FalseToast
Songster
I have a few questions this time! No specific theme other than geese, just mainly curiosities and mild concerns! I’ll bold the more important questions in case someone would prefer just answer those.
1. Eldest goslings are 6 weeks old and growing feathers rapidly! Are they like chickens where the geese will develop feathers quicker than a gander, is it the other way around, or is it irrelevant? Trying to figure their sexes out all the time!
2. Youngest seems to be a little nasally. Liquid builds up in his nose with him sneezing occasionally—not sneezing all the time, so I didn’t spike it as a major concern. My best assumption was it getting water in it’s nose as otherwise it lives happily and seems perfectly healthy apart from that factor. I’ve been using a chicken waterer at night—9PM to 8-10AM—with them having full access to a baby pool during the day. My eldest seem fine apart from sounding a bit nasally despite no liquid, so my best guess there was their honking maturing slowly to sound deeper than the higher peeping as it wasn’t whenever they inhaled/exhaled, but rather when they- honked.
3. Decided to spoil my first ever trio of geese all I can, which has now progressed into me buying a sprinkler. Got them into it and they seemed to enjoy it, only thing I thought was strange was at first they’d open and close their bills occasionally like yawning? Only more consistent and noticeably so. Best assumption I had was the mist/water droplets tickled or got in their nose. They stopped once they put their heads down and began eating whilst still in the mist.
4. I got 3acres of property directly next to a marsh that is used to protect certain species of wildlife, which means constant predators! Coyotes and foxes almost never wander onto our property due to the dogs that come and go and raccoons and opossums aren’t an issue, neither are hawks at current—raccoons can’t get into the pen, neither can opossums, and there will be a net over the run. My main concern are mink! Although my other neighbour is doing an excellent job at removing them, can’t deny the worry I feel every time I think about keeping them out over night on their own. They may be 6 weeks old but they still happily go in the brooder/indoor pen at night and seem to even be upset if I’m a little late putting them away. Was thinking on making the purchase of hardwire with small gaps, but I just wanted to see if there’s anything else I can do. Also, do I need to continue to be concerned about hawks when they’re full grown?
5. Geese are messy yet loving creatures! The main covered portion of the outdoor pen is getting filthy with poop and mud. I am going to be doing the ol’ trick of laying down weed screening and adding 2-3 inches of stone. Just wanted to know the cheapest and best options of stone! Currently eyeing up pea stone; is it easy on their feet? Local hardware store sells the round pebbled pea stone(no idea of the actual name, so pebble is good enough) and it doesn’t hurt to walk barefoot on for me personally, so I can’t imagine it’d harm them?
(If you haven’t realized by now I definitely have a passion for writing / literature
)
6. Like I said, the eldest two are 6 weeks old while the other is 4 weeks. I feed them duck starter from our local mill and they do perfect on it, as well I’m letting them out frequently to graze and they enjoy doing so—minus the… insistence that small pieces of wood are delicious despite unable to be swallowed. Anywho- just wondering what other things I can add to their diet apart from giving them our scrap vegetables—lettuce and other greens mainly. Been considering buying some canned sweet corn. I also read that at ~10 weeks I should be able to take them off duck starter and switch them to something else, any recommendations or advice for that?
7. (More opinion than question and more for funsies) Naming the three after the Penguins of Madagascar—need a fourth desperately now. Skipper fits the personality displayed by one; Private is the youngest as, again, personality seems to fit; and Rico… also somehow fits the personality. Dude definitely is wanted in 72 different countries by the way he looks at me like he has my death planned. Anyways- found a site that possibly sells the bands I need for them—8 5/8” I hope is big enough for chinese geese—and I’d just like some opinions on formatting and all that fun stuff.
I will be giving them ID numbers to keep track of! Number will be to track the amount of geese on property while the letter will hopefully remind me of their name(i.e Skipper = 1S). The bands are going to be used for me to track who is staying on property and who won’t be. I have plans to raise and sell these geese for either pets, meat, eggs, etc.—meat will be sold as meat as there is a local butcher who will grade the meat and sticker it as well.
Below I’m including pictures of the band formatting as well. Crossed out is my number and address for obvious reasons! Just including it on the band in case a goose or geese end up off-property and someone is nice enough to call or drop them off.
