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

[gander007]

My geese are 2 years old and Geraldine laid 23 eggs. I removed about 10 when she started sitting as when they were laid the weather was cold and she had not been on them and I was sure they would not hatch. I was right there was nothing in them.

I left her the rest and she did a good job but none hatched, one by one they started exploding. I had been candling them from 2 weeks and thought there were several eggs that looked promising, but it was not to be.

Eventually after 40 days she was looking dreadful so I thought enough is enough. I removed the eggs and destroyed the nest. So, I've thinking about where we went wrong as I'm sure it is probably our fault.

I have managed to buy them a stay of execution for another year but after that, if they do have goslings, they will become food. I love the geese and would like to avoid this if possible.

We have built them a new coop, in their own area, although they can still range freely during the day. They adapted well to this new environment. I thought it would help their stress levels at breeding time if they did not have to tolerate the chickens going through where the nest was to get to their coop.

My question is.... how much water do they need for successful mating?

They have a very big plastic bowl that I keep full with fresh water daily, is this enough? It is about 20cm deep.

I really want to get it right for them for next year, but it is not feasible to put in a pond.

Geese are time consuming and from my experience it is better to let them hatch out the egg's unless you really have the proper setup and experience and next year will really be the first really good year and I say that as the third year is really the best for fertility on both sexes now yes I have gotten hatches from two year olds but nothing like a three year old ......

 

[seminolewind]

What a great story!!!

 

[EeyoreD]

Geese are time consuming and from my experience it is better to let them hatch out the egg's unless you really have the proper setup and experience and next year will really be the first really good year and I say that as the third year is really the best for fertility on both sexes now yes I have gotten hatches from two year olds but nothing like a three year old ......

When does fertility taper off, then? I've consistently had the same problem Hungarylife had. They pick a nest (and sometimes discard it and find a better one), sit it so diligently and... it rots underneath them. When I got mine the females were ~4 years I think now they're 6 (getting old maybe? but few hatching to replace them).

It never occurred to me it might be a fertility issue (my ganders take their duties incredibly seriously, too so it's not that either). Next year I was going to see if a scovy could hatch the eggs better but if this is a known issue with fertility, that's a waste of a scovy brooding period.

 

[Miss Lydia]

When does fertility taper off, then? I've consistently had the same problem Hungarylife had. They pick a nest (and sometimes discard it and find a better one), sit it so diligently and... it rots underneath them. When I got mine the females were ~4 years I think now they're 6 (getting old maybe? but few hatching to replace them).

It never occurred to me it might be a fertility issue (my ganders take their duties incredibly seriously, too so it's not that either). Next year I was going to see if a scovy could hatch the eggs better but if this is a known issue with fertility, that's a waste of a scovy brooding period.

My gander is 7yrs and so far since having our goose 2nd breeding season fertility is awful. He is a good breeder but my goose is only 2 yrs and so far they brought one to hatch and it died in the shell. This was just recently. I think if you want more goslings probably using Scovy's maybe the way to go I have a few that would be happy to oblige.

 

[gander007]

Quote:

Using another bird to hatch out the egg's is a great idea and geese sometimes take time to learn to sit on the egg's full time unless they see others doing some brooding not a huge issue with animals that can live 28 to 30 years but my Momma Goose is 12 years old an still produces fertile egg's but is just the beginning of her sitting on the egg's as she normally let all the other ducks or geese brood her egg's for the first ten years ....



This is Momma age 12 years and I have had her from hatch
so I kind of know all about her .....

My geese tend to need large areas to nest as I have seen two
to three Geese on one nest at a time and they all were raised
here with me so they tend to get along or no such issues would
take place like sharing a nest as this is a sacred thing ......


Sounds like they are all old enough but remember geese are
not the easiest to raise as the norm is 25 to 40 egg's per year
for a goose and the time period is from December to early June
for egg laying so it could be easer to collect the egg's and have
another hatch them as the incubator is tricky to do geese in and
it takes a few years of practice to get right .....







gander007

 

[EeyoreD]

My gander is 7yrs and so far since having our goose 2nd breeding season fertility is awful. He is a good breeder but my goose is only 2 yrs and so far they brought one to hatch and it died in the shell. This was just recently. I think if you want more goslings probably using Scovy's maybe the way to go I have a few that would be happy to oblige.

I hate to say this, I mean I'm sorry for you but I'm kind of happy that this is not just my problem. If Miss Lydia is having goose hatching problems, well...

I did have to laugh at your comment about scovies being happy to oblige. I think I'm going to stick some turnips under mine just to see if you CAN get blood from a turnip. Because if anything can coax life from some egg-shaped object, it's a scovy duck in spring.

What do you think on the scovy/goose egg conversion under a duck? 5 eggs per duck? Obviously they're not going to be able to hatch 10 but by god they'd try if I stuck them under them. Would I need to help them turn them?

Back to the gander age. Are you saying 7 yrs is getting old? The problem I have is I would only have the one "young" gander and the older ganders are far more confident in terms of flock protection and obviously preferential mating.

Oh man this has opened a can of worms... Mostly they're siblings. I have, what, 2 more subtrees before it gets to be a problem with inbreeding?

Jiminy this is complex!

 

[EeyoreD]

This is Momma age 12 years and I have had her from hatch
so I kind of know all about her .....

Oh I can tell just from that look on her face that she's a SASSY goose! And lovely.

Thanks for the info and really the picture, I really love her! I don't run an incubator. All my birds hatch their eggs (or other birds' eggs). Most of my geese just can't seem to manage it. I'm hatching (pun totally intended) a plan for next year but I have no idea how to execute. Ideally the scovies would hatch everything out but the geese would raise them. Because, short of avian zombie apocalypse, a flock of geese with a baby, once hatched, will NEVER lose a bird.

