How to properly raise goslings at home?

Growing goslings at home is considered a profitable business. Adult birds are used for two purposes - for meat or for obtaining eggs. Chicks reach maturity in 4-6 months. From the first days, proper care is needed for them in order for the majority to survive. Novice poultry breeders need to remember the rules and recommendations that will help take good care of the goslings. If you follow them, babies will grow up healthy, and they can be used for their purpose.

Care in the early days

Chicks hatch from an egg at about 28-30 days. Not everyone can hatch, and sometimes human help is required in removing the bird from the shell. Healthy individuals need good care so that they do not get sick and do not die. Therefore, raising goslings from day one must be correct.

Newly appeared babies should be divided into weak and strong, and then transferred to a warm place. The temperature should be around + 30 ° C. If there is a hen, then take the strong chicks to her after 3 days, and leave the weak for a couple more days so that they get stronger.

Keep newborns away from adults. The first ten days, ten heads should fall on one square meter of the corral. Three weeks later, increase the territory, now by 1 sq. meter to settle no more than 3-4 chicks. When the birds are crowded, it is uncomfortable for them to eat and drink, the drinking bowl quickly becomes dirty, which causes the young to get sick. If you do not enlarge the aviary, death is possible

The question of how to care for goslings at home worries many novice poultry breeders. Immediately after birth, let the young animals dry up, and after a day try to feed them. The first feed will be corn grits and a boiled egg. You can give fresh grass and crushed grains that have undergone heat treatment already for 3 days. Food should be crumbly, the glued version is unacceptable.

It is necessary to ensure that all birds eat. Individuals who refuse food should be fed in a separate box.

Babies need water. They can not only drink it, but also bathe in it practically from the first days. However, it is undesirable for them to splash in the liquid now. Therefore, it is better to install a vacuum drinker that they will not overturn.

Start taking the kids for a walk when they get a little stronger, they will stand well on their paws and actively move. This will happen in about a week. It will be useful for them to spend 20-30 minutes in the meadow, where they can eat grass and breathe fresh air. A portable aviary will be a good help for a small livestock. Chicks actively peck on grass, because it is their main diet. If it is not possible to release the bird into the pond, install wide containers. In hot weather, the geese will swim, which will greatly facilitate their maintenance.

If the content of the goslings is at a decent level, then the chicks will gain weight in about 60 days. Two months after birth, they already weigh 3 kg or more. At the age of three months, the bird can be cut. At this time, there is very little fat, and the meat is tender and juicy.The geese will finally become adult 5 months after hatching.

Proper nutrition for goslings

Growing goslings at home will be successful if you feed them correctly. It is recommended to give feed mixtures for the first few days after birth.

They should include:

• cottage cheese;
• bran;
• eggs;
• crushed peas;
• oat groats.

Stir in moist green food, as well as potatoes and pumpkin. After three weeks, offer the chicks food waste.

In order for the birds to grow up healthy, it is imperative to add vitamins A, D, E, B. Please note that some feeds already contain them. To strengthen the immune system, dilute a few grams of biomycin and penicillin in a glass of milk, adding a little sugar. In this form, give antibiotics to chicks.

Do not forget about compulsory walking. Fresh green grass is an excellent source of vitamins. If it is not possible to send the kids to the meadow, then independently tear the grass and throw it into the aviary. Then the question of how to raise goslings healthy and strong at home will be simplified.

Where and how to contain?

Choose a special place for growing goslings at home. Prepare a separate, well-heated room. Keep the temperature at least 30 ° C for the first week. With age, this will no longer be so important, but for now, the babies should be warm. On the 6th day of life, reduce the temperature to 24 ° C, and on the 11th day to 20 ° C. Do not overheat the grown chicks, otherwise their development will slow down. As for humidity, its limit is 75%. In this case, good ventilation is required. Provide an inflow of fresh air, ventilate the room several times a day.

Do not turn off the lighting for 14 hours a day. In the light, chicks eat more and grow faster. If there is no light at night, it will be difficult for them to find their bowls to refresh themselves.

Information on growing goslings at home for beginners will be useful. The above tips and tricks will help you avoid mistakes. Although the proper care of chicks is a painstaking business, but it will help to grow healthy young animals.