1. Eldest goslings are 6 weeks old and growing feathers rapidly! Are they like chickens where the geese will develop feathers quicker than a gander, is it the other way around, or is it irrelevant? Trying to figure their sexes out all the time!
2. Youngest seems to be a little nasally. Liquid builds up in his nose with him sneezing occasionally—not sneezing all the time, so I didn’t spike it as a major concern. My best assumption was it getting water in it’s nose as otherwise it lives happily and seems perfectly healthy apart from that factor. I’ve been using a chicken waterer at night—9PM to 8-10AM—with them having full access to a baby pool during the day. My eldest seem fine apart from sounding a bit nasally despite no liquid, so my best guess there was their honking maturing slowly to sound deeper than the higher peeping as it wasn’t whenever they inhaled/exhaled, but rather when they- honked.
3. Decided to spoil my first ever trio of geese all I can, which has now progressed into me buying a sprinkler. Got them into it and they seemed to enjoy it, only thing I thought was strange was at first they’d open and close their bills occasionally like yawning? Only more consistent and noticeably so. Best assumption I had was the mist/water droplets tickled or got in their nose. They stopped once they put their heads down and began eating whilst still in the mist.
4. I got 3acres of property directly next to a marsh that is used to protect certain species of wildlife, which means constant predators! Coyotes and foxes almost never wander onto our property due to the dogs that come and go and raccoons and opossums aren’t an issue, neither are hawks at current—raccoons can’t get into the pen, neither can opossums, and there will be a net over the run. My main concern are mink! Although my other neighbour is doing an excellent job at removing them, can’t deny the worry I feel every time I think about keeping them out over night on their own. They may be 6 weeks old but they still happily go in the brooder/indoor pen at night and seem to even be upset if I’m a little late putting them away. Was thinking on making the purchase of hardwire with small gaps, but I just wanted to see if there’s anything else I can do. Also, do I need to continue to be concerned about hawks when they’re full grown?
5. Geese are messy yet loving creatures! The main covered portion of the outdoor pen is getting filthy with poop and mud. I am going to be doing the ol’ trick of laying down weed screening and adding 2-3 inches of stone. Just wanted to know the cheapest and best options of stone! Currently eyeing up pea stone; is it easy on their feet? Local hardware store sells the round pebbled pea stone(no idea of the actual name, so pebble is good enough) and it doesn’t hurt to walk barefoot on for me personally, so I can’t imagine it’d harm them?
(If you haven’t realized by now I definitely have a passion for writing / literature
)6. Like I said, the eldest two are 6 weeks old while the other is 4 weeks. I feed them duck starter from our local mill and they do perfect on it, as well I’m letting them out frequently to graze and they enjoy doing so—minus the… insistence that small pieces of wood are delicious despite unable to be swallowed. Anywho- just wondering what other things I can add to their diet apart from giving them our scrap vegetables—lettuce and other greens mainly. Been considering buying some canned sweet corn. I also read that at ~10 weeks I should be able to take them off duck starter and switch them to something else, any recommendations or advice for that?
7. (More opinion than question and more for funsies) Naming the three after the Penguins of Madagascar—need a fourth desperately now. Skipper fits the personality displayed by one; Private is the youngest as, again, personality seems to fit; and Rico… also somehow fits the personality. Dude definitely is wanted in 72 different countries by the way he looks at me like he has my death planned. Anyways- found a site that possibly sells the bands I need for them—8 5/8” I hope is big enough for chinese geese—and I’d just like some opinions on formatting and all that fun stuff.
I will be giving them ID numbers to keep track of! Number will be to track the amount of geese on property while the letter will hopefully remind me of their name(i.e Skipper = 1S). The bands are going to be used for me to track who is staying on property and who won’t be. I have plans to raise and sell these geese for either pets, meat, eggs, etc.—meat will be sold as meat as there is a local butcher who will grade the meat and sticker it as well.
Below I’m including pictures of the band formatting as well. Crossed out is my number and address for obvious reasons! Just including it on the band in case a goose or geese end up off-property and someone is nice enough to call or drop them off.
