Sebastopols. A cash crop?

[ultasol]

Quote:
What do you mean...you bought 4 day old goslings and they didn't turn out nice?
What would you do different now?
Also, with Sebbies, their feathering will improve by the time they're 2 years old (if its going to).
You really can't judge them as yearlings.

Has nothing to do with feathers, they are small yet,.. has to do with the UGLY heads.

I've got my fingers crossed on the feathers, but either way, it will be ok. Were I to do it again I would purchase an older bird so I would know exactly what I was getting. I took the risk on Holderreads because I have been happy with some other geese that originally came from their stock and because their book is fantastic. I don't care at this point about smooth breasted vs not, I am looking for the correct type. You have got to build the house first.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

some of my geese have "off" years for feathering and I know last year was strange because they started breeding during show season and that doens't usually happen.....all my nice long feathers were gone before I knew it.
As far as the heads.....I like them to look like the call duck heads. Big, round, and thick with a bill that is not too long. I don't keep the small heads....
The advantage of buying goslings is you can end up with a really nice Seb for a fraction of the cost. SQ ones are not cheap and most people will not sell them.

 

[Cottage Rose]

Thanks Nik & Violet!

Ultrasol, I agree on going for type first.
That's why I'm not all that adverse to using quality smooth Sebastopols.
I think the more refined heads are pretty much the norm in
your average run of the mill Sebastopols.
I really haven't seen a lot of the rounder heads.
Even in some some show type, curly, white strains that have nice heads
they don't necessarily reproduce it consistently.
Anybody else notice this?
The bigger, rounder heads must be a recessive trait or not typical of the breed.
I didn't have very many nice heads until I got some colored Sebastopols.
Maybe this is from the Americans or Poms in their background??

As for feathers improving over time, they do indeed.
Seen it happen time and time again.

Mrs. Turbo...Murphy's Law hey?

I've also noticed some blow their feathers like right after
you notice how awesome they are looking. ~sigh~
I'm very excited to see that my 2009 curly white gander from
Holderreads is hanging on to his lovely, long breast feathers
even this time of year....but who knows if he will pass that trait
along to his offspring.
Such is the world of breeding animals.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

got one more cash crop hatching now....LOL..... sure hope this one is a boy. This is the year of the girls.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

Quote:
mine have all lost their feathers so they are looking soooo bad right now. I hate to lock them up to keep them show ready, but I might have to pull a couple this year. I had some entered in a show last year and decided not to take them after all the mating and chasing.....feathers were everywhere.

 

[CityChicker]

How has you all's breeding season been going? I remember you starting a thread a couple months ago, Cottage Rose. Still crazy for us here, although I am hatching mainly ducks this year, not geese. It has just been beyond bizarre. Our new Overbergs that we got from Holderreads just laid like crazy for several weeks, but fertility was horrible and then they just completely stopped over night. I was about to give up on some of our Runners and Silver Bantams and about 4-6 weeks ago they just started laying like crazy (they normally would have started back in Feb.). In the last few weeks, we have hatched out a couple dozen Silver Bantams and still have tons of eggs in the incubators (Runners too). The Calls too have all the sudden been laying like crazy (those girls I got from you, Mrs Turbo, are both laying every single day). This past week, just in our bantam ducks, we got a couple hundred eggs! ....and it has been near 100 degrees! So weird. We are right now where we normally are around March-April.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

glad the hens are still laying for you....are you hatching any? Ours are still laying, but the call duck hatching is slow. Didn't hatch many goslings this year either. The chickens have been paying the feed bill this year, not the geese that's for sure.
Fertility was horrible on the geese this year even after I pulled the extra fluff around the vents. Maybe due to the odd breeding last fall/ early winter?

 

[CityChicker]

Yeah, I think the laying cycle that so many people had their birds go through earlier in the year did indeed affect the rest of the season. I have had a hard time finding a drake(s) to pair those girls with. I ended up combining some birds in one of my larger cages with a pond to free up some of my smaller cages and I put the girls in with a young Apricot Silver and some excess Mallard hens thinking the breeding season was pretty much over. Well, the opposite has happened. The laying has picked up even more and one of the Calls has gone broody as well. The Apricot Silver drake is obviously breeding them because they are now laying fertile. I have checked fertility (mainly because I had some fertility issues prior in that pen), but haven't decided whether to hatch the eggs or not. It might be interesting to see what comes up and I can always sell them as pet quality. Actually, their offspring should be 100% Blue Aleutian, so I may try to hatch out a few for fun.

Anyway, as luck would have it, almost as soon as I put them in the other pen, I have now found some drakes to pair them with that I am getting hopefully later today! I will keep my fingers crossed, but it is very likely too late in the year for them to lay with the new drakes by the time I quarantine them and the hens get separated from the other drake long enough.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

None of my waterfowl - except one rouen duck - are laying right now. We only hatched 3 Sebastopol goslings out of my Sebbies - and now they're not laying at all. This is my first year with the Sebbies, and I should have probably kept all 3 goslings, but we've had some problems here and I had a guy come and buy all 3 of the goslings. I know they got a good home, and I only sold them as pet quality since none of the goslings were really old enough for me to determine their quality. They were cute, though, and one was a blue.

 

[Cottage Rose]

I was able to fill several orders plus I kept 11 gosling's, but ya, it was a very odd year!
Even heard reports of some issues with wild waterfowl having poor hatches.
Its probably George Bushes fault.
I still have a smattering of goose eggs coming which the crows are happy to eat.
Oh wait! I could sell those on eggbid for $1000. each! Duh!
(Slapping forehead)