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

[Miss Lydia]

We are feeding chick starter, no meds, that's labeled for geese. Yeah, we keep water right next to the food. These 2 were hatched earlier today though, and he looked like that while still in the incubator. I noticed something was different as soon as he came out of the shell. Not flopping around, just read that might happen when a baby is sick.

Okay so they haven't eaten or drank anything yet then. maybe just some excess fluid so let it rest and hopefully it will absorb it if it's just excess fluid. Did it hatch on it's own with out help?

 

[DaisyMeadow]

All of our current geese were hatched in an incubator and brooded inside in a kiddie pool in the living room. We spent time with many, if not all of them, cuddling on the couch. They'd fall asleep on our shoulders and love to talk and any attention. One was special needs, as I assisted his hatch and treated him for spraddle legs. I named him "Kiwi" as he more closely resembled the shape of a kiwi bird than a goose.

When the time came for them to move outside, they had no problems. I'd check on them every few hours, and except for having to help Kiwi flip himself back over and rejoin the group a few times, they got along just fine.

Now they are a happy, independent flock of outside birds. They free range during the day, then go in their house at dusk. They are friendly enough as they love to see what we're up to when we're outside, and they always come when there's a bucket in hand, but they stop at about a foot away. They really dislike being picked up or held, and they're not much on pets, either. In fact, when they give me trouble going into the house at night, I threaten to pet the last one in the door. That usually does the trick.

 

[SolarPoweredMe]

Okay so they haven't eaten or drank anything yet then. maybe just some excess fluid so let it rest and hopefully it will absorb it if it's just excess fluid. Did it hatch on it's own with out help?

Yes, we thought about helping last night because he didn't zipper correctly, and seemed to be having issues. But my hubs and I were too chicken to try. We thought we'd do more harm than good getting the egg out of there and messing with it. He did it himself at around 9 this morning.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yes, we thought about helping last night because he didn't zipper correctly, and seemed to be having issues. But my hubs and I were too chicken to try. We thought we'd do more harm than good getting the egg out of there and messing with it. He did it himself at around 9 this morning.

Well lets hope it's just extra fluid and it will go away on it's own. since it hatched this morning how is it acting, it's with the other gosling right? sometimes that helps them get to moving around.

 

[SolarPoweredMe]

Well lets hope it's just extra fluid and it will go away on it's own. since it hatched this morning how is it acting, it's with the other duckling right? sometimes that helps them get to moving around.

He's acting the same as all the others that have hatched out. Still a little wobbly, but getting the hang of it's legs and neck well. Yeah, he's under a heat lamp with the one that hatched right before him. Hope you're right! Have any idea what else it could be? Can they injure themselves enough on the way out to really cause damage?

 

[Miss Lydia]

He's acting the same as all the others that have hatched out. Still a little wobbly, but getting the hang of it's legs and neck well. Yeah, he's under a heat lamp with the one that hatched right before him. Hope you're right! Have any idea what else it could be? Can they injure themselves enough on the way out to really cause damage?

I wouldn't think so but sometime lengthy hatching can cause some problems but sometimes they work themselves out. I remember last year someone had a gosling hatch that had alot of fluid in it's head and over time it all was absorbed and the gosling was fine. Try not to worry yet and just give it some time. Check in in the morning with an update. Hoping for the best especially since everything else seems to be normal.

 

[8GeeseALaying]

  Sounds like me!!  I have 28 geese now, but some will go to new homes.  Others I just can´t part with..and I bought 2 new geese, too, to go with two of this year´s ganders..   So far, hubby´s great with it all. Well, we have the space and they help him keep the grass down! 

Im only at 20 right now. If i raise any this year i still have room for favorites, i have the space for a couple hundred but im not that insane lol im still working on certain crosses so there is a big possibility that i will keep some. Hubby loves the geese he just says im about two hatches away from being the crazy bird lady lol

 

[SolarPoweredMe]

There are only 2 eggs left... I'm not holding out too much hope for them, since they haven't moved since last night. Still, out of 9 viable eggs, we've gotten 7 babies. The one with the sack under it's beak seems to be just fine. He's up and walking around now, and I saw him drinking water. We've decided to keep the very first one hatched, that brown girl, and the very last one that just popped out, another brownish colored.. Still in the incubator.

I contacted the guy I bought the eggs from to ask if he had any brown Chinese in his flock and he said no. He only has white Chinese, white Embden, White Sebastepols, and Pilgrims.

I'm trying to guess what cross this little girl is! She's definitely got some kind of fleshy bumb at the base of her beak. Pics of the others coming soon.

 

[livininbrazil]

Im only at 20 right now. If i raise any this year i still have room for favorites, i have the space for a couple hundred but im not that insane lol im still working on certain crosses so there is a big possibility that i will keep some. Hubby loves the geese he just says im about two hatches away from being the crazy bird lady lol

I have 2 acres here, so I think I could keep 50 to a hundred, depending on what I want to feed them..or not. Last year was a bit experimental, as i wanted to discover what I had here by breeding them, and seeing what turned out. It was the seciond year of my auto-sexing ones, so I know what they are, all worked out right with them. I have some cross-breed pieds which I put with an auto-sexing gander, which mainly produced pieds, so I´m going to put a young pied gander back to its auntie this year, and I bought two normandy-looking geese, they fit the description to the tee, which are also auto-sexing, but the woman only had their brothers to sell as males, so no-go, so I´ll put them with two auto-sexing ganders from last year, and see what results. So some of the little treasures from last year will go to new homes and I´ll experiment with the next generation this year. The geese that I don´t want to repeat the matings can sit on the eggs of the new ones next time. And I love to see them in their flocks. They´re basically in 2 flocks, the 2 new ones have naturally attached themselves to the auto-sexing flock, which I find interesting, keeping mainly on the perimeter, but hang around closely, then from time to time the 2 flocks get together, grazing. Or sitting under the trees. I love it

My hubby likes them, too. When he goes down to the stream he goes and has a look to see what antics they´re up to and comes back up to the house to report on which trees they´re trying to destroy and other things!

So goodness knows how many I´ll have next year...crazy bird ladies together, I reckon!

 

[Miss Lydia]

There are only 2 eggs left... I'm not holding out too much hope for them, since they haven't moved since last night. Still, out of 9 viable eggs, we've gotten 7 babies. The one with the sack under it's beak seems to be just fine. He's up and walking around now, and I saw him drinking water. We've decided to keep the very first one hatched, that brown girl, and the very last one that just popped out, another brownish colored.. Still in the incubator.

I contacted the guy I bought the eggs from to ask if he had any brown Chinese in his flock and he said no. He only has white Chinese, white Embden, White Sebastepols, and Pilgrims.

I'm trying to guess what cross this little girl is! She's definitely got some kind of fleshy bumb at the base of her beak. Pics of the others coming soon.

Sounds like you had a good hatch, and relieved the one gosling is doing well, So sounds like some Pilgrim mixed in with one of the other breeds should make nice geese. What will you do with the other goslings?