Domestic geese are found in almost any household compound. This large loud bird with undemanding care is able to provide its “guardians” with meat, fat, as well as feather and down, traditionally used for stuffing feather beds and pillows.
The benefits of coarse gray rock
In all the diversity of poultry, geese occupy a separate niche. Ukrainian gray large is a breed whose primary factors are:
- the possibility of grazing;
- undemanding to the presence of a reservoir;
- excellent maternal performance in females;
- the ability to fattening on a fatty liver (liver weight 350-450 grams);
- rapid growth of offspring (goslings reach a mass of 4.5 kg by the age of 9 weeks).
The description of the breeds of geese is almost the same: a wide body, a neck of medium length, convex pectoral muscles, a massive head. A large gray breed is characterized by a red-orange thick beak (pink on the tip), plumage - gray on the back and white on the stomach and lower body.
The average weight of the gander is 4–9.5 kg, females - 6–6.5 kg. The average annual egg production: 30–40 pieces with the weight of one egg 160–180 g.
Breed features
Large gray goose appeared as a result of crossbreeding of such breeds as Romen and Toulouse. It was bred with the aim of obtaining eggs and meat. This bird leads a flocking lifestyle, and relations in the herd are subject to a strict hierarchy. Geese communicate not only with different sounds in volume and frequency. With certain gestures, they signal danger, which allows the pack to quickly respond to this. Unlike the rest of poultry (chickens, ducks), the large gray goose is able to attach to the person caring for him.
They are also very touchy and vindictive, so they can take revenge at any opportunity. However, it is worth knowing - for no reason this bird does not rush at anyone. They are not as fussy as ducks and hens; at home, they behave calmly, they are crowded and do not scatter to the sides, they are easy to manage.
Conditions of detention
On free pasture they are able to independently find their way home, provided that the pond is not far from the house. In such independence, a certain advantage of geese is observed. Large gray rock is cold-resistant and can easily tolerate low temperatures. Nevertheless, feathered pets must be provided with a suitable room. Poultry houses adapted for this, for which wooden or adobe structures can be used, must have a floor height of at least 20-30 cm from the ground, in order to avoid dampness. The room should be dry, without drafts, equipped with warm bedding (for one adult head - about 40 kg per year): in winter - from straw or peat, in the summer - from sand or sawdust. The danger of raw litter is that the goose feather gets wet, which worsens its heat-insulating qualities. In this regard, the bird begins to lose strength, eat more food and catch a cold. Superphosphate litter treatment is recommended: per 1 sq. Km. a floor meter - 200 g. This operation will not only dry it and prevent the release of ammonia, but also provide valuable organic fertilizer introduced into the soil in early spring.
Feeding geese
Under the condition of winter keeping of geese, you should worry about harvesting a sufficient amount of feed; approximately 10-15 kg of hay (ideally alfalfa or clover) and about 40 kg of root crops (most often carrots) are produced by an adult bird. As an additional nutrition, you can prepare branch food (from aspen, alder and birch). In winter, such raw materials are steamed and suspended low in the house; the foliage is crushed and mixed into wet food.
In summer, it will be appropriate to prepare water duckweed, which should be dried, and then used as a feed additive. In the warm season, instead of grass, geese can be fed food waste (especially useful fish) and leftover vegetables. Be sure to have fresh drinking water; for lack of natural, an artificial pond will be appropriate (but not required for this breed), since swimming for geese is one of my favorite pastimes.
How to grow geese at home
Feeding large gray geese is determined by the direction of cultivation and seasonality. In spring and summer, poultry grazing in natural fodder areas will be justified; per day, one individual can eat about 2 kg of grass. As additives, you can feed root crops, oilcakes and bran. The grazing method has been successfully used in homesteads, because it is low cost. Sometimes it is practiced on large farms with appropriate pastures and ponds. For grazing geese, it is recommended to select not too raw pastures, because morning dew can be fatal for geese. It is not recommended to release geese in dirty stagnant water bodies; it is advisable to take care of shelter from hot sunlight in the midday heat.
