another fowl question

Okay so the chicks are ordered. Now I'm exchanging email with a company called Metzer Farms about their white Chinese Goose. They tell me that baby geese can be kept with my chicks the first 5 to 6 weeks eating the same starter formula. I want to verify with you guys that this is accurate information. I'm afraid these days you can't just accept what the vendor says.
Now the information I have indicates this is a dual purpose goose which is what I want. I want to end up with one breeding pair who will supply us with eggs for eating and hatching over many years. We'll eat the kids we hatch (just so it's clear). Is this kind of goose hardy enough in my cold area (as low as -20 some years but most year -5) with shelter? How many gooselings should I order to get one breeding pair? Estimates? Has anyone dealt with this company?

Thanks!
MollyD

i don't htink that is rithgt about the feed. look into it a little more. i mixed half chick starter and half turkey starter for our ducks. sure, they CAN eat the lower protein, but if you want to have big geese, they need to get off on the right start.

they are messy too. they need they own place. waterfowl need to be able to dunk their heads. i printed something out about that, think it was a post from smurfpapablue on guineafowl MB...

tf

so they aren't being straight with me then? That's what I needed to know. Thank tf. Too many companies these days will say anything to make a sale then leave the customer to clean up the mess.

Thanks!
MollyD

i wish you had an incubator. we have one goose sitting one who knows ho many eggs, and the other female has 14 eggs so far in her nest, they just sit on it at night so it doesn't freeze, or guard it in the day. they are the white chicneses, except one male is the white embdem, so should be interesting. i offered the eggs to a friend in Amarillo. they are in the future-new goat pen, so when DH gets to that side, they may abandon the nest when he pull sout the undercover brush and puts up a fence!

SC is sick, but when she is back maybe you can ask her or someone in your area where is the best place to get geese... meanwhile, do a search on nutrient requirements. you will find they are good foragers. but if you are going to keep them penned up, don't expect them to grow out well on just chicken scratch, or any other grain. they like weeds and bugs!

Thanks tf. I don't even know how much an incubator cost or which are the good ones to get :-)
I went looking again and saw that Ideal does have the White Chinese geese. They even offer them by the pair for about $25. I've got an email asking them if they guarantee they would be a male and female. I did the math and a straight run would cost me twice as much plus I'd have to wait hoping there was at least one of each gender.
I've warned Paul that if this goes well next year I would add some other critters :-) I've always wanted a nanny goat. Never lived before where I could have one.
How much does it cost to ship geese eggs tf? Just in case I hear of a incubator I can get a hold of .

MollyD

I have NO idea! they are HUGE! i am going to be shipping about 8-9 chicken eggs today, and in order to give them plenty of padding, i am following directions in a good book instead of how other's do it. it will probably cost around 20 dollars just because of the size of the box...

here are the eggs they aren't sitting on...

Wow those are big eggs! I suspected as much since baby geese are larger than chicks but really had no idea. I think if Ideal gives me good answers I may have them added to my order!!

Thanks!

MollyD

and here are the ones about to become babies, i hope...

i don't know why the male duck decided to guard her...

it sounds better to get adult birds, less expensive and don't have to wait. i was fortunate someone i knew didn't want hers anymore, i just had to drive a long way to pick them up...

He looks very protective! Back when I raised cockatiels they all had different ways of doing things. One male was the best dad during the day. He considered that his shift and all day long he sat the eggs and later would take care of the chicks. At night he would get out of the nest box and guard his family from the perch outside the opening. Most males took turns and worked with their hens day and night.
One hen I had picked a very immature male as her mate. When she wanted to go eat she'd leave him on the nest but as soon as her back was turned off he'd go. So she took to expecting me to sit there holding her 4 eggs in my hand while she ate and drank water. Once she was done she'd ask me to put them back in the nest box, then she'd climb in and resume her task. This would happen several times a day. Had to oblige her so she could get a chance to eat and stretch her legs.
Another male was infertile so I would give him and his mate eggs to foster. I always would show him the eggs and I'd mimic the tiels 2 day laying cycle. He's get all excited and call his mate. They'd check the eggs out and sit them. Then he would pull all the feathers off his legs so he looked like he was running around without pants! For reasons known only to him he seem to think he had to do this to hatch them. Normally he didn't pick his feathers. He was a super dad. His chicks couldn't get a peep out before he'd be stuffing them with food. Looked like little butterballs LOL.

If anyone in upstate NY has a pair of geese they'd like to part company with let me know. I'd give them a good home here.

MollyD

i love that story! raising those must have been great fun!

my DH thought our embden was a female just because it turned up on the nest in the middl eof the day, so he thought the goose was adding an egg. i explained that was DEFINITELY a male, and he was guarding them because of DH working so closely to the nest. i hope the eggs get adopted soon before we get that far on the fence this week. today is my friends birthday, i was hoping she would come for a visit and get the eggs...

either Popeye is protecting her from the kids [they have decided to "check on " the goose daily, or he sees those babies as a threat to his babies. nobody is guarding Olive on her duck eggs + 1 chicken egg...

I think he's guarding her for his own reasons :-) Who knows what goes through their minds!
Yes the tiels were a lot of fun (and work!!!)

MollyD

just worries me, the other day i had t pull him offt he other female, not breeding ATTACKING! I assumed she had been bugging Olive, but maybe she was goiung to relieve the other female?! this is all new to me LOL just glad yjey are broody, not me!

What, TF, don't you want any more? LOL

i'm not laughing, im ignoring you. i have one asleep and two throwing a tantrum, sounds like nap time?!

We have Toulouse Geese and 1 gander with 2 females...the ladies are both on eggs 1 has abt 15 the other abt 12...guess we will have a few geese in abt 3 weeks. We bought them full grown from a near by farm who had them just to watch and with 1+2 he ended up with 30+ geese and eveybody was starting to sit again!
He told us that domesticated geese will take more than one female so we should have at least 2. We will butcher the youngsters also. Our Touslouse were kept in an unheated barntype building, they were outside everyday this winter except when it was -10 or colder...then they just went to the door and looked longingly. We had a 55gal drum cut off at 16" and used that for a "pool" until we put in formed plastic kiddy pools. They are in the water whenever it isn't frozen. We haven't ever raised them from goslings without their parents but suspect that they would require a little different care...They are fun to watch! Good luck.

Thanks jcomy sounds like they're very hardy!!

MollyD