, so they can keep "fluffing" it if they want to.

For all of my poultry, I make my own nesting boxes. Nothing special needed except plywood, measuring tape, and nails. For chickens, I do 1-foot squares, and just nail a bunch together. For geese, I do 2-3 foot squares (depending on breed) and just nail a bunch together. If you have a tiny gap between the pieces here or there, it won't matter - it either provides a LITTLE bit of ventilation, or it gets covered up by the straw. The chickens/geese don't notice either way.

The only "special" thing I do, is cut about 1/3 of the TOP piece off, to make the FRONT piece. That's it. Add straw, and most birds jump right in.

But if they find a quiet spot on the floor, and they've piled up the straw and lay in the same spot each time, let them have at it.

I'd like to see some pictures of your nests.

Blessings -

~ Aspen

 

[LTygress]

I don't have pics of the goose versions anymore. I gave the nests away a few years ago when the last of that flock passed away (they were an inherited flock that was already pretty old). But when I built some early last year for the chickens, I got pics of those. They're on my main computer, so I'll try to remember to post them tomorrow.

 

[LTygress]

The one on the left shows how I take 1/3 of the top, and use it for the front. You see how it has been cut back a little, but still provides a "roof" while giving something to step over and keep the straw INSIDE the box. And this photo was taken immediately after I made them and put the straw in, before I moved them to the actual hen house. Obviously, my alpha hen didn't want to wait, and jumped in immediately! She didn't lay an egg this time though. She just hopped in, arranged the straw, turned around a few times, then hopped out and went back to foraging.

As soon as I put them in the hen house, I didn't even need to use golfballs to teach them to lay there. They took to it immediately. For some of my shy hens who were driven out of the nest easily, I flipped it so the thin board was on top, and the wider board on front. Those hens usually had no problem jumping down into it, but the others didn't see them right away, and wouldn't bully them out of the nest just because they could.

Geese don't always take to it right away, but they'll check it out at least. And mine always did lay in them when that time came around (for what few were still laying at all). I just made sure to keep adding straw in there or right in front of it, so they could arrange it and move it as they wanted.

 

[Iain Utah]

Solarpowered, usually the larger sized goslings with big personalities are boys. Those are the ones I am typically drawn to as well. Often I have more accurately determined male gender by appearance/personality than by vent sexing. Spirit is a perfect example. He was vent sexed three times by two different vets. All three times they said female. But I knew he was a boy and had the dna testing done to confirm it.

 

[Miss Lydia]

does anyone know good items that are great for geese to lay eggs in or under or how to make geese nesting boxes. my geese are laying eggs in the straw on the floor of my building they stay in at night

I just made a little cubby for mine just to giver her some privacy