Goose or Duck????

[loganfarms]

This may be a stupid question, but I don't know the answer and need to find out. A gentleman gave my kids some eggs for our incubator from his farm. All of his birds free range and he just gathered the eggs for us from the pond bank. We hatched 8 eggs and 2 of the eggs were a bit larger than the other. I know that he has white geese and Pekin ducks, but can't tell any difference between the babies (1 week old now) and they may all be ducks, but IF any of them were geese would I be able to notice a difference now? and if the asnswer is no, at what age could I tell?? Our duck population at the farm is great already so I want to sell the babies, but if its a chance that I have a goose I want to keep it. Any knowledge is appreciated!! Thanks!!

 

[appychick]

Pekin duck eggs would be similar size to large chicken eggs while goose eggs usually are quite a bit larger. At hatch there would be a definate difference between goslings & ducklings. The goslings would be more upright & have longer legs while the ducklings are quite short legged in comparison. Also different vocalization would be noticed. Hope this helps !

 

[n4zty]

correct geese eggs are massvive nothing compared to duck eggs so very easily to tell which are ducks and which are geese.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Actually, it depends on what breed of geese the guy has. Embden geese lay very big eggs, so those are easy to tell the difference. Chinese and Pilgrim geese eggs are not quite as big as Embdens, so those might be a little easier to tell. One difference on the eggs is the texture of the shell, a goose egg will be kind of rough where a duck egg is usually pretty smooth. The main difference between ducklings and goslings are their beaks/bills. A duck's bill is rounded on the end and a goose's bill is more pointed.

 

[Oregon Blues]

It's not possible to give an opinion without seeing them, but rule of thumb, goose nostrils are located further down the bill than duck nostrils.