- Apr 2, 2014
- 29
- 3
- 22
My daughter was given a pair of Sebastopol geese last fall because the owner didn't wish to worry about them over the winter. We raise sheep for a living and know nothing about geese so I've been trying to read up on them. I do not know how old Watson and Isabelle are but they are beautiful pure white birds.
Isabelle starting laying eggs in snow piles (i.e., frozen before found) even though she had a nice little house with a nest to use. They were penned up tighter so she has begun using the nest. The eggs are still cold when we find them as if she is not laying on them after she delivers them--we check daily. It's still freezing most of the time here in Central Michigan--at least MY part of CM.
I bought an incubator to attempt to hatch them myself. But everything I am reading indicates the likelihood of success in obtaining a live gosling is very slim. As of last night, I have three eggs in my incubator, the first from a week ago Sunday, one from this Sunday, and one yesterday.
One of the things I read was that a lot of corn is not very healthy for geese and a higher ratio of protein improves fertility. So I bought a bag of poultry feed, added some soybean meal to the feed, and have asked that they not be fed so much corn.
Just in case I should be successful in hatching any of the little buggers, I was thinking I might want an unrelated male to breed to any females I might save (or do I not need to worry about inbreeding?). Is there anyone in the Big Rapids, Mt. Pleasant, White Cloud area who might have a young, "genetically" white/curly-breasted/very-feathery male gosling they wish to sell? I picture the little hummer as a little fuzzy yellow guy that doesn't resemble his parents yet.
Isabelle starting laying eggs in snow piles (i.e., frozen before found) even though she had a nice little house with a nest to use. They were penned up tighter so she has begun using the nest. The eggs are still cold when we find them as if she is not laying on them after she delivers them--we check daily. It's still freezing most of the time here in Central Michigan--at least MY part of CM.
I bought an incubator to attempt to hatch them myself. But everything I am reading indicates the likelihood of success in obtaining a live gosling is very slim. As of last night, I have three eggs in my incubator, the first from a week ago Sunday, one from this Sunday, and one yesterday.
One of the things I read was that a lot of corn is not very healthy for geese and a higher ratio of protein improves fertility. So I bought a bag of poultry feed, added some soybean meal to the feed, and have asked that they not be fed so much corn.
Just in case I should be successful in hatching any of the little buggers, I was thinking I might want an unrelated male to breed to any females I might save (or do I not need to worry about inbreeding?). Is there anyone in the Big Rapids, Mt. Pleasant, White Cloud area who might have a young, "genetically" white/curly-breasted/very-feathery male gosling they wish to sell? I picture the little hummer as a little fuzzy yellow guy that doesn't resemble his parents yet.
