I have Geese! Toulouse Questions.

[elizabethbinary]

I gots me a goose! Two goose! Geese! They're Toulouse Geese but they have an angel wing each so they were super super cheap (for Australia) at $20 a pop (normally $50 for a gosling!). I couldn't help seeing the poor stunted things walking around so I thought I'd adopt them. I think the angel wing thing is pretty much a confirmed dietary issue, so I'll see what I can do.

I'm contemplating getting a Toulouse Drake to breed the goslings for the dinner table; are the drakes any worse than the hens? I'm worried because my husband has some deep-seeded goose fear from his childhood and is not really happy with the idea of geese, even friendly Toulouses. I'd like to make babies for selling (hopefully angel wing isn't genetic, but I don't think so) as well as nomming...and fois gras. So...

How are dem drakes? Anything else I should know?

And here, so I don't get flogged:

(I just realized how close the house looks in the photo hahaha lol I have heaps more space than it looks like and we're doing a massive cull to make room for the geese and bringing about 12-15 chicks and ducks to the 750 acre farm this week)

**edited for language**

 

[Omniskies]

Congratulations on the geese.

Angel wing still hasn't been 100% verified, because there are still different camps insisting on different things. It has been confirmed that diet will cause it - but since it won't cause angel wing in every bird in a flock, it may be genetic, but only show up in birds with a poor diet. If you're raising for meat, don't let that stop you.

Toulouse ganders (what you call a male goose) are just as huffy as the girls. You'll just have to make sure you find a gander that has the sort of personality you want. Otherwise you will have to do a lot of training and rewarding in order to have a friendly male. What you can always do is get a gander now, then when breeding season rolls around you can swap your babies for someone else's for a different bloodline, then keep a gander out of that bunch to raise another clutch of goslings next year with someone more friendly. No matter what, goslings that are raised with people are much more friendly and relaxed than untouched adults.

If you do get around to trying fois gras then please let me know how it turns out - or if you wanted to PM me how you plan on doing it, that'd be even better. I've been meaning to try it ever since I read the book Fois Gras Wars (much to the horror of probably everyone who reads this thread

. I'll definitely be trying it on Pekins this summer. I may order a few Embdens to try it on, as well.

 

[elizabethbinary]

Wow thank you SO much for all the advice. There's a small chance one of my geese is a gander! But I'm not 100% if they're related or not so I'll have to see. I can't tell because the woman who sold them wasn't entirely sure either. She raised them both from handfeeding which is why she thinks her angel wing is food-related. Apparently they fed them a lot of protein growing up or some non-specific layer mash not for geese.

I'm really good at training and handtaming birds so we'll see how these turn out (whoever humps the other one goes in the pot and a new one will be gotten for good stock).

I will definitely get around to the fois gras - it's one of the main reasons I got the little honkers!

Though I tend to be over-zealous in my farming I also got the ducks for pillows.... omg...feathers....feathers... D: D: D:

 

[Dr. Todd]

You should be able to salvage those wings if you wrap them ASAP. Properly wrapped while still growing you can fix angel wing but you're running out of time with goslings that big.

DT

 

[elizabethbinary]

Oh FABULOUS! Are they goslings??! So I can bind them still? YAY! Thank you. I can't tell their age, I've never had Geese.

When do you think I'll start noticing gender based on their size???

Edit: Also does anyone have a linky to how to bind angel wings?

 

[Dr. Todd]

A quick internet search on angel wing found this: http://www.helium.com/items/1658281-angel-wing-in-ducks-and-geese-causes-and-treatment

It gives a pretty good description on how to go about remedying angel wing.

DT

 

[elizabethbinary]

Oh I was hoping for photos so I didn't screw it up, but that description seems accurate enough to work off of! I did google but I thought my geese were too old for it and I only got causes, not step-by-step fixes.

Thank you.

I'll do it tonight when they've died of sleep. Or do geese even do that? My ducks never seem to sleep....

**edited for language**

 

[Omniskies]

Geese sleep as often as ducks do.

You -might- be able to fix the angel wing. Personally, I'd yank the feathers out of the wing if you think it's doable. It's going to hurt and it's going to suck, but that will help the wing straighten out since the weight won't be dragging it down any more. I had to do it to a few goslings last year that ballooned up because they were able to sneak broiler feed from an adjacent pen. You'll know if it's possible to fix because the wing will be "floppy."

If you try to bend the wing back into the right position and it feels fused together then it's too late.

As for sexing by size, I know many people on BYC trust the method, but I never do. Would you sex a human by size? Sure, guys are usually taller than girls, but I bet all of us could rattle off a dozen examples of people we know that are taller or shorter than they are traditionally supposed to be (it fits for my parents, but I'm taller than my sister, so in a goosey pair I'd sort of be expected to fertilize some eggs with my potent ovaries

.

Also don't trust mounting. Two ganders will mount for dominance and act in ways that will make you swear that geese can be gay. Females will get into dominance bouts that will occasionally look like she's impregnating her very female friend.

There are two ways to sex geese that are reliable. Everything else is a guessing game. Either flip them over and vent sex them like you would a rabbit (males have a very obvious "worm" that pops out and females have nothing), or wait until they have started laying. The pelvic bone on ganders will slowly come together, while the pelvic bone on the girls will stay farther apart so the egg can slip through.

 

[elizabethbinary]

I know how to feel for egg-production but not look for little gander peens! I might do that though but the job seems... well about as fun as egg-vent feeling. Mmm hands up bird butts, what a Christmas! (I guess hands up a goose is a normal Christmas though....)

So my odds of getting them while they sleep are nil, good to know, hahaha.

I don't know if I want to fix it?? If it's not genetic and it doesn't bother me and they're penned at night and don't NEED to fly, will it make a difference? I heard they die early because of predators and the problem but I live in Suburbia where the biggest predator will be goose FOOD. haha.

I heard Toulouses are near impossible to sex other than eggs/vents anyway. But one definitely *seems* more masculine than the other. It leads and is just a *touch* thicker all around and stands a bit different/prouder. But we'll see! I might chase them down in an hour and fondle their eggholes and see what I get. (Once a friend of mine put signs all over my house when the chickens weren't laying that said "My Egghole, my choice!" hahaha)

 

[Miss Lydia]

I wish I hadn't read this, I believe fois gras is inhumane.