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

[cwheaton912]

This seems like the place to post this...
I have 3 Toulouse (2male 1 female) and 3 Embden (2 female 1male)...my smallest Embden is bigger than my largest Toulouse

At this time they do not seem to have not formed pairs or trios...and as 4 of the 6 will become Christmas dinner and I would like to turn the other 2 into a breeding pair I need to know...

1) Can I Breed a Toulouse and an Embden?
2) If I can, then should the Male be Toulouse and the Female Embden or the other way round?
3) When should I separate the pair I intend to keep? (or does it matter)
4) Any other advice?

I do know that the surviving geese should not be within sight or hearing of the slaughter of their flock mates.

 

[psue]

This seems like the place to post this...
I have 3 Toulouse (2male 1 female) and 3 Embden (2 female 1male)...my smallest Embden is bigger than my largest Toulouse

At this time they do not seem to have not formed pairs or trios...and as 4 of the 6 will become Christmas dinner and I would like to turn the other 2 into a breeding pair I need to know...

1) Can I Breed a Toulouse and an Embden?
2) If I can, then should the Male be Toulouse and the Female Embden or the other way round?
3) When should I separate the pair I intend to keep? (or does it matter)
4) Any other advice?

I do know that the surviving geese should not be within sight or hearing of the slaughter of their flock mates.

Yes you can and it doesn't really matter how they are paired. Pick the friendliest gander as breeding season will bring out his worse. It doesn't matter if you separate out the pair now, as they will bond before next breeding season anyway (since you are only keeping the 2).
However, if you have a pure Embden pair or a Toulouse gander and Embden goose you can sex the babies at hatch.
IMO if you are wanting to feed a large number of people I'd keep the Embdens since they are bigger to begin with. You wont notice the difference in the food bill.

 

[cwheaton912]

Thank you for the advice.

I was planning to keep one of each so that I hopefully get some of the better personality traits of my Toulouses with the size of the Embdens, and also because I keep hearing that Embdens are better for eating because they de-feather better...is that likely to work out for me or would you still recommend the Embdens over a mix?

 

[psue]

Thank you for the advice.

I was planning to keep one of each so that I hopefully get some of the better personality traits of my Toulouses with the size of the Embdens, and also because I keep hearing that Embdens are better for eating because they de-feather better...is that likely to work out for me or would you still recommend the Embdens over a mix?

Personaly I got rid of my Toulouse gander.. he had a nasty personality. My Embden gander was hand raised so is a sweety. Toulouse have the dark pinfeathers were the Embdens have white. As I said earlier.. Keep the gander with the best personality... that is an individual thing and not something were you can say one breed is better then the other. If pinfeathers bother you (you don't want to spend the extra time one them) then the all white is a bonus.
Since you want yours for meat I would chose the keepers by personality it will make a difference in your experience with them. Nothing is worse then not wanting to spend time with your birds. A nasty personality will make the whole breeding season, watching babies grow a trial rather then a pleasant experience.

 

[RURU]

I had a Chinese gander which was sent by accident with sebs. I hand raised him with the sebs not knowing he was Chinese. When he got older he was one nasty gander. He drowned my grey young going into being an adult female. I knew he did it because I caught him trying to drowned my Spicie my grey splash gander as a youngster. That Chinese went the next day! I hated him he was so nasty to everything.... Even human imprinted he was just nasty period!

 

[creaturelife]

well every one i got 2 more females coming in may to go with my 2 little baby geese i already have i got one boy enbden gosling and one female and i got 2 more females coming i went in on a order with my feed store so my shipping is coming up for free i cant wait

 

[psue]

I know RURU it's like kids raised in the same family... you just never know how they will turn out.

congrads on the babies Creaturelife!

 

[Twizzlebee]

We are up to 10 eggs now. Got a soft shelled egg in the run yesterday, but they're all yearlings so I'm surprised the eggs look as good as they do. I think all 3 of the girls are sharing a nest, I just hope that one of them decides to sit on the nest so we can get goslings.

 

[wlhtx]

geese typically don't have great fertility in their first breeding season. Unfortunately, we have to be EXTRA patient with them with a lot of time invested.

I have 6 Africans (4 boys, 2 girls) who are in their very first laying season. With the exception of a couple eggs we lost to cranes, I've incubated (or sold for incubating) all 18 of the I eggs they've laid. Out of those 18, only 2 have not developed. One was the very first egg we got and it was an early quitter; the other was scrambled when my big dog found it and dropped it when we started yelling at him. So, it is possible for first year layers to have pretty great fertility.

My issue now is that one of my girls is broody and sitting on a nest with no eggs. She's only been at it for 2 days, but I'm hoping she stops soon. If I give her a couple of the goslings in the brooder (a week or less in age) and she accepts them, will she lay anymore eggs afterwards or would she quit for the year? I've searched around on the forum but haven't seen anyone talk about this...

 

[psue]

I have 6 Africans (4 boys, 2 girls) who are in their very first laying season. With the exception of a couple eggs we lost to cranes, I've incubated (or sold for incubating) all 18 of the I eggs they've laid. Out of those 18, only 2 have not developed. One was the very first egg we got and it was an early quitter; the other was scrambled when my big dog found it and dropped it when we started yelling at him. So, it is possible for first year layers to have pretty great fertility.

My issue now is that one of my girls is broody and sitting on a nest with no eggs. She's only been at it for 2 days, but I'm hoping she stops soon. If I give her a couple of the goslings in the brooder (a week or less in age) and she accepts them, will she lay anymore eggs afterwards or would she quit for the year? I've searched around on the forum but haven't seen anyone talk about this...

once she has babies she's done... but if she's stays broody for a week she's most likely done anyway. On rare occasions some geese lay again in the fall.