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

[livininbrazil]

I'm not hatching anymore chickens. I have to keep the roosters since I have Marek's in my flock, and I just have too darn many. But I'm getting into geese now, and although they have a completely different personality, it is just as precious.

I really like my brahmas, they´re sweet. My ISAs are a bit on the mean side towards other chickens, but lay eggs more regularly than the brahmas. Turkeys are just plain funny. But my very most firm favourite has to be my geese. They make an attachment with you. They´re intelligent. If I died tonight, the others would only worry about their corn. My geese would feel the absence = More precious.

 

[livininbrazil]

Alright, so we've been researching forever now, and still can't get a solid read on this so here goes: We're going to hatch geese for pets. We each want 1 goose to link to us especially. We plan on hatching the babies, and keeping them separate for X amount of time to reinforce the imprint. (How long is a good time you think?) They will eventually meet of course, so the question is, will they see each other as siblings and still love us best, or bond to each other over "mom and dad" when they see another one of themselves? Everything says the goose "knows" it's human when it's imprinted, so will they not recognize the other goose as one of their own kind?

Also, the eggs we're getting are from a flock of mixed breed geese that free range, so there's no telling what will come out of each egg. Is there any discernable way to tell gosling breeds apart soon after hatching? Say within the first two days or so?

Hi Solar. First of all, do you have the space and ideal conditions for geese? I have to admit, when I read your post I felt a little concerned and sad. May I ask why you want goslings and why you want to imprint individually? Is it a scientific experiment? I can´t see the reason for doing so.

In your research you will have come across a number of people who´ve had a lot of work on their hands trying to raise singleton/orphan goslings. They´re very needy in general and it´s hard work. It´s much less work if they have their parents around, but as 2 individuals kept separately just to bond with one person each...I can´t see why.

If you are to give the gosling the amount of time it needs, you´ll not see much of your partner. They´re not like chickens. The poor little things will call a lot and be able to hear each other....very stressful. They have a great need of a parent, or at the very least their siblings.

Also in your research you´ll have read about some folks who have a particularly difficult gander, often re-homed from a goose rescue centre where someone has imprinted a gosling and then can´t handle the complications, which can often happen with an imprinted bird. It seems to me from your post that you´d be creating just a lot of frustration and anxiety for yourselves and the goslings.

Why not just get a couple of goslings if you have the time and the right conditions and let the two of them imprint on you both, but they´ll still have each other. Your work would be much less demanding and you´d enjoy them more. And they´d be so much happier. You´d end up with 2 better balanced geese for the next 20 years instead of running the risk of 2 screwed-up ones.

 

[SolarPoweredMe]

Hi Solar. First of all, do you have the space and ideal conditions for geese? I have to admit, when I read your post I felt a little concerned and sad. May I ask why you want goslings and why you want to imprint individually? Is it a scientific experiment? I can´t see the reason for doing so.

~Yes, we've been working for a while to get everything in order so the geese will be happy and healthy all around. We're not taking this lightly, and it's definitely no science experiment. We want goslings to be life long friends and pets, and we want our own baby to love us most. Be able to go for a walk and have them follow us, not run off and such.

In your research you will have come across a number of people who´ve had a lot of work on their hands trying to raise singleton/orphan goslings. They´re very needy in general and it´s hard work. It´s much less work if they have their parents around, but as 2 individuals kept separately just to bond with one person each...I can´t see why.

~The reason for keeping them apart for a while is so the imprint and link to their human respectively. Like I said, it's for a while, and not their lifetimes. They will be friends, we just want to secure that they are ours before bonding to each other. Yes, we both understand entirely the amount of work it takes to raise them, how needy they are, and how long they will need our attention, affection, and care. We are not taking it lightly. They will be %100 indoor, diapered, spoiled house pets, being supervised when we go outside everyday. We will bond with each others pet, but not for the first week or so. The separation is only temporary. We don't mind the work.

If you are to give the gosling the amount of time it needs, you´ll not see much of your partner. They´re not like chickens. The poor little things will call a lot and be able to hear each other....very stressful. They have a great need of a parent, or at the very least their siblings.

~We are prepared to be their parents. We understand the time it will take, and after the first week or so, we'll see plenty of each other. We both work from home, and have all the time we need to devote to them. Our baby will be with us all the time. We will be the family they need.

Also in your research you´ll have read about some folks who have a particularly difficult gander, often re-homed from a goose rescue centre where someone has imprinted a gosling and then can´t handle the complications, which can often happen with an imprinted bird. It seems to me from your post that you´d be creating just a lot of frustration and anxiety for yourselves and the goslings.

