The African and Chinese goose thread!!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Guess who was in the incubator when I got home!!!!!! SOOOO excited!!!!!

I will take it out of the incubator tomorrow morning. It still seemed wet tonight. Thank you all so much for your help. I have one more goose egg that will possibly hatch Tuesday. I still see movement in it so keeping fingers crossed. These are eggs that were shipped from Louisiana to NC via USPS, then our power went out for 8 hours from a tree falling on the lines, then went out again due to a storm for a few hours. It is just a miracle this one made it. I started with 7, 2 were broken when they arrived, 3 didn't make it for whatever reason, this one hatched day 29 and the other should hatch Tuesday (day 28) for it.

Should I put this little one in with my baby chicks? Will pine shavings be okay for bedding or wire? I am using towels on the bottom of the incubator. I'm afraid paper towels would be too slick. Does anyone use shelf liner - the rubbery kind of stuff?

The other babies are just too big and would probably trample this little one, so I will keep it separate for a good while. I cannot get over how quickly they grow. Its almost as if they double in size by the day!

Angela

Precious little life, congrats! Snuggle that baby and you will imprint on them.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/7384687/width/200/height/400 We recently ordered our first pair of geese and we're so excited. I've always wanted some and after our visit to the zoo, my husband fell in love with these geese. We ordered chinese geese since we had many people say these are chinese. However, someone told us they were Africans. Now I'm afraid that we ordered wrong.

Chinese are amazing geese, my fav's. African are a large, heavy breed normally with dewlaps. You have lovely geese.they are probably chinese.Better layers and very social.

I was just over at Metzer's web site. Their live cam shows this week's goslings are hatching. Three of them are mine. Am sooo excited.

Oh my, congrats!

@jchny2000 , or anyone else that can help. I don't have any chick food to feed to my broody hen, but I do have cat food, the dry crumble kind. Would that help her maintain weight and get extra vitamins in her, or would it be bad for her health?

Mash that dry crumble cat food and try it. If she refuses try any thing on hand to help boost protein. Serious broody geese will not leave a nest more than once a day.

Quote:
It should. Geese will eat a feed if it tastes good.

Hello to all- so glad to find you. I adopted a pair of White Chinese about a month ago- they are doing well with my flock and doing all the spring stuff as expected- I must say that I anticipate a huge flock if their efforts are successful. I digress.....my question, as a first time goose owner, is that they run to me every time they see me in anxious anticipation of something. I have not yet figured out that something and every tidbit I try is met with disappointment

Is this just normal behavior or am I missing something?

Happy geese will run and fly! its an enjoyable event to watch. We have 5 acres so when I open coops for free time, they take flight.
They flock to you also. No worries just talk to them. Geese are a very social bird.

 

[NathanZee]

Precious little life, congrats! Snuggle that baby and you will imprint on them.
Chinese are amazing geese, my fav's. African are a large, heavy breed normally with dewlaps. You have lovely geese.they are probably chinese.Better layers and very social.

Oh my, congrats!

Mash that dry crumble cat food and try it. If she refuses try any thing on hand to help boost protein. Serious broody geese will not leave a nest more than once a day.


It should. Geese will eat a feed if it tastes good.
Happy geese will run and fly! its an enjoyable event to watch. We have 5 acres so when I open coops for free time, they take flight.
They flock to you also. No worries just talk to them. Geese are a very social bird.

Okay, thank you! We weighed her yesterday and she has lost about 7/8 of a pound in the 15/16 days of incubation so far. Is that more than normal?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: Honestly I can't say, my girls do drop weight. Most of the hens are 12 pounds and up here. You have an excellent idea of monitoring her weight! I have 8 hens so its something I had not considered doing.

 

[NathanZee]

Honestly I can't say, my girls do drop weight. Most of the hens are 12 pounds and up here. You have an excellent idea of monitoring her weight! I have 8 hens so its something I had not considered doing.

Oh okay. Keeping track of that many would be a challenge!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: Aside from my geese I keep several other species. Hogs, goats. cows, donkey, chickens, turkey, guinea, quail and ducks think that's it ROFL! I have to admit I love my geese the most. We are an active farm and do raise animals for food. And no, I do not use geese as food, they are pets and alerts to help us protect our poultry.

 

[NathanZee]

Aside from my geese I keep several other species. Hogs, goats. cows, donkey, chickens, turkey, guinea, quail and ducks think that's it ROFL! I have to admit I love my geese the most. We are an active farm and do raise animals for food. And no, I do not use geese as food, they are pets and alerts to help us protect our poultry.

Wow you've got a lot to take care of! So the geese have a little higher position than the "other" animals?

 

[clmschke]

We have 12 female African geese (and 12 males). They have laid over 200 eggs so far this spring, however only ONE girl has gone broody and that was 28 days ago (she has a couple of eggs that have internally pipped)

Is there som,e way to promote broodiness in these other girls??

 

[NathanZee]

We have 12 female African geese (and 12 males). They have laid over 200 eggs so far this spring, however only ONE girl has gone broody and that was 28 days ago (she has a couple of eggs that have internally pipped)

Is there som,e way to promote broodiness in these other girls??

Wow that's a lot of eggs! Do all the hens have individual nests? For Elizabeth my hen, we just let her collect the eggs in her nest then she went broody when she had 8.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
Than most yes, my favorites! I am very partial to my livestock too. My cow and donkey are pretty special to us.

We have 12 female African geese (and 12 males). They have laid over 200 eggs so far this spring, however only ONE girl has gone broody and that was 28 days ago (she has a couple of eggs that have internally pipped)

Is there som,e way to promote broodiness in these other girls??

How old are they? Some wont get broody until they mature a bit. All my brown hens seem to, my older white hen (4) gets broody later in the spring. If they have nesting places, try collecting all but 2 eggs from each nest. On day 7 redistribute to nests and see if that encourages them!

 

[JanetMarie]

Hi, I'm hoping to get some clarification on the differences between Africans and Chinese, and is this right: true Africans have the dewlap under the chin, and all the others are actually Chinese, but sometimes are called African. I noticed also that some pictures that are called Chinese have a shorter thicker neck, and some pictures of Chinese have very long thin necks and stand more upright. Are they different strains of Chinese and mistakenly called African?