Geese advice needed

baronrenfrew · Post by **baronrenfrew** » Sun May 01, 2016 12:59 pm

Gidday, I had grand ideas that roman geese would be "just right" for me. Two legged lawnmowers for the orchard i'm working on. The last geese I had were chinese geese and that was 15 years ago. A bit too nasty for my taste. So i got two pairs of tufted romans late last summer.

I got one clutch of eggs from two geese, one got broody and we got one gosling. Eggs started in late Feb and got broody first week of March. I didn't want to fire up the bator that early so we ate 4 eggs, 4 or five froze before collected. Mama sat on 5 eggs. Two hatched but one wandered off and died before we found him.
So the gaffer spent two weeks in the kitchen and two in the basement.

Its clear now my barn is laid out wrong, and i made a few other management mistakes (wrong food?, too much food and birds too heavy?, not enough water?)

So i expected them to start laying in earnest anyday.
Yesterday the barn and yard were full of primary flight feathers. What? Molting now? Are you freakin kidding me? Where's the next clutch?

So now i'm looking at locking them in the barn with no windows and lights only. A month of simulated winter daylight hours : 9 hours daylight, 15 hours dark. Or should I recreate February with 10.5 light the rest dark. What do you think?

baronrenfrew · Post by **baronrenfrew** » Sun May 01, 2016 1:01 pm

I did some digging online and haven't found a good answer yet.

Jaye · Post by **Jaye** » Sun May 01, 2016 2:56 pm

Wish I could help out, but have no experience with geese, and only a little with chickens. Funny (not) that you are dealing with a "what the ...?" moult": I am too, with two of my chickens. I did a quick spot-check for parasites, but didn't see any. I plan to dust them this evening anyway, just in case. Could that be what's going on with your geese?

Silkie Sue · Post by **Silkie Sue** » Sun May 01, 2016 4:01 pm

i have no experience with geese either but as for chickens and ducks, if they are left to their own devices... they will screw you around every time!!! When you want them to sit.. they don't. when you don't want them to be broody.. they are. you put eggs that you want to hatch under them and they give up within the last week. but let them hide their mutt eggs somewhere and you are sure to be surprised by 20 something little chicks that you have no idea what they are!
my advice is to collect the eggs and fire up the damn incubator!
Good Luck
Sue

kenya · Post by **kenya** » Sun May 01, 2016 5:58 pm

I have no idea about geese, hopefully goosey Gail will come on line and let you know or you could PM her. But I agree with Silkie Sue !

Robbie · Post by **Robbie** » Sun May 01, 2016 9:36 pm

Just buy some more goslings

windwalkingwolf · Post by **windwalkingwolf** » Mon May 02, 2016 2:21 am

They're done laying for the year, unless simulating winter will work. I've never tried it, so couldn't tell you. Once one goes broody, and especially if something hatches, those hormones seemingly affect all the females in a flock and they all quit and moult. I hatched two goslings this year from my Chinese girls, and made the mistake of letting the little guys within earshot of the adults...they promptly stopped laying, and I doubt I'll see another egg this year even though in past years (as long as I took eggs promptly) I could expect eggs through June. Last year I let a Muscovy incubate goose eggs, and the darned gander KNEW those were goose eggs. I don't know how. He checked on the duck and those eggs every day, and once they hatched, he took the goslings from her at beak-point and herded them to the rest of the geese. then BAM, no more eggs, grrr. Once a baby happens, even if it dies, the buggers call it good.

Ontario Chick · Post by **Ontario Chick** » Mon May 02, 2016 9:07 am

At least they will still cut the grass Bert!

baronrenfrew · Post by **baronrenfrew** » Wed May 04, 2016 9:43 am

windwalkingwolf wrote:QR_BBPOST They're done laying for the year, unless simulating winter will work. I've never tried it, so couldn't tell you. Once one goes broody, and especially if something hatches, those hormones seemingly affect all the females in a flock and they all quit and moult. I hatched two goslings this year from my Chinese girls, and made the mistake of letting the little guys within earshot of the adults...they promptly stopped laying, and I doubt I'll see another egg this year even though in past years (as long as I took eggs promptly) I could expect eggs through June. Last year I let a Muscovy incubate goose eggs, and the darned gander KNEW those were goose eggs. I don't know how. He checked on the duck and those eggs every day, and once they hatched, he took the goslings from her at beak-point and herded them to the rest of the geese. then BAM, no more eggs, grrr. Once a baby happens, even if it dies, the buggers call it good.

No kidding eh? Read online that at places with even daylight hours near the equator they'll have two breeding seasons per year. Must be at high altitude or it'd be too hot.

Gotta keep records and keep experimenting. No wonder goslings are so expensive.

Epona · Post by **Epona** » Fri May 06, 2016 1:41 pm

I've Chinese for the past 5 yrs. Never had two breeding seasons with them. Waiting now for some broody movement. We have a nest full of eggs, but no action on sitting on them. I find them very difficult to pull off a hatch. We don't incubate so we have to hope for a natural course of events. Got impatient this year, so put 4 eggs under a chicken hen. They hatched right on schedule than promptly died the following day. No idea what happened. So frustrating. By the way, I find my Chinese very friendly. Never had such a hassle with ducks.