How to sex a goose and advice.

[bearz]

My son has 2 geese for a 4H project. We *think* they are M/F but can't tell.

So, first question, how to sex Toulouse geese? One, the friendlier one who we think might be the female, has a dark tip to her nose.

2nd. We're at the end of the young goose food with 3 weeks to go to the fair. They won't eat another whole bag. Can I feed the chicken feed at this point? They eat a ton of grass and just use feed to supplement. They are almost 2 months old and have only gone thru one bag of feed (the cheapest animals on the farm!).

3rd. Can you give us any tips for showing at the fair? Like cleaning, what to look for in an award-winning goose.

4th Is it hard to winter geese in WI? We would have to put them in with the chickens and I'm assuming we would cage them in the coop. Right now they get along great with the chickens but that could change in a heartbeat.

 

[bearz]

Nobody? Not one person can answer my questions.

 

[fowlmood]

I don't think there is any way to sex them until spring and you see if one will lay eggs. There are many discussions on here about the subtle differences in the voices and such, you can do a search on it. Sorry, I don't know anything about showing geese either. Geese in Wisconsin shouldn't be a problem. I'm in northern Michigan. Just make sure they have the option of getting out of the wind if they need to. As far as food goes, my ducks, chickens and geese all eat the same thing. As you've noticed, the geese do very well on grass and will eat little grain.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

here's my $0.02...

first cottage rose is the goose expert - so i'd check with her


1. to sex them - if you cant vent sex them (i sure cant!) i'd go by behavior - is one more aggressive? pushes their way forward? does the other one kind of hang back and is more 'demure'? we couldnt tell until we saw ours laying..

2. i think my bag of Dumor says its for geese too - but if you are going to over winter them - why not just get the whole bag? can you share with someone? are they penned or free range? we just let ours out and they eat grass all day - we dont feed very much grain at all. not sure you can do this with fair projects tho..

3. cant help you with the fair stuff

4. we are in central ohio and had an extremely cold cold winter. our geese did ok but they hated the snow!!!! they are really cold hardy in general and the best advice i got was "make them deal with the cold", feed them little and often, give them warm (not hot) water at least 2 times a day, keep them out of the wind, and make sure they have a DRY place to hang out. remember - they have little down coats on!

at one point it was so cold and icy i thought about putting them in the garage or trying to warm them up inside - but that was the worst idea EVER. i found out they will deal with the cold - just give them the right 'tools.' we also loaded ours up on corn as the extra carbs seemed to help and giving them full ears gave them something to do all day.

hope this helps!

 

[Cottage Rose]

Quote:
Thank you kindly Ohio for the nice compliment but I do not consider myself a goose "expert".
I've only been raising waterfowl since 2005.

Q. #1. Maybe some geese can be sexed on appearance but I know nothing about Toulouse. Try to find somebody with experience to vent sex them or have your vet vent sex them.

Q #2. I'm not understanding this question. Are you selling them at fair? Even so you will have to feed them at fair so buy another bag of feed and give any leftovers to your chickens. If you're bringing them home, even if they're on pasture (which is GREAT) they will need more feed this fall and of course during the winter months.

Q. #3. Make sure your geese have clean water DAILY they can get into and bathe in. They will keep themselves clean and preened which the best way to have them in show condition. Too late at this point to start any supplementation to condition them for showing.
Hopefully you've been handling them alot so they aren't all wild acting.

Q. #4. I'm your neighbor in Michigan and my geese survive the winters just fine but they do have plenty of the proper feed and fresh water daily as well as shelter with dry bedding that I close them into every night
to protect them from predators and bad weather.
On very stormy or severe cold days I keep them in because they don't do anything but hunker down in the snow and don't move about. I keep my waterfowl separate from my chickens because they have different feed requirements and adult geese will bully chickens
especially during the breeding season.

Hope this helps.
You might like reading my raising waterfowl tip page on my website. I also have a link page with tons of waterfowl links.
Good luck at fair!

 

[briarpatchfarms]

In the toulouse the male usually out grows the female by a few inches in hieght and weight so you should be able to tell by 2 to 3 months of age!