Daily goslings - video

The goose is a native Russian bird. Therefore, many breeders love them and keep them. In addition to the fact that the goose fully satisfies the needs of the farm for meat, it can become a real pet, because the “goose IQ” is higher than that of all other feathered inhabitants of the courtyard. And what a pleasure it is to watch the young generation of cackling birds! Therefore, goslings - growing at home and keeping rules from the first days of life will be the topic of our review, the goal of which is to satisfy curious breeders!

Requirements for the room where the brood is kept

Growing goslings at home is a responsible process, but not at all difficult. The main thing to remember is that the first two weeks of a bird's life are the most vulnerable, but if they are 14 days old and they are all safe, then most likely the brood will grow up safe and sound. The most important point when keeping small birds is the temperature regime. The first five days, it is necessary to maintain the temperature at 28-30 C. And the lighting should be around the clock, as the birds grow older, the daylight hours decreases gradually, until eventually it is 17 hours.

After your goslings go through the third week, the temperature can be lowered to 18 C. If the birds huddle together all the time, this is a sure sign that the temperature regime has not been sustained and the kids are frozen. If they drink a lot, but eat, on the contrary, little, then your conditions of detention are too hot. The floor in the house where the goslings live should be warm and dry, usually covered with hay or straw. The litter is changed as it gets dirty, evaporation and humidity in the room slow down the growth and development of small goslings.

And in order for the chicks to develop correctly, they need fresh air, therefore, it is the goslings that can be released on the grass literally from the first days of life, and brought into the room only for the night, but this is provided that you are raising birds in the warm season. If the temperature is unstable outside, it is best to refrain from early walks. So that your birds are not crowded, keep in mind that already grown 20-day-old goslings do not settle more than 8-10 heads per 1 square meter, and 320 square meters are needed to keep a gosling up to three weeks of age. cm square.

Features of caring for chicks

Even an inexperienced farmer can raise a brood of goslings at home, because caring for goslings is not so difficult. Of all types of poultry, they are the most unpretentious in terms of keeping conditions and feeding ration. You can entrust the goose to care for the chicks, but if you have hatching babies, all responsibility lies with you. The main thing you should provide is a dry, warm and lighted goose bed with good quality bedding. Be guided by the fact that raising one gosling up to 65 days of age will require approximately 7.5 kg of litter.

What to do with newborns

It goes without saying that newborn birds are the most vulnerable (you can see them in the video). Here a brood goose can help you a lot. Geese are wonderful mothers, an experienced female can calmly raise a brood of 20-25 babies, and it is better not to give more than 10-15 goslings to a young bird. As a rule, babies remain under the hen until they dry out, then they can be carefully transferred to a box and taken to a warm place to wait until all their brethren hatch.

An unconditional advantage of diurnal goslings is that, although they require a certain temperature regime, they do not react to its fluctuations as much as chicks of other birds. Feeding chicks is also easy (there is a separate article on it in our blog).

When the entire brood has hatched, and the goose does not show any more excitement about the birth of her children, the goslings are carefully planted under it. Moreover, if several hens hatched eggs at once, then one of them can take up the upbringing. She will also be able to adopt incubator babies, the maternal instinct in geese is well developed. So that the reaction to the brood in the bird is definitely positive, it is better to plant the chicks in the daytime. In the video that follows, you can see how cute the newborn chicks look.

Care in the early days

As you probably already guessed, in the first days of life, a brood of goslings requires warmth, light and fresh air. The main thing is to make sure that all the birds participate in feeding, if one of the chicks refuses to eat, he must be removed from all the others and fed separately until he recovers. Do not forget that domestic goslings need water from the first days of their lives, so they often turn the drinking bowls over, because they want to swim literally from infancy.

In this regard, it is better for babies to install automatic or vacuum drinking bowls, because we have already mentioned the dangers of humidity for the body of a little gosling. To feed 2-day-old babies at home, they use trays with low sides up to 2 cm, then go to troughs, because goslings love to get into their feeder with their legs.

