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

[servpolice]

i was looking at getting eggs to hatch, but i found some on craigslist, African geese.  5 total with 4 hens.  so i am looking at all the advise i can get.
i have chickens, now, can i put them in the pen with my chickens. i also have new chicks in the pen, well new as in 5 or 6 weeks old

It depends on the goose breed really to put with chickens for example my africans and chinese are scared of the rooster and moody broody hens but my embdens and greylags and toulouse and my other goose breeds will wanna have a fight to show boss! I guess that the swan type geese breeds are just wimpy !

 

[servpolice]

Ive a brinesa fully automatic incubater but ,i dont use my automatic on goose eggs since its useless! So i use my hands ,so dont get a expensive automatic incubator and i wont get my first egg till end Feb or early march! I dont wanna wait i want eggs now! No idea how to make them lay early ,cant wait to do a hatch along

 

[skittles1]

oh thanks, i am getting african geese, i have one rooster, who thinks he is a hen, besides crowing, i have another which is absolutely gorgeous, but mean, he rules the roost. so i had to take him out of the chicken pen, so he just patrolls from the outside. however i have not had any fertile eggs sense i removed him
so i guess i will try it and watch for a bit.

 

[skittles1]

i have had success with chicken eggs, by putting a light in the barn for a few hours each evening, i have it set on a timer. besides tempature, hens stop laying because of the daylight hours. nature tells them to stop, less daylight means cold weather and their chicks will not survive.
could try that with the geese.

 

[RiverGoddess]

Ive a brinesa fully automatic incubater but ,i dont use my automatic on goose eggs since its useless! So i use my hands ,so dont get a expensive automatic incubator and i wont get my first egg till end Feb or early march! I dont wanna wait i want eggs now! No idea how to make them lay early ,cant wait to do a hatch along

I use an auto turner on my goose eggs from day one of setting and get amazing hatches buts thats just my Master Bator. I would get an auto turner so you have the "ability" to use the auto or not. You will not just hatch one type of egg and will want a versitile incubator for future hatchings

oh thanks, i am getting african geese, i have one rooster, who thinks he is a hen, besides crowing, i have another which is absolutely gorgeous, but mean, he rules the roost. so i had to take him out of the chicken pen, so he just patrolls from the outside. however i have not had any fertile eggs sense i removed him
so i guess i will try it and watch for a bit.

I have hatched and raised from a gosling to adult Africans & currently have a beautiful trio I have raised and love them! So if you have any questions about goose breeds I have raised almost all of them

 

[DaisyMeadow]

If I'm trying to breed a particular pair of geese together, how long after I separate them from the flock is it before I'm assured that the eggs that are laid are from that gander? I have read that a rooster can fertilize up to 10 eggs in one "go", so I'm wondering how long into their separation and quarantine I can be assured that they are from that pair.

Is it the same for ducks?

Thanks!

 

[8GeeseALaying]

If I'm trying to breed a particular pair of geese together, how long after I separate them from the flock is it before I'm assured that the eggs that are laid are from that gander? I have read that a rooster can fertilize up to 10 eggs in one "go", so I'm wondering how long into their separation and quarantine I can be assured that they are from that pair.

Is it the same for ducks?

Thanks!

I have heard and read that a ganders sperm is viable inside the goose for 10 days and that you can still get fertilized eggs from him in that 10 day period. So i would wait atleast that long before assuming that they are from the next gander.

 

[flockman]

i have had success with chicken eggs, by putting a light in the barn for a few hours each evening, i have it set on a timer. besides tempature, hens stop laying because of the daylight hours. nature tells them to stop, less daylight means cold weather and their chicks will not survive.
could try that with the geese.

Adding light does not work for geese the way it does for ducks and chickens.

 

[flockman]

i have had success with chicken eggs, by putting a light in the barn for a few hours each evening, i have it set on a timer. besides tempature, hens stop laying because of the daylight hours. nature tells them to stop, less daylight means cold weather and their chicks will not survive.
could try that with the geese.

Geese are unique in how light stimulates them reproductively. No one photo-stimulates geese in North America to maximize egg production - as is typically done with other poultry. The reason is that excessive light (meaning 13+ hour lighted day lengths) depresses egg production in geese. For other poultry you maximize egg production with 16-17 hour days. You can only achieve maximum egg production in geese by providing a maximum of 10-11 hour days! Looking at the light charts from last week's blog, you can see that most of the time our days are longer than 11 hours – and this is too long for maximum egg production for geese. So to maintain egg production as long as possible in geese, you need light tight houses – which means no natural light enters the building. The only light is provided by lights so you can provide them only 10 or 11 hours of light a day - no matter the time of year.

 

[livininbrazil]

Geese are unique in how light stimulates them reproductively. No one photo-stimulates geese in North America to maximize egg production - as is typically done with other poultry. The reason is that excessive light (meaning 13+ hour lighted day lengths) depresses egg production in geese. For other poultry you maximize egg production with 16-17 hour days. You can only achieve maximum egg production in geese by providing a maximum of 10-11 hour days! Looking at the light charts from last week's blog, you can see that most of the time our days are longer than 11 hours – and this is too long for maximum egg production for geese. So to maintain egg production as long as possible in geese, you need light tight houses – which means no natural light enters the building. The only light is provided by lights so you can provide them only 10 or 11 hours of light a day - no matter the time of year.

Interesting, I´ll have to explain that to my lot!

I don´t think they read the book.

Here, the very shortest day is in June, and at 6.30a.m. you can just start to make out shapes in the gloom, 6.45 it´s daylight. And it´s dark by 6.00pm. So, that´s the shortest day of about 11 hours daylight. Mine get breeding from July. 2 raised goslings I think in September/October. Maybe over the generations they´ve adapted to life here!? Having said that, of course, I let them brood their eggs, so I don´t know their limit/maximum.