The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Herdygirl on November 30, 2016, 09:22:57 pm
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I keep Embden Geese. Bought 3 pairs, the girls were obvious as when we got home we found they had been pinioned >:( however we have had some hatched since and although I have an idea which are girls or boys would love a fool proof method as unwanted boys will be going for the oven.
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With my geese the girls have shorter stalkier necks where the boys have longer and thinner necks. Don't know if it's the same for different for other breeds, here are mine on the doorstep yesterday. The one on the left is a girl , the two on her right are boys and their necks are more slender
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I keep Embden Geese. Bought 3 pairs, the girls were obvious as when we got home we found they had been pinioned >:( however we have had some hatched since and although I have an idea which are girls or boys would love a fool proof method as unwanted boys will be going for the oven.
Sexing geese is an art from what I understand and you can either do it or not. Vent check your known geese and then have a go at your unknown.
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Have a look at that guy:
https://youtu.be/b-W0n_DAiiw
It actually make sense to check even older genders penis especially at this time of the year to check if they are fine as it will affect fertility for the next season.
As moja again said females have shorter stockier necks and also deeper voice.
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Ganders tend to lead the way.
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Thanks for replies folks, I appreciate it. :thumbsup:
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Vent sexing is the only 100% certain way of doing geese, with the exceptions of 2 autosexing breeds which are the Pilgrims & the West of England's & you can tell those by colour but they have to be pure & not crosses.
There are ways of potentially identifying geese & ganders without vent sexing such as size difference, the calls they make, behaviour ( I saw someone mentioned ganders lead the way more - more dominant.) Some say neck size but I've never gone by this. I'll dismiss most of these reasons based on the fact that I've bred geese for nearly 18 years & with the reasons below:
Size difference - Size can be a obvious thing to look for & often males are bigger, I have come across females quite a bit larger than my breeding ganders on the rare occasion, or the same size. I recently pulled out a female from this years hatch that I believed to be a male to be part of a breeding pair - but when vent sexed she & the other 3 I thought were females were all female.
Vocalisation - Females normally do sound "Flatter or more low pitched in sound" - Ganders are more high pitched, its very similar to ducks & drakes if you listen the females are more low pitched than the males. But in geese its hard to tell until around 8-10 months as young geese often sound high pitched & don't get their proper voices until more mature - but I have also found females that call like males on the odd occasion.
Behaviour - Ganders are normally the leaders of the pack & more aggressive & protective, but some females are just as bad.
I've only recently started getting a friend to vent sex my birds for me - I can do ducks at day old but geese are very hard & you have to be careful not to damage the sexual organs or the pelvis, so it's best to get someone who knows how to do it. If your not fussed on sexing as your birds are meat ones then don't, or if your not going to eat them wait until feb - march & see who lays an egg. If you can try & pair them up then you might see the mating ritual of them "mirroring" each other - but that's mainly in the water & they copy each other & the females will nest build. It can be hard to see if they are mating as one pair I had were really fertile - but in about 10 years I only saw them breed 2-3 times. But the male I have now prefers to show off ;D
Note in some ornamental breeds like Africans - The dewlaps & knobs on the heads are a lot larger in males.
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Just to add to that - I had a female - definitely a female, as she laid eggs who would mate like a male (on top)!
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We have emben crosses and my OH did some research and said that if you look under them males have more of a pointy one dome and the girls have rounded 2 domes. (i have probably explained that badly).
I have no idea if he is right but we have kept 3 geese back from the culling to breed next year so I hope we have 2 girls and a boy, if not we will be having goose for Easter.
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We had 5 embdens and wanted to keep what we thought were 2 females but after watching the guy on YouTube we vent sexed them and discovered all were male :'( . It actually was very easy to do. It did take 2 of us.