The African and Chinese goose thread!!

[Miss Lydia]

They are gorgeous

 

[Going Bhonkers]

Thanks, guys! Looking forward to seeing everyone else's updates!

 

[NanaKat]

Here is an update on Ninya and Charlie....why is it that a pile of dirt makes any animal play "King of the Mountain"?


And the pair has gotten brave enough to free-range in the front cattle lot...under guard of course...

 

[pinkchick]

Hi Everyone! Hope you all and your geese are doing great!
WoW! It's been awhile! Been busy around here for a few months,but what fun it has been with the geese and watching them grow up. OMGosh I love them! Turns out all three of my goslings ended up being females....WaaaaahhhhhhhOOOOOOTTTT! How lucky is that? The kicker is they grow so fast and they certainly are not babies anymore. DH can't get over how fast they grew up.

About a month or so ago we had a predation problem and a found out that it was a bobcat, who took 4 of my adult geese in one night...all females of course. Daisy, the oldest female and Casey Aflac, the younger male, were the only ones left in the coop the morning after the massacre, they were horrifiied. 4 days later, to my surprise, my oldest gander, Ben Aflac, came honking home. I was elated to have him back! What a survivor. The adults still won't go back to that coop or even near it. They have decided that living up in the chicken commons area where all of my breeding coops are is much better place to be and have taken being the bosses of the place. Go figure!
I have some updated photos of them to share but having a very hard time uploading them. Will try again later.

Have a great day!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hi Everyone! Hope you all and your geese are doing great!
WoW! It's been awhile! Been busy around here for a few months,but what fun it has been with the geese and watching them grow up. OMGosh I love them! Turns out all three of my goslings ended up being females....WaaaaahhhhhhhOOOOOOTTTT! How lucky is that? The kicker is they grow so fast and they certainly are not babies anymore. DH can't get over how fast they grew up.
About a month or so ago we had a predation problem and a found out that it was a bobcat, who took 4 of my adult geese in one night...all females of course. Daisy, the oldest female and Casey Aflac, the younger male, were the only ones left in the coop the morning after the massacre, they were horrifiied. 4 days later, to my surprise, my oldest gander, Ben Aflac, came honking home. I was elated to have him back! What a survivor. The adults still won't go back to that coop or even near it. They have decided that living up in the chicken commons area where all of my breeding coops are is much better place to be and have taken being the bosses of the place. Go figure!
I have some updated photos of them to share but having a very hard time uploading them. Will try again later.

Have a great day!

So sorry for your losses,I know you were happy to see Ben made it out alive. Where was he all that time?

 

[Going Bhonkers]

Wow Nanakat, Charlie & Ninya look great!!!

 

[Iain Utah]

Wow Nanakat, Charlie & Ninya look great!!!

X2!! Great Job!!

 

[clmschke]

I hope someone can help me with a problem we're having with 2 African Geese: Our geese are about 13 weeks old, and two of them, Fred and George have started collapsing from what seems to be exhaustion. They run around and try to fly and then just collapse. Last night it was Fred. Now Fred is the one who had some sort of catastrophe when he/she was about 6 weeks old. We found him feet up near the garage and he could not stand up without falling over. After a night in the house with me feeding watermelon to him (it seemed as though it was the best way to get electrolytes to him without causing more stress) he eventually recovered about 70%. He's still smaller than the others, has issues with balance and is slower, but he manages to keep with the flock of 8.

Georgie collapsed this morning. As with Fred, I scooped him up and took him to the pen so he can be isolated and rest until he caught his breath. Georgie wasn't having anything of laying on the straw, so he got to hang out on my lap. After about 5 minutes, he recovered enough to put up his head and tuck in his wing. I noticed he was shaking a bit though. The rest of the flock came over and must have talked him into coming with them, because he squirmed and I put him down.

Dave and I (the humans in this equation) have come to the conclusion that the two are just weaker than the rest of the flock and trying to keep up is making them exhausted. They are from a hatching of 3 eggs we got from someone off of ebay. The rest of the flock is from Ideal. The Ideal geese seem larger, darker in color and much more energetic. Our 3 are smaller, slower and lighter in color. More of a milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate.

So questions: Has anyone had an experience like this? What more could we do for Fred and George? As our aim for the flock was to get 2 breeding pairs and put the rest in the freezer, we're sure Fred and George will be getting the short straw, but should we even wait another month? Any advice would be great.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

What are you feeding?
Is there Ailey clean water?
Could they be getting into something toxic and or rotting?

Flipping when young is pftn connected to a lack of niacin or eatting something toxic. Some birds in a flock can require more than others to stay healthy and able to keep up with the rest.

Poor genetics and breeding can also lead to issues.

 

[clmschke]

All the geese browse during the day, and have "all flock" or "gamebird" feed when they are penned during the night. We did think about something toxic, but all 8 like to browse together, so it is likely that we would be having problems with more than the two birds. We have also given all the geese nutri-drench. I suspect (but can not prove it) that your last comment is correct. The three birds we hatched are smaller than the ones we bought from Ideal, and two of the three are our "stamina problem" birds.