Care for older goslings

Goslings are very fast-growing birds, so you can send them out for a walk early. Moreover, these birds have an increased gas exchange and emit a lot of water into the environment, therefore, as they grow in the goose house, they can be stuffy and humid. Often, from the age of three weeks, young geese already lead a full-fledged "adult" life; there is practically no need to care for them and think about feeding.

Most of the time the brood of young goslings spends on pastures and lawns, feeding.Growing in this way is very convenient, because the birds get most of the diet on their own, so geese are massively kept in villages and villages.

It is great if your farm is located near a natural reservoir, then there should be no problems with feeding. The main thing is to teach the goslings to return home, for this they always have to wait for food at home. If you cannot allow your goslings to walk naturally, then you need to equip them with a feedlot on the site. On this site, it is imperative to organize a reservoir, it is not difficult to make it at home.

Video "Caring for geese at home"

Next, we advise you to watch the video of the author Tina Kot, in which she tells how she is raising goslings at home!

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Content:

• Birth
• Caring for chicks from the first days
• Where and at what temperature is it better to keep the young
• Proper nutrition and vitamins: the key to a strong and healthy goose herd

Growing goslings at home and caring for them is quite troublesome. Given the low egg production of these poultry, it is necessary to monitor the health and well-being of each chick. This is the only way to get healthy geese and regularly increase their livestock. This article will show you how to care for your goslings from day one.

Birth

Goslings are born in two ways. An incubator or brood goose helps with this. Therefore, we will consider both options for breeding goslings at home.

Incubator

Before placing eggs in this device, they must be carefully inspected. For this method of growing goslings at home, only perfectly smooth eggs that do not have visual damage are suitable.

After laying, the eggs should be turned every four hours. As a rule, goslings hatch after about 28-31 days.

From the third day, before each turning, it is recommended to spray the eggs with water. From about the sixth day, the masonry needs to be periodically cooled. To do this, turn off the power supply for five minutes and open the incubator lid.

After three weeks, the laid eggs will show visual changes. By the fourth week, the first chips start to appear on the shell surface, which means that more is expected in your house in a couple of days.

Hen

If the breeding of goslings occurs naturally, it is necessary to pay great attention to the brood goose. First you need to take care of a comfortable nest. For this, a circle of straw, 10 centimeters high and 40 centimeters in diameter, is suitable. In this case, the front wall of the nest should be significantly lower than the rest. This is done so that the bird can freely leave the clutch if necessary.

It is best to equip the nest for breeding separately from the rest of the goose herd.... Like any mother, a hen needs, first of all, rest. In addition, there are cases when males begin to peck geese.

The number of eggs for incubation is selected in such a way that the bird covers them completely. Otherwise, not all eggs will receive enough heat. If the clutch is too large, it is best to split it between two females.

It is recommended to feed the hens twice a day. If the bird does not get up from the clutch and skips feeding, it is recommended to provide it with food on a compulsory basis. In addition, you need to ensure that the goose does not leave the nest for a long time. This can lead to the fact that the eggs will cool down and you will not see the long-awaited offspring.

If the hatching process takes place in the winter, then the farmer himself needs to spray the masonry with warm water, while the brood hen has left for her business.

For incubation of chicks, it is better to use already experienced birds. Young geese often forget about their maternal responsibilities.

It is worth noting that naturally bred chicks are much easier to grow than incubator chicks, because they receive full parental care. In the case of artificial breeding, the care of the offspring falls entirely on the shoulders of the farmer.

Caring for chicks from the first days

It doesn't matter how you got the goslings, the main thing is to raise them healthy. Therefore, day-old chicks must be placed in a warm room for 2-3 days.... This will allow the goslings to get used to their new position. In addition, this will avoid hypothermia of the young body. At home, adult geese are rarely kept in warm rooms.

After such a quarantine, the chicks can be admitted to the hen. It is best, immediately after birth, to divide day-old goslings into two groups. In one there should be healthier and stronger chicks, in the other weaker individuals.

Weak youngsters are best kept in quarantine until they return to normal. And only after that release to the rest of the young. Otherwise, you will have to constantly monitor so that weaker chicks are not pecked.

It is recommended to admit goslings to the hen.

It has been noticed that an experienced goose can raise about 25 heads of young animals without any problems. If there are only young and inexperienced females in your herd, then the number of pupils should not exceed 10 pieces.

