Should we keep him...help.

[corn pecker]

This is a picture of out african gander we got a few weeks ago. We knew nothing about geese but have been doing some research since then. We are looking for a meat/egg geese with females that will be good moms. We have a nice set up on 1/2 acre with a pond fenced in for them. Should we stay with Africans, cross breed him or find him a new home and try a different breed? I am also curious about them weeding, we have a blueberry farm and I would like to give them a try with weeding if any one has experience with that we would love to hear.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Most breeds have the reputation of being good parents.

No breed that I know of is much of an egg producer. If you take the eggs (I have not done this yet) they are reported to keep laying for a while, but are basically seasonal layers. They really want to lay a good clutch, set them, and raise babies.

I hope next year to have broody muscovies, and pull off an early clutch for the scovies to hatch, then let the geese raise a clutch of their own. That should give me plenty of goslings per goose. IF all goes as I hope.

If you want eggs for eating, ducks or chickens are more reliable producers. If you need specifically goose eggs for some reason (like crafts) ... Well, I'd consider what goslings are worth before sacrificing too many eggs.

As far as meat, Africans won't carry the body size of something like a Toulouse or Emden, but they grow a bit faster. For growing out quickly, I'd say Chinese might be better.

I'm sure there are plenty of opinions out there. I'm new at raising them for meat, but I've chosen Embdens (geese and ganders) and extra Toulouse geese. The Toulouse are supposed to produce more meat, but my Tolouse honestly aren't keeping up with my Embdens and I may re-think that part. I think the Embdens will do admirably.

Some introduce Chinese, hoping to produce more babies that grow faster, and cross them with Embden for large size. That might be a very good plan, and I may split off part of my flock and try this.

Unfortunately it takes a few years to grow birds, breed, grow out, compare, etc. I hope that whatever you decide works out well for you.

Oh, I did use my Chinese and Africans as lawnmowers, but my current flock (Embden, Toulouse, and a pair of Pilgrims) worked in the garden as weeders as young geese. They worked ok. I watched them and found they very rarely tried to eat veggies. (blueberries might be another matter, and on e they taste the fruit ...). But my veggies were not yet producing. The main problem I had was the goslings outgrew the plants and eventually were trampling them and I had to stop.

The "weeds" they ate were mostly grasses, which they prefer over weeds. They might not eat real weeds at all. Also, they just eat the tops and didn't pull out the roots, so all they REALLY did was keep emerging grass short.

As lawnmowers they are great.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Darn I had a full page answer and hit the wrong key and it all went away! I'll try again but will keep it shorter. That looks like a Fine African gander I would keep him for herd boss and stud. First have you done any market research in your area? Here people perfer smaller geese unless they are planning a feast, the market for eggs for cooking does not favor the huge goose eggs. I would try him on 4-6 chinese (Chinas) females. they are small geese and produce more small eggs. 2nd generation birds should be somewhere between the two parrents. Chinas because they are from the same family (Swan Goose) and should not have the fertility probles that some times show up with other crosses. By crossing to the African or 2nd generation ganders you should be able to select what you want.
As for using for Weeding Blueberries that I have experience with. high bush were ok the geese tended to eat leaves and berries as high as they could reach. They ate up my low bush completely! Actually If I had paid more attention to what they were eating I would have had less problems. Now I only turn them loose after the season is over, they eat the dropped fruit and the grass/weeds and when they start on the leaves I yank them. I run some ducks with them for insects. Eating the dropped fruit and weeds is much better than mowing since the insects and disease will hide in the hay. Great if you are trying to go Organic and the waterfowl poop is good fertilixer to.
Good Luck with your geese and let us know how they work out for you. ~gd

 

[rainplace]

I have africans and pomeranians weeding between our winter crops and in the orchard. I had to fence the smaller apple trees because they were chewing on the small trunks, but they do great weeding through the taller trees. They also are doing great between the winter crops, and we have found that they do get at the roots if there is water for them to root into. We do have row covers over the winter crops and the few times a cover has blown to the side, they have gone after the crops. They leave all the alliums, garlics, strawberries, and herbs alone though as the season comes upon us I will need to remove them from these places (they don't eat the strawberry plants, but will eat the fruit, they don't eat the herbs, but they do trample them, I've only had to herd them away from trampling the the onions and garlics thrice before they stopped trampling them, but I suspect that as I move further into the fields and have less time to watch them, they will return to those rows since the paths are so yummy)

My bachelor african (the other geese chased him off months ago) has taken to the ducks and is a great flock protector. He always has an eye to the sky and calls them to cover when birds of prey fly overhead or one of the dogs or humans come too near. He gets distressed when the flock of ducks divide themselves into separate groups.

I don't know what weight they butcher out to. I butchered a young sebastopol gander for Christmas who weighed in at a little over 9lbs dressed. We thought it was the perfect size for a small family.

We're letting our gaggle of farm geese sort themselves out for breeding. It's a mixed flock of africans, pomeranians, smooth breasted sebastopols, and a single lavender saddleback. There has been fighting, but it seems there is now a dominant gander (buff african) who is keeping everyone else in line. He seems to be keen on a pomeranian female.

I bought these as utility geese from Holderread letting him know that I was interested in farm geese who we could let weed, breed, and then butcher the offspring. He suggested I let them cross if they desired, but that they had the potential to produce good type offspring if I wanted to pair them out.

One last note on weeding that goosedragon touched on. goosedragon said, "Actually If I had paid more attention to what they were eating I would have had less problems." This. Paying attention is the key to using geese for weeding.