THE HOMESTEAD GOOSE
(Page 2 of 3)
January/February 1976
By William and Linda Bayliss
Geese, unlike many other birds, prefer to live a monogamous life and-once mated-will remain faithful for years. A pair (one male, known as a gander, and one female, called a goose) makes, the best union of all although many breeders match each of their ganders with two females. Whichever way you choose to go, you're probably wise to purchase your initial breeding stock the summer or fall before you intend to set your first hatch of geese a gander and his female or females usually must live together for some months before they'll mate.
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To make sure your new geese mate in pairs or trios (if you didn't buy them already matched), lock them together in a pen or yard in twos or threes when you first get them. This is especially important if you're beginning with more than a single pair or trio, since you don't want any one gander to claim more than two geese. (If a male tries to mate with too many females, you'll wind up with infertile eggs.) And, by the way, sexing geese of any age-except for special breeds, such as Pilgrim-can be tricky. In general, though, the females tend to be smaller-with shorter necks and rounder bodies than the males. If you can't tell the difference at the start, find someone who can or you're liable to find yourself mating two ganders together!
Properly mated, a goose of one of the heavier breeds can lay about 20 eggs in the spring although she'll be able to cover only 12 or 15. If you want to add the maximum number of new goslings to your flock, then, it's best to take the first six or eight eggs from each female (and hatch them under a broody hen or duck or in an incubator) before letting her set.
The females won't lay until March or April in northern climates and-since the incubation period for their eggs varies from 28 to 35 days (the bigger, fancier exhibition breeds take the longest to hatch)it will probably be reasonably warm outside when the goslings break their way out of the shells. It's also quite probable that your mother goose or geese will be completely capable of taking care of the babies by herself or themselves and will insist on doing just that.
Of course, if you wish, you can start your flock in one or both of two other ways:
[1] by purchasing fertile goose eggs and hatching them in an incubator or under broody hens or ducks, or
[2] by buying day-old goslings at $1.50 to $5.00 each-from a hatchery or another breeder. Although they haven't always been available to individual homesteaders, there are small incubators on the market that will hatch goose eggs. (The Roll-X and D-1512 are two such machines now handled by MOTHERS General Store, Box 506, Flat Rock, North Carolina 28731 and, I'm sure, by other mail-order dealers.MOTHER.)