At first, such visits should take place under the supervision of a farmer, so it is better to do this in the daytime, and drive the goslings into a separate room at night.

Not only geese are suitable for the role of hens. Turkeys and chickens do an excellent job with young animals.

The room in which the young are kept from the first days should be spacious, light, and most importantly warm. Up to ten days of age, the number of young animals per square meter should not exceed ten heads.

From the eleventh day until one month of age, this number should be equal to 7 chicks per meter. After that, one square meter of area should not contain more than three chicks.

Caring for goslings also includes good nutrition. As soon as the chicks are dry, they must be fed immediately. It is best to use boiled eggs, finely chopped greens and oatmeal for these purposes. It is recommended to include cottage cheese in the diet of young animals.

In the warm season, it is better to keep chicks on free grazing. Thus, young geese themselves will be able to provide their body with everything necessary. When growing goslings for meat, it is better to use a combination feed with a high protein content. This contributes to rapid weight gain.

Where and at what temperature is it better to keep the young

As already mentioned, at home, chicks are best kept in a separate, well-heated room. This will provide them with reliable care.

The average daily temperature in the room should not be lower than 30 degrees. With age, geese become less susceptible to temperature changes, so less attention can be paid to this nuance. The main thing is to provide warmth to the young.

In addition, the moisture content in the pen, where young individuals are kept, should not exceed 75%. And this is with good ventilation.

The length of daylight also plays a role. It was noted that in the presence of light, chicks consume more food, and accordingly they grow faster. Therefore, the lighting should not be switched off within 14 hours.

It is recommended to leave stand-by lighting in the young stock at night. Goslings do not refuse the opportunity to refresh themselves at any time of the day.

Proper nutrition and vitamins: the key to a strong and healthy goose herd

Taking proper care of goslings means providing them with a complete and balanced diet. In the first days of life, young animals are recommended to be fed with nutritious feed mixtures. The composition includes:

• eggs;
• cottage cheese;
• steamed finely crushed peas;
• bran;
• pearl barley, oatmeal or barley groats.

It is recommended to mix moist green feed into such mixtures. It is useful to give a variety of root vegetables. For example, potatoes, pumpkin, carrots.

For dry feeding, dilute cereals with root vegetables or vegetables. From the age of three weeks, goslings consume food waste well as feed.

It should be remembered that even good nutrition for young animals does not guarantee a healthy herd. Therefore, the goslings need to be given vitamins.... If you use commercial feed, they must contain the following groups of vitamins: A, D, E, B1, B2, B3.

To strengthen the immune system, it is recommended to give antibiotics. This is done as follows. In a glass of whole milk, add a little sugar and a few grams of penicillin or biomycin.

If the goslings are free-range, they will provide themselves with the necessary vitamins due to the green grass. If the young are kept in an aviary, then the farmer has to mow the grass. It has been noticed that geese eat clover and alfalfa well.

Taking care of young geese is a painstaking and responsible business. But it will help to save young animals from health problems. After all, the health of the chicks ultimately affects the productivity of the entire goose herd.

Just a hundred years ago, geese were bred in almost every yard. However, with the arrival of cheap imported products on the domestic market, farmers have forgotten about these waterfowl. Now goose breeding is again returning to its former popularity, but not many people know about proper bird care. And the first step is to learn about growing goslings at home.

Care features

Geese are an excellent choice of poultry for both seasoned farmers and beginners alike. Adults are unpretentious in keeping and adapt well to any conditions. The same cannot be said about the chicks. However, geese breeding begins precisely with the acquisition of young animals. You can buy goslings from local farmers or at the fair, but it will also be easy to breed them yourself under a hen or in a regular incubator. The main rule is to create the right comfortable conditions for them in the first days of life, when the goslings are most susceptible to the environment.

The acquired chicks are provided with the conditions necessary for their age. This includes the temperature of the containment room, the amount of light, and proper feeding. The day-old goslings hatched in the incubator are placed in a special brooder, where the necessary regime is also observed. After a few days, they can be transplanted into a larger cage or box. If there are weak individuals, they are left in the brooder until they are fully recovered.

