How do these Toulouse look so far?

[NapoleanGoose]

These are my first goslings out of my breeding flock of Large Dewlap Toulouse. I didn't raise my breeding flock from goslings, so I'm not sure how good these ones look, since I've never had goslings. The largest buff is close to 5 months old. The others are a month younger. I bought their parents from Rick and Donna's line, from Diamond Waterfowl. What do you think?


5 month old Buff goose. I think she looks great but I wanted to get an unbiased opinion. She started out pretty light and now she's moulting dark, like all my breeding geese and the greys did after breeding season. You can see it on her shoulders.

4 month old Buff goose. She's not even done getting all her feathers. She was sick with pnemonia when she was young so her growth is stunted a bit. She has an exceptional dewlap for her size/growth but she is small.

4 month old Grey gander and 4 month old Grey goose. Sorry, I can't tell them apart unless I sex them, since they managed to remove their leg bands. If you want to specify on one goose/photo number them. Photo 1, 2 , 3, 4

Thanks
Sierra

 

[floridaquilter]

Your geese are beautiful. I wish I lived closer so I could buy some for my small flock. I have three Dewlaps although I thought I was buying plain Toulouse. Two out of my three have quite large folds under their neck. one doesn't have much of a fold. Keeping young geese safe from predators is my greatest challenge. Hope to see more pics. I stare at the geese forums

 

[NapoleanGoose]

Aw. I know. I always seem to live so far away from everyone out here in California. ): But I do ship eggs.
These are such friendly geese. I have some africans too, but toulouse have my favorite personality by far.
And the bigs ones scare the coyotes off, which is nice since we have so many here.


Thanks~

 

[3dogs]

I bought 2 sexed pairs of grey toulouse goslings from Holderread's farm that are now 13 weeks old. Their bellies nearly drag on the ground, their dewlaps are more pronounced, and three of them have fairly nice keel development. Wish I could show you some pictures, but since moving here last year, my camera hasn't yet been found. Must break down and buy another one!

Don't let their size fool you regarding coyotes. When I lived back east, a coyote carried off one of my geese. Eastern coyotes are larger than those here since they are wolf hybrids, but I still wouldn't trust a coyote around my birds.

I have never had geese other than toulouse, and agree that they have nice personalities!

 

[noahsgeese]

You geese are beautiful! Are you happy with diamond waterfowl? Are they good breeders?

 

[ultasol]

Diamond Waterfowl has some amazing stuff. Rick and Donna are nice and very fair. I purchased a big buff dewlap gander from them along with a couple of geese. They often win with their call ducks.

 

[NapoleanGoose]

Yes. I've had great experience with them. They are very kind, helpful, and always have great quality birds. All but the gander in my current flock came from them. And they are beautiful. I really need to get some pictures now that they've put some weight on. Dragging bellies, huge keels, and great dewlaps. I wish I'd hatched more goslings this year so that I would have more to choose from, but I only hatched 7 myself and sold most of the rest of the eggs. I'll try and get some more photos of the youngins tomorrow and maybe I can get some of the buff I sold to my neighbor. And perhaps even some of my breeders. But my camera is broke, it got sand in it on the beach vacation this year so it has been iffy ever since.

Thanks everyone
Sierra

 

[Kim65]

I am no judge at all, I just love geese and read up. From what I've read, for the buffs, blues and lavenders, their juvenile plumage is often lighter than it will be at their adult moult (next year). I have Lavenders (americans) and they are looking pretty pied right now, they are a year old and their lavender coloring is MUCH darker than their first feathers. They are moulting their body feathers right now and it looks like snow outside (well, and inside, as they come in to visit).

Your Dewlaps already have very deep keels (their fat bottoms dragging on the ground). It takes them a couple of years to get their full size. Already they look like chunky butts, so it'll just be a matter of time

I love the Dewlap Toulouse, but I worry about their weight and how it affects their legs. The weakest body part of a goose is their legs. I figure they must select for super strong legs in their breeding program, but I'd put them on a reasonable "diet" when they are a couple of years old, not too much scratch and feed IOW. To prolong their lives and preserve their leg joints, that is. Have you heard anything about this Sierra? This is just my thinking, about the giant Dewlaps.

 

[NapoleanGoose]

Thanks Kim. Oh thats good. I was wondering about that. I just figured they got darker with the seasons. My 2 yr old geese just molted a couple of shades darker after this year's breeding season, so I thought it was the same for them.

Yes, I have heard this. And this year after letting my breeding geese get a bit fat for show season, I see how fat they can get how quickly. They've been on a turkey food diet (I had turkeys in the same pen) for two months and they've gained 25% of their own weight. Thats unhealthy for people, I'm sure it's bad for them. I looked at their joints this morning, and they a bit inflamed. I'm going to take them off this diet. I think I'm going to just have to keep a couple of geese separate for shows, but I don't think I can expect as long a life from them with their weight and joint problems. \\:

And then getting the weight off them before breeding season is going to be a challenge too this year.