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

[RiverGoddess]

left gosling is 12 days old, right gosling (with black on top of bill) is 10 days old. Their eyes are not blue, but they're not very dark, either.

I have the following females:

Embden, Embden/Chinese, Toulouse, Toulouse/Chinese

And the following males:

Embden, Embden/Chinese, Embden/African, Toulouse, Toulouse/Chinese, Sebastopol/Tufted Roman

This is my first season of my own goslings, so I don't know what to expect at all.

The dark one I would say Embden ,
the Multi-Color (does the beak go straight across or have a upper bump)

Thanks, MLyd! These are some of the babies from last year.

But I have more! They´re the result of a dilute male with a spot female. I´m really looking forward to seeing what the pied males produce with their spot/saddleback aunties this year.

Thanks. It´s interesting, because some of the girls have the white markings around the eyes, like their pilgrim aunties, and are also dilute grey. I have a couple of girls that have white flights, a white front, white on the face (and going to be around the eyes), and she´s a dilute grey. But only dad is a real dilute. Mum is a spot. I´m really intrigued with these results, can´t wait until the next round!

although, only the young ganders will breed with their aunties this year.. The females will breed the year after.

Always waiting for pics ! Sounds like an exciting project of colors and genes

 

[DaisyMeadow]

The dark one I would say Embden ,
the Multi-Color (does the beak go straight across or have a upper bump)

The multi-color has a straight beak, I would say. There may be a tiny, barely imperceptible bump at the black stripe, but it's so small I'd go with "straight" rather than bumpy.

 

[charlindabob]

I am going to post my opinion on breeding and I realize everyone has opinions and not everyone will agree with me, and I will respect that. Your birds are your birds and you can do whatever and breed however you want, but this is my opinion:

I know if you breed this goose to that gander you may get some "new" look in your geese and have this color of goose or whatever. I get it. And I know that most if not all good breeds (or any animal) was no doubt originally made up of two or more breeds years and years ago. Just look at the Khaki Campbell duck for instance. In the past our geese, your "purebred" geese were made from the combination of different geese, most likely anyway. I get that too.

But for me, yes for me, I can't see breeding two different "purebred" geese, dogs, chickens or whatever just for the sake of "oh I wonder what it will be", or "wouldn't that be cute" or some other reason.

Once you breed this kind of goose to that kind of gander, you get mutts and their offspring will be mutts. You lose the breed, a heritage breed that breeds true. It is like breeding a purebred German Shepherd to a Mastiff for example, a cool dog maybe but it is a mutt and when you breed it, you have more mutts. Yes I know, some mutts are better than the purebred, (I get it, really) but you lose something every time you do that. And when you sell them, you sell them as what?

One would think that mixing breeds would end up like mixing paint, eventually you end up with a greyish paint. Same with animals, pretty soon they all start to look alike.

OK, off the soapbox, but like I said this is my opinion, yours may differ and I will respect your right to your opinion. But I wonder if I stand in the minority on this?

Bob......

 

[servpolice]

Yes bob i do agree with you with lots of the stuff you said but one thing is that many goose breeds (new pure breeds) were developed by crossing mixed breeds with mixed breeds for example the steinbacher
and buff type geese so i would say its not bad at all .

 

[psue]

To answer your selling question ... you sell them as mutts or mixed how ever you want to word it.

Many people breed mutts for butchering... why would you worry about breeding pure if they are going to the table?

 

[servpolice]

Haha valid point there

To answer your selling question ... you sell them as mutts or mixed how ever you want to word it.

Many people breed mutts for butchering... why would you worry about breeding pure if they are going to the table?

 

[Iain Utah]

Well Bob, I personally do not cross-breed my geese, but I totally understand why people on this forum may want to. The buff dewlap Toulouse is a result of someone once crossing grey dewlaps with american buff. My aussie shepherds (the true American western mutt breed) were developed from a mixture of breeds. And I have intentionally sought out and purchased draft crossed horses (I have a percheron-arab and a percheron-qh), as I feel the percheron adds a wonderful quality to a backcountry trail horse by providing a lighter horse with stronger bones, bigger feet and a more level head.

I've personally seen more problems in all types of animals resulting from inbreeding than from cross breeding. The most important thing to me is that anyone who breeds, whether they are breeding to improve standards within a breed or to create a new color or breed, should do so responsibly.

 

[8GeeseALaying]

My Crossbreeding is controlled. My main cross is NOT a cross at all it is a mix of colors. White chinese + Brown Chinese is still purebred chinese. Even the purist breeders on here will agree with that. That cross results in a brown pied chinese.
My Next cross a Tufted Chinese, this was my personal experiment. I wanted the knobby bill with a tufted head and the body of a meat bird. While i have only one pair of those i did however hatch 5 and SOLD those for what they were, to a purist goose person, who at first was skeptical and was after some pure chinese i had because i didnt want to sell them at all, but went with the tufted chinese because of their looks, personality and temperment. I continued with this cross for my own purpose this year, only hatching 2.
This year i also went with the Tufted Toulouse. Metzers sells them, but i decided to use my own, yes i got a lavender but it is still a tufted toulouse.
That being said i hatch more purebreds, including the rightful colors of the chinese than i do the crossbreeds. Mutts or not if someone is wanting goslings/geese enough then most are willing to be educated on those mutts or purebreds.

 

[servpolice]

Well said ladies

Its very interesting to here other peoples opinions

 

[barredmuscovy]

my embden sitting on her Toulouse/Embden crossbred eggs gonna be great when they hatch