There is a corral way of keeping geese, entailing an increase in feeding costs, because the bird does not have the possibility of free grazing. The advantage of this method is the intensity of fattening due to the calorie content of the food and the frequency of its intake, therefore, most of all the pen drive, the purpose of which is to obtain high-quality carcasses, is used on specialized breeding or meat farms.
In winter, the birds are given grain mixtures, root crops, hay and silage harvested in the summer. It is advisable to add vitamins to the food, the action of which is aimed at normalizing metabolism and optimizing the reproductive properties of the bird's body. A separate necessary component of the winter diet is gravel and chalk, which are poured into separate feeders. In industrial production, a dry type of feeding is used, in which the bird receives a balanced complete feed.
Egg hatching: features
The large gray breed of geese has established itself as an excellent hatcher of eggs. When creating favorable conditions, a goose can lead about 15 healthy chicks in one brood. The incubation period lasts about a month, and it was at this time that the females sitting on the nests should not see each other in order to avoid scuffles and confusion with perches. Feeding the goose sitting on the eggs should be full: the usual diet should be enriched with yogurt, ginger and cottage cheese. Otherwise, with a lack of food, the female can peck eggs.
The total fecundity of geese is an order of magnitude lower than that of the rest of poultry: 30–60 eggs per year with a fertility rate of 50–80%. This means that out of ten eggs, only 5–8 chicks can hatch. Causes of low fecundity of geese:
- Large egg size and scarcity due to this factor.
- Monogamous geese, that is, the property of living exclusively in pairs. In households, there are usually 2-3 geese per gander. In violation of the numerical sex ratio, the gander simply will not be able to fertilize everyone, so some females will remain “single”.
- The simultaneous maturation of females and males. A goose can begin to lay eggs in early spring, and the gander by this time is not yet ready for mating.
Large Gray Geese - Caring Parents
The large gray goose starts to hike with a daylight duration of 12-14 hours, this is March – April. An important condition in this period is the temperature in the house, which should not be lower than 12-14 degrees. Usually, the female rushes through the day, therefore, for the simultaneous removal of the chicks, the eggs need to be collected, after which everything is put under the goose or in the incubator. The shelf life of the collected eggs is not more than 7-10 days. The incubation period is 28-30 days.
An excellent mother will be a mother hen that sits on the nest all the time, almost without getting up. The large gray breed of geese has all the qualities of a caring parent, so maternal guardianship of geese will be quite enough. Puberty of a large gray goose occurs later than in the rest of poultry: at 7-12 months, with intensive cultivation - at six months. The age of the bird also affects fertility: at 3-4 years, it reaches its maximum, after which it abruptly declines.
Growing young
How to grow geese at home? Hatching babies in the early days are fed a mixture of cottage cheese or hard-boiled eggs, crushed corn or wheat, mixed with soy or sunflower meal. After 4-5 days, cake and root crops can be gradually given. The feed for goslings should be in the form of moist agitators: it is easily digested and does not clog nasal openings.
Young animals intended for growing for meat are recommended to be kept in a pen (without the possibility of walking) and fed with concentrates with added greens. It is this way of keeping that will lead to the achievement of a weight of 4–4.5 kg by 9–10 weeks - the time of slaughter. Intense growth in goslings occurs in the first two months; it is at this time that 2–2.5 kg of grain and up to 9 kg of succulent feed are consumed per 1 kg of bird weight. Further maintenance of the bird makes sense for the purpose of reproduction of the herd, because as the growth rate decreases, fat deposition begins, and stumps appear on the carcass.
Pride of Breeders
The large gray goose, despite its low fecundity, is the fastest growing bird. He reaches a record weight in a short time, and this happens at minimal cost.
That is why large gray geese, reviews of which are only positive, are successfully used by breeders to cross with other breeds. This is done in order to obtain high-quality hybrid offspring.