Premises

It is necessary to keep goslings in a warm, dry place on a dense bedding of about 3-5 cm. It is best to use hay or soft straw. Good ventilation is essential. Before settling in chicks, the room is thoroughly cleaned, washed with soda solution or bleach. If a bird has already been kept in the intended place, it is imperative to disinfect it. Before the direct planting of young stock, the poultry house warms up to 20-25 degrees.

Temperature and light conditions

The room for keeping goslings must be clean, dry and warm. Temperature is the most important rule in caring for young chicks. The temperature should be observed strictly and according to the schedule:

• 1-3 days - at least 28 degrees, the norm is 30 ° C;
• 4-5 - fluctuations of 28-25 degrees are permissible;
• 6-7 days - 25-23;
• 8-10 - not lower than 22 degrees;
• 11-15 – 22-20;
• 16-20 - not lower than 18 degrees.

Immediately after hatching, the chicks are placed in a warm room for up to 10-30 days, depending on the season and the presence of a brood hen. For day-old babies, the stocking density should not exceed 10 heads per 1 sq. meter. From 10 to 30 days - 7 heads per 1 sq. meter. A dense soft litter must be spread on the floor.With a brood hen, the temperature regime is not so critical, therefore, the indicators can be reduced by 3-5 degrees, depending on the season.

A lamp is used as a heat source. Desirable 200-300 W, around which a tin circle with a diameter of 60 cm is made to distribute heat evenly. To keep the goslings from getting too hot, you need to adjust the height of the lamp. But the lamp in the first week of the chicks' life should burn around the clock, only with less intensity at night. By about two weeks, daylight hours are reduced to 15 hours, and by two months - to 7-8 hours.

Proper care of chicks necessarily includes feeding rules. For more information about all the nuances of the goslings' diet, read our previous publication. To learn more about how to raise geese on personal plots, we suggest from the video of the slava ov channel.

Grazing chicks

The main food for geese is greens, most of which they get themselves during grazing and walking. Therefore, from a certain age, chicks should be accustomed to green forage and walking. If the goslings are kept with a brood hen, you can start walking at the age of one week for 20 minutes a day. Goslings without a brood from the 10th day in warm and sunny weather can be released on the grass in a special enclosure. From about three weeks, walking should be constant.

In the practice of growing poultry for meat, the technology of "closed" keeping is often used - on a fenced area. In this case, the bulk of the green forage the geese get ready-made in a beveled form or in a crushed state in a mash.

Important rules for walking:

1. Shade is a must on hot sunny days. It can be an artificial canopy or shade from a tree or shrubs.
2. It is desirable that the grass in the pasture is not higher than 10 cm.
3. Geese need a reservoir. If it is not possible to release it into a natural reservoir, you need to equip it yourself. For example, make an artificial pond or install a bath in the pen.
4. Goslings can be taught to the reservoir from a month of age after changing the feather. At this age, they are also transferred to an adult diet.

Growing under a hen

Many novice poultry farmers have a lot of questions about breeding under a brood hen. Geese are good mothers and can raise up to 20 chicks without any problems. However, with young females, it is advisable to leave no more than 10 pupils. There are frequent cases when turkeys and chickens played the role of hens. The best time to plant goose eggs is from late March to early April. During this period, their natural incubation instinct is clearly manifested.

Chicks hatch on day 28. At this time, you need to closely monitor the hatching, help the gosling to peck the shell. So that the goose does not accidentally crush the babies, they must be immediately taken away from it and placed in a warmer, dry room for 2-3 days. After the chicks have adapted a little, they can be returned to the brood hen.

Experts advise to plant the chicks to the hen either in the afternoon or in the late afternoon and carefully monitor the reaction of the female. As a rule, they accept babies well, even incubated ones. At the time of raising, the mother with the goslings is placed in a separate poultry house or pen, where a closed drinking bowl and a convenient feeder are installed. From about a week old, babies can be released for walking.

When growing goslings with a brooding mother, additional heating is not required, only a clean, dry and warm room.

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Video "Home Goose Farm"

It may seem to many that caring for geese is difficult. Is this really so, we propose to find out from the Arkhangelsk region (Channel Branch VGTRK GTRK "Bashkortostan").