Geese Grow on Grass
(Page 3 of 4)
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
Care of Mature Geese
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Buying matured geese ready for breeding is the most expensive way to start your flock, a good trio costing $25-$35. However, if you decide to do this, it's best to mate just a pair, even though it is common to have a trio of 1 gander and 2 geese. Geese prefer to live a monogamous life, in contrast to other birds. After they once mate, they are faithful to each other for years so don't reak up their happy union. Buy your geese and pair them in the fall so they will be settled and ready to lay in February (the usual time in mild climates.) Your goose and gander should both be 2 years old to be fully matured and to produce fertile eggs.
The difficult aspects of raising geese are to get fertile eggs and proceed properly with the hatching. Your success or failure begins with the gander. He prefers living with but one female - although sometimes he'll take up with two. But the gander and goose usually must live together some months before they will mate. Although water isn't absolutely necessary, some kind of a little pool (see Chapter on Ducks for making pool) or stream is good because geese breed more easily in water. Once you have fertile eggs, be sure that the hen or goose you set them under is really broody. Start her setting on some hen eggs for a couple of days to make sure she's really serious about hatching a family before trusting your geese eggs to her.
All the laying goose needs is a barrel or box on its side or some simple shelter and the goose will fashion her nest out of straw, twigs and her own goose down. The average goose of the heavy breeds can lay about 20 eggs, but is able to cover only 12 to 15, so remove the first eggs if you want her to continue laying more than she can set on. After she stops laying and becomes really broody see that she has as many eggs as she can cover well. Then, provided she has water (say, a large pond) so eggs will receive proper moisture, you can relax and let her hatch her own eggs. She'll turn them and do everything necessary.
We find geese are friendly and like to follow us around the yard, except during the mating and hatching season when it's best to stay away from the gander. Geese are fearless and will attack anything - you needn't worry about a rat, cat or dog bothering them.
Choosing a Breed
Every small flock we have seen seemed to be some kind of mixture stemming mostly from the gray and white Toulouse goose. We chose the Embden because my wife wanted all white Toulouse goose. The other two best known breeds in this country are the African and Chinese. Both have distinctive knobs on their heads. The African is brown, apt to be noisy. Chinese geese may be white or fawn, weigh from 10 to 12 lbs., are apt to be noisy. They belong to the exhibition breeds.