I just have to figure out how to make the switch/imprint.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I hate to say this, I mean I'm sorry for you but I'm kind of happy that this is not just my problem. If Miss Lydia is having goose hatching problems, well...

I did have to laugh at your comment about scovies being happy to oblige. I think I'm going to stick some turnips under mine just to see if you CAN get blood from a turnip. Because if anything can coax life from some egg-shaped object, it's a scovy duck in spring.

What do you think on the scovy/goose egg conversion under a duck? 5 eggs per duck? Obviously they're not going to be able to hatch 10 but by god they'd try if I stuck them under them. Would I need to help them turn them?

Back to the gander age. Are you saying 7 yrs is getting old? The problem I have is I would only have the one "young" gander and the older ganders are far more confident in terms of flock protection and obviously preferential mating.

Oh man this has opened a can of worms... Mostly they're siblings. I have, what, 2 more subtrees before it gets to be a problem with inbreeding?

Jiminy this is complex!

I don't think 7 is old by any stretch of the imagination but I keep thinking maybe the feed?? I don't feed organic or non GMO since it's not available in my area as an all flock feed, and I wonder[talking about opening a can of worms] if the GMO corn and soy beans is having an effect? And if anyone can get blood from a turnip a Scovy can. I really believe mine would sit on snake eggs.

After our lil gosling died in the shell we got 2 goslings to add to our collection so hopefully we'll one day see some gozzies of our own hatch here again. after all our gander was hatched by a Scovy duck and I think 4 eggs is a good number for them, One of my Scovys sat on 4 goose eggs last year and she covered them really well, I'd say they can do their own turning too. You might want to ask her if she would like for you to mist though.

 

[livininbrazil]

When does fertility taper off, then? I've consistently had the same problem Hungarylife had. They pick a nest (and sometimes discard it and find a better one), sit it so diligently and... it rots underneath them. When I got mine the females were ~4 years I think now they're 6 (getting old maybe? but few hatching to replace them).

It never occurred to me it might be a fertility issue (my ganders take their duties incredibly seriously, too so it's not that either). Next year I was going to see if a scovy could hatch the eggs better but if this is a known issue with fertility, that's a waste of a scovy brooding period.

Scovies make great broodies for goose eggs. At 6 years old, your geese should be able to produce fertile eggs.

I hate to say this, I mean I'm sorry for you but I'm kind of happy that this is not just my problem. If Miss Lydia is having goose hatching problems, well...

I did have to laugh at your comment about scovies being happy to oblige. I think I'm going to stick some turnips under mine just to see if you CAN get blood from a turnip. Because if anything can coax life from some egg-shaped object, it's a scovy duck in spring.

What do you think on the scovy/goose egg conversion under a duck? 5 eggs per duck? Obviously they're not going to be able to hatch 10 but by god they'd try if I stuck them under them. Would I need to help them turn them?

Back to the gander age. Are you saying 7 yrs is getting old? The problem I have is I would only have the one "young" gander and the older ganders are far more confident in terms of flock protection and obviously preferential mating.

Oh man this has opened a can of worms... Mostly they're siblings. I have, what, 2 more subtrees before it gets to be a problem with inbreeding?

Jiminy this is complex!

I´ve had 3 eggs under a scovie which she hatched beautifully. 4 may be ok, but I personally wouldn´t try 5. The duck does everything, just leave them be.

Oh I can tell just from that look on her face that she's a SASSY goose! And lovely.

Thanks for the info and really the picture, I really love her! I don't run an incubator. All my birds hatch their eggs (or other birds' eggs). Most of my geese just can't seem to manage it. I'm hatching (pun totally intended) a plan for next year but I have no idea how to execute. Ideally the scovies would hatch everything out but the geese would raise them. Because, short of avian zombie apocalypse, a flock of geese with a baby, once hatched, will NEVER lose a bird.

I just have to figure out how to make the switch/imprint.

They do lose goslings, EeyoreD. Folks on these threads have lost goslings, cared for by the parents, to preds. Muscovies make great mums, too, but I imagine you know that. If you want to get them under the goose, try a goose that´s brooding duff eggs, then put the goslings under her soon after hatching, so they imprint on her, and not on the duck or you. If you do this with a broody goose, she´s very likely to accept them without a blink. Hope all goes well with your plans.

 

[EeyoreD]

I don't think 7 is old by any stretch of the imagination but I keep thinking maybe the feed??

Oh good! I didn't think 7 and 5 (gander/goose ) was too old - maybe approaching it though? Possibly the feed, but my feed is simply supplementary. They have 7.5 acres of lawn and swamp/ponds to feed off and they have full range of all of it. Half the time when I walk out with the feed they ignore me (now, I mean. In the winter I'm MOBBED)

I´ve had 3 eggs under a scovie which she hatched beautifully. 4 may be ok, but I personally wouldn´t try 5. The duck does everything, just leave them be.

Oh confirmation that scovies, on a limited scale with hatch geese! Thanks! And you're most certainly right, as I said above, I get greedy. I'd be happy with 3-4 and if the eggs are fertile I'm certain a scovy would hatch them. Happily.

Quote:

They do lose goslings, EeyoreD. Folks on these threads have lost goslings, cared for by the parents, to preds.

Oh no, I know they do. Geese, for all their posturing and aggression are not as invincible as they think. But they are much more durable if something manages to sneak through the perimeter. And will let you know (meaning wake your sleeping *** up) when that has been breached. But they are the most attentive of my birds and having a flock - not just a mate but a flock - help with the protection makes a world of difference.

Stupid question - what are duff eggs? Is that like fake eggs or old eggs or stuff that you just stick under the goose so she goes into/stays in " Broody Mom mode" until you can slip things under her? And what do you use for that?

Thanks to you both!