Goose gray large. Breeding and breeding

Domestic geese are kept practically at any economic backyard. This large loud bird, with its low need for care, is able to provide its "guardians" with meat, fat, as well as feathers and down that are traditionally used for stuffing featherbeds and pillows.

Advantages of large gray rock

In all the variety of poultry, a separate niche is occupied by geese. Ukrainian gray large - a breed whose primary factors are:

• The possibility of grazing;
• Undemanding to the presence of a pond;
• Excellent maternal performance in female children;
• Ability to fattening fatty liver (liver weight 350-450 grams);
• Rapid growth of offspring (at 9 weeks of age, the goslings reach a mass of 4.5 kg).

Description of the breeds of geese is almost the same: wide body, neck of medium length, convex pectoral muscles, massive head. The large gray rock is characterized by a red-orange thick beak (pink on the tip), plumage is gray on the back and white on the abdomen and lower part of the trunk.

The average weight of a gander is 4-9.5 kg, the female is 6-6.5 kg. Average annual egg-laying: 30-40 pieces with the weight of one egg 160-180 g.

Features of the breed

Goose gray large appeared as a result of crossing such breeds as Romansky and Toulouse. Was bred for eggs and meat. This bird leads a gregarious way of life, and the relations in the herd are subject to strict hierarchy. Geese communicate not only with the help of different in the volume and frequency of sounds. By certain body movements they signal danger, which allows the flock to react quickly. Unlike the rest of the domestic poultry (chickens, ducks), a large gray goose is able to become attached to the person who cares for it. Also they are very touchy and rancorous, so they can take revenge at any opportunity. However, it is worthwhile to know - for no reason this bird does not rush at anyone. They are not as fussy as ducks and chickens; On the home farmstead they behave themselves calmly, keep themselves crowded and do not run to the sides, they are easy to manage.

Conditions of detention

On free grazing are able to independently find their way home, subject to a small distance of the reservoir from the house. In such independence there is a certain advantage of geese. A large gray rock is cold-resistant and safely tolerates low temperatures. Nevertheless, feathered pets need to be provided with a suitable premise. Adequate for this poultry houses, under which you can use wooden or adobe structures, should have a floor height of at least 20-30 cm from the ground, to avoid dampness. The room should be dry, without drafts, equipped with a warm litter (for an adult head - about 40 kg per year): in winter - from straw or peat, in the summer - from sand or sawdust. The danger of the raw litter lies in the fact that the goose feather becomes wet, which will worsen its thermal insulation properties. In this regard, the bird begins to lose strength, eat more food and catch cold. It is recommended to treat the litter superphosphate: per 1 sq. Km. Meter of floor - 200 g. This operation will contribute not only to its drying and preventing the release of ammonia, but also to obtaining a valuable organic fertilizer introduced into the soil in the early spring.

Feeding geese

Provided that the geese are kept in winter, one should be concerned about harvesting enough fodder; For an adult bird approximately 10-15 kg of hay (ideally alfalfa or clover) and about 40 kg of root crops (most often it's carrots). As an additional feed, you can prepare a forage (from aspen, alder and birch). In winter, such raw materials are steamed and suspended low in the poultry house; Foliage is ground and mixed into wet forages. In the summer it will be appropriate to prepare a water duckweed, which should be dried, then used as a feed additive. In the warm season instead of grass geese can be fed food waste (especially useful fish) and the remains of vegetables. Must have fresh drinking water; For lack of natural it will be appropriate (but not required for this breed) an artificial pond, since bathing for geese is one of the favorite activities.

How to grow geese at home

Feeding of large gray geese is determined by the direction of cultivation and seasonality. Spring and summer will be justified by grazing birds on natural feeding areas; A day, one individual can eat about 2 kg of grass. As additives, you can feed root crops, cake and bran. The grave method is successfully used at home farmsteads, because it is low-cost. Sometimes it is practiced on large farms that have appropriate pastures and ponds. For grazing geese, it is recommended to pick up not too raw pastures, because the morning dew can be fatal to goslings. It is not recommended to release geese to dirty stagnant ponds; It is advisable to take care of shelter from the hot sunlight in the midday heat.

There is a corral method of keeping geese, which entails an increase in the cost of feeding, because the bird does not have the possibility of free grazing. The advantage of this method is the intensity of fattening due to the caloric content of food and the frequency of its intake, so the most common content, 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 the metabolism and optimizing the reproductive properties of the poultry organism. A separate necessary component of the winter diet are gravel and chalk, which are poured into separate feeding troughs. In industrial production, a dry type of feeding is used, in which the bird receives a balanced full feed.

Hatching of eggs: features

A large gray breed of geese has established itself as a beautiful incubation of eggs. When creating a safe environment, a goose can bring in about one brood about 15 healthy chicks. The period of incubation lasts about a month, and it is during this time that females sitting on the nests should not see each other in order to avoid fisticuffs and confusion with potholes. Feeding the geese sitting on eggs should be high-grade: the usual diet should be enriched with yogurt, curd and cottage cheese. Otherwise, with a lack of food, the female can peck eggs.

The overall 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. The reasons for the low fecundity of geese:

• The large size of eggs and the factor caused by this factor are scarce.
• Monogamous geese, that is, the property of living exclusively in pairs. In a household, one goose usually has 2-3 geese. If there is a violation of the numerical ratio of sexes, the gander will simply not be able to fertilize all, so some females will remain "idle".
• Non-simultaneous maturation of females and males. A goose can begin to carry eggs in the early spring, and a gander by this time is not yet ready for mating.

Large gray geese - caring parents

The large gray goose is started at 12-14 hours long, this is March-April. An important condition in this period is the temperature in the poultry house, which should not be below 12-14 degrees. Usually the female rushes through the day, so to simultaneously remove the chicks the eggs are required to be collected, after which everything is put under the goose or in the incubator. The shelf life of the collected eggs is no more than 7-10 days. The incubation period is 28-30 days. An excellent mother will be a hen, who always sits on the nest, almost without getting up. A large gray breed of geese possesses all the qualities of a caring parent, therefore, the mother's custody for geese will be enough. The sexual maturity of the large gray goose comes later than in the remaining poultry: at 7-12 months, with intensive cultivation - in six months. The age of the bird also affects the fertility: at 3-4 years it reaches the maximum, after which it drastically decreases.

Cultivation of young animals

How to grow geese at home? Hatched babies in the early days are fed with a mixture of cottage cheese or boiled eggs, crushed corn or wheat, mixed with soy or sunflower meal. After 4-5 days, you can gradually give cake and roots. The food for geese should be in the form of wet sticks: it is easily digested and does not clog the nasal apertures.

Young animals, intended for growing on meat, it is recommended to keep in the pen (without the possibility of walking) and feed the concentrates with the addition of greens. It is this way of content that will cause the weight to reach 4-4.5 kg by 9-10 weeks - the moment of slaughter. Intensive growth in goslings occurs in the first two months; It is at this time that 2-2.5 kg of grain is spent and up to 9 kg of juicy feed per 1 kg of poultry weight. Further maintenance of the bird makes sense for the purpose of reproduction of the herd, because the growth rate decreases, fat begins to accumulate, and hemp appears on the carcass.

Pride of breeders

Large gray goose, despite its low fertility, is the fastest growing bird. He achieves in a short time a record weight, and it happens at a minimal cost. That is why the large gray geese, whose reviews are only positive, are successfully used by breeders to cross with other breeds. This is done to obtain a high-quality hybrid progeny.