Pairing Geese

[RAREROO]

Hi

I've decided to try some Geese and I just got a young American Buff pair ( I hope they are a pair anyway) just to try out and see if I like geese, and if I do I think I may try to get a pair of Buff Saddleback Pomerainians next year. So my question is, if I have both pairs running together, will they stay with and mate with their own mate that they were raised with ? Or are they more polygamous like ducks and chickens and will mate back and forth with whoever ?

 

[jojo@rolling acres farm]

There's no guarantee that they will stay true and mate with their original mate.

 

[Jenifer Kraus]

It would be better if you could seperate them for the breeding season and the rest of the year they could run together.

 

[Cottage Rose]

Domestic geese are NOT monogamous, plus chances are the ganders will fight with each other during the breeding season
if not kept in separate pens.

 

[Jenifer Kraus]

Even with penning them seperately. it is better not to have them side by side if possible as they may try to fight through the fence. Some ganders do ok side by side, but others continually try to get at each other through the breeding season.

 

[RAREROO]

Ok Thanks guys, when is the normal breeding season ? I would appreciate any general info on breeding geese as well, I would probably just keep what I have then, I'm not going to pen them up, they are too messy penned up and I like to see them free ranging.

 

[RAREROO]

And also, I am also thinking about trying to get some Shetland Geese which are a sexlinked breed, the males being solid white and the female are saddleback colored and since I dont care much for solid white colored birds I was thinking to keep one male with a few females. So if there is only one male with say three females in a group, will he breed them all ? I want these because I like the saddleback color of the females, the are a really small breed, I could separate males early and butcher the extra ones , and they are a super rare breed and I like working to preserve rare breeds. So what do you all think, if they are separated in their own group, will one male cover three females ?

 

[Goosehaven]

The breeding season for my geese starts around February and ends in early-mid June. My first batch of goslings hatched in mid-March this year and my second batch is ready to hatch any day now. I have one Roman gander who bred all four of my girls this year. He favors two of them the best but he wasn't picky during breeding time

My lone toulouse gander has been rejected by all the girls so he doesn't breed with anybody.

 

[NapoleanGoose]

I have a Toulouse gander who was breeding 4 females at one point, and left my other boy with just one. He soon gave that up, but the rest of the year he had three and I had 80-100% fertility in my flock. :') The young males are okay with more females, but once they get older I think they begin to pair off to their favorites and ignore the others. Be careful having too many ganders. Mine were fighting over a girl last year, and one was breeding and the other jumped on to try and breed to and ended up breaking my goose's femur bone in her wing, a serious fracture. The surgery was expensive and the goose didn't make it. They can bruise each other up pretty bad too.

 

[RAREROO]

OK Thank you all so much

Now another question, if left to their own devices will they hatch more than one clutch per season or do you have to take the eggs and incuabate them yourself to get them to keep laying more eggs. And what is the general number of eggs they get up to before they start setting on the nest ? Thanks