~I don't understand your tone or assumption that the babies will be abandoned because we somehow won't be capable of raising them. Like I said, we've been researching a lot. We have looked into this for a long while, read through this, and various sites and books, and understand what we are getting ourselves into. We intend to bury our babies when they die of old age. We don't take on new members to the family just to throw them away when it gets hard. My 80 pound dog has pooed and peed *all* over the house almost regularly in his old age... I roll up my sleeves, get to scrubbing, and hug the old man. I get it, you guys get a lot of impulse pet owners that result in broken and unmanageable animals, but rest assured, when we take something in as part of our family, it's part of our family even when they are difficult or annoying. Difficult ganders are that way for lack of discipline and rank assertion. Even during mating season, we're prepared to deal with it. We've both handled and trained dogs, he has volunteered at the humane society for ages, and we understand that every animal must be shown pack order, or in this case, pecking order. Our animals will be well behaved and docile because we are committed to putting in the time needed to render them so.

Why not just get a couple of goslings if you have the time and the right conditions and let the two of them imprint on you both, but they´ll still have each other. Your work would be much less demanding and you´d enjoy them more. And they´d be so much happier. You´d end up with 2 better balanced geese for the next 20 years instead of running the risk of 2 screwed-up ones.

~This is why we came here for advice. So that we don't end up with screwed up geese. That being said, I feel that your.. advice, is a bit presumptuous. Rather than answering questions and helping, you've made a snap judgment and lectured. We don't intend on keeping them away from each other forever, that would be silly when we all live in the same home. We only intend on being the main caretaker for the first 5-7 days of the imprint period so our baby has a natural preference for us respectively. I will be mom to mine, and dad to his, and vise versa. We would still appreciate insight on our questions, so we reduce the risks of screwing our babies up as much as possible. After all, we only want to be the best parents possible and aim to learn how to be so to the best of our ability.

 

[8GeeseALaying]

The spats have begun between the geese. Most have split into groups though. Its weird because the chinese have all banded together, which is good all will be pure goslings, white, brown and pied. The roman trio has banded with the toulouse pair, thats fine also id like that cross. As for Stormy the Tufted Chinese, she will be a year old in May, but is starting to act like she will be ready this year also, so i am pairing her with a tuft roman gander.
Each group will be seperated into pens soon. Im not sure yet if i will hatch anything this year. If i do i dont think i will start until February or March. All the seperating is a "just in case" thing.
The only thing i thought about raising were babies out of my new Budgie pair but they turned out to be boys...Oops lol
I am still leaning toward hatching some Emu eggs if i can find some lol

 

[Miss Lydia]

My flock got to have some pool water today, i heard Sammy give the victory yell ran to the door and it was him and one of my Muscovy ducks, She was a willing participant too.

 

[livininbrazil]

The spats have begun between the geese. Most have split into groups though. Its weird because the chinese have all banded together, which is good all will be pure goslings, white, brown and pied. The roman trio has banded with the toulouse pair, thats fine also id like that cross. As for Stormy the Tufted Chinese, she will be a year old in May, but is starting to act like she will be ready this year also, so i am pairing her with a tuft roman gander.
Each group will be seperated into pens soon. Im not sure yet if i will hatch anything this year. If i do i dont think i will start until February or March. All the seperating is a "just in case" thing.
The only thing i thought about raising were babies out of my new Budgie pair but they turned out to be boys...Oops lol
I am still leaning toward hatching some Emu eggs if i can find some lol

Interesting that..I´ve noticed that same-breed dogs tend to be attracted to each other, too. Useful though with the geese!

Funny about the budgies. I have a pair of parrotlets from mexico, they have a complicated name in English, and I can´t remember it. Here they´re called Catarinas. They´re about the size of lovebirds and very pretty, but I have not idea what sex they are, they´re identical! Maybe I have 2 boys too!
And where will you post pics of your emus?

 

[livininbrazil]

My flock got to have some pool water today, i heard Sammy give the victory yell ran to the door and it was him and one of my Muscovy ducks, She was a willing participant too.

 

[8GeeseALaying]

We tend to post pics on here of whatever is hatched or born for us. If you go back through this thread you'll find pics of Foals,calves, emus, goats etc mixed in with the gosling pics.

 

[Iain Utah]

No signs of breeding behavior here, thank goodness!!

 

[livininbrazil]

We tend to post pics on here of whatever is hatched or born for us. If you go back through this thread you'll find pics of Foals,calves, emus, goats etc mixed in with the gosling pics.

Yeah, I´ve already seen someof your pics. I was just checking. I particularly remember seeing the little stripey emu!