Honkers in Alaska

[FowlbulousFarms]

I have two Toulouse geese I purchased last march and I cannot tell the sex of them..The one pictured on the left is a lot bigger in the neck and a few pounds heavier than my smaller one..And when he honks you can hear him a mile away compared to the smaller one.All the info I find tells me that the bigger one with a shrill honk is a male..So if I do have a male and a female when do they start laying up here in Alaska?And are their eggs going to hatch if I incubate them?

 

[alaskanchickens]

I believe the bigger one is a male and smaller a female. When I was a kid we had 14 or 15 Toulouse and would always listen to their "voices" to tell which was which. Females have a higher pitch and the males also stand taller, necks stretched out more whereas females will be more relaxed.

 

[FowlbulousFarms]

Every time I go out to give feed and I kneel down the big one's head starts shaking and I think it tries to neck wrestle me.Especially when I get next to the smaller one.I made a 2'x2' nesting box and the small one is always sitting in it but I haven't been blessed with any eggs so far and I have not witnessed any mating going on..I just don't know if it's too early for Alaska..I have picked up 2 eggs from a lady down the street for incubation and they are Africans but I think her birds are about 3 years old.


Stumped....

 

[alaskanchickens]

We had a "hut" for ours with a light that would be turned on in January and usually my March or April we were getting a few eggs. Just like with chickens, artificial light helps to start up egg production. If she's setting in the box she's probably getting ready to start laying.

 

[RURU]

Geese do bury their eggs deep so there will not be eggs on top of the nesting material. They hide them!!!