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Back in Ancient Our Country, geese were one of the most numerous birds in farmsteads. This was explained by the extreme profitability of the goose, which does not require feed in the summer. Geese are herbivores. They do not even feed on duckweed and plankton, like ducks, but on coastal grass.
Geese need a pond. But not as a source of food. Grass is thicker near water bodies, it is easier to find food and hide from predators. Because of their body weight, geese have difficulty mating on land and prefer water. With “dry” mating, the number of fertilized eggs decreases.
Our Country has always been rich in water bodies, so the geese did not know any problems. In the spring they brought goslings and grazed in the meadows all summer. And in the fall, the owner of the goose herd received free goose meat for the winter, slaughtering the grown young.
A goose may well live even in those farms that are not able to provide him with access to a pond, since water bodies are vital for swans.
Although geese have been so popular in Our Country since ancient times that they even got into fairy tales, Linda (Linda) geese were bred quite recently, in 1994.
This breed was bred in the Nizhny Novgorod region, which is why Linda geese are sometimes also called Gorky. According to its productive characteristics, this breed turned out to be one of the best. The Lindowskie geese were bred by crossing the local stock with the Chinese white.
Geese Linda, description of the breed with a photo
Lindow geese are large representatives of their species. An adult gander can weigh up to 12 kg. True, in most cases due to the large amount of fat. The usual weight of a goose is about 8 kg, geese 7 kg. Young growth at 3 months, by the time the end of the summer period, is gaining 4 kg. Given that the egg production of geese is from 50 eggs per year, in the most unfavorable scenario: 20% of hatched goslings, you can get a young bird with a total weight of 40 kg. At the same time, reference books state that the fertility of eggs from Lindovskaya geese is 95%, and the hatchability is 70%. Thus, one goose will give 280 kg of young. Of course, the slaughter yield of meat will be lower, but you can get about 180 kg of meat.
As a result, the owner will face the question of where to put the products. To provide for a family and one or two geese is enough, but keeping such an amount is not accepted and usually several families are kept at the rate of 3 geese per 1 gander.
Linda is a white geese with a characteristic transition from the beak to the skull. If usually in all birds this transition is smoothed out and forms an almost straight line, then in Lindovids the transition is very sharp. There is an impression that the beak is attached to the skull at a right angle, forming a bump typical of Lindov geese.
In addition to the bump, the lind is distinguished by the “chin” still hanging under the beak.
Cones similar to those of the Linda geese are also found in the progenitors of the Linda breed, Chinese white geese. But they do not have such a pronounced “chin”.
Pictured is a Chinese white goose.
Advantages of Lindov geese and their disadvantages
The advantages of Lind should be attributed their good frost resistance and ability to tolerate 40-degree frosts, which makes the geese of this breed indispensable for breeding at home in the northern regions. A private trader does not always have the opportunity to provide animals with warm wintering. In the northern regions, the main requirement for the maintenance of the Linda geese breed is the absence of drafts.
Geese of the Linda breed mature at 8 months, that is, the very next year they begin to rush. Geese are good mother hens. And then they protect the chicks, so about 70% of goslings survive.
In addition, Lindov geese have a calm disposition, easily getting along with their relatives.
The disadvantages include the inability to release goslings for grazing before they reach one and a half months and the tendency of the Lindov breed to hymenolepiasis and beriberi. In addition, these geese require a reservoir.
Features of the content
Linda requires a house with deep bedding, feeders and nests. The size of the house is made based on 3 birds 2 m². In the event of a large crowding of the livestock, the geese stop rushing, the herd begins to get sick or lose feathers. Nests are made with a size of 0,4×0,6×0,5 m. It is believed that a nest of this size is enough for 2 – 3 geese. If the egg is planned for incubation, then yes. If the plans are for natural incubation of eggs, then there should be one nest for each laying hen.
This is explained by the fact that:
- geese are likely to start laying eggs at different times;
- when two or more females collide in the nest, they fight for a place to lay their eggs;
- during the struggle, the eggs are mixed at best, at worst they break through with claws;
Since eggs are laid at different times, when the first goose has already sat on the eggs, the last one is still rushing. As a result, the eggs have different incubation periods. In the process of incubation, the geese will mix the eggs with each other several times. Some eggs will be outside, cool, the embryo will die, the geese will sit on these eggs again, leaving the next batch to cool. As a result, there will be no goslings at all.
Therefore, we must try to identify each goose by its own nest, although this is not always possible. The birds are stubborn and may try to drift in the same place.
Incubation breeding method for geese
Eggs that were laid no later than 10 days before incubation are laid in the incubator. In the bulk, geese rush once every two days. In order for them to rush every day, they need a diet of compound feed for laying hens.
Question: how many geese are needed in the courtyard to completely fill the incubator, it is decided depending on the capacity of the car and the goose diet.
The incubation regimes for other types of poultry differ from the regime for breeding goslings. Even duck eggs, which have the maximum resemblance to goose eggs, are incubated 2 days less.
For this reason, goose eggs cannot be incubated with any other eggs and you must either fill the incubator to capacity, or it will not work at full capacity.
The temperature in the incubator in the first two weeks is kept at 37,8 ° C, maintaining a humidity of at least 60%. Turning eggs must be done at least 4 times a day and it is better to let the incubator itself perform this function. True, most incubators turn the eggs every two hours. But taking into account the fact that the hens themselves can move eggs up to 100 times a day, coups every 2 hours are not terrible. Moreover, they are performed for the sole purpose: so that the embryo does not adhere to the shell.
On the 28th day, the temperature is reduced to 37,5, and the humidity is increased to 85-90%. Humidity is increased in order to soften the egg shell and make it easier for the caterpillar to go outside.
Perhaps the temperature regime was not maintained, the temperature was somewhat lower than necessary and the goslings did not have time to fully develop. In this case, they hatch a day or two later.
If you forcibly pull them out “on time”, it may turn out that the yolk sac has not yet been completely drawn into the abdominal cavity, and there is blood in the vessels on the wall of the egg. Such goslings will die.
Lindow geese diet
Feeding linds is not difficult, as they are practically omnivorous birds. It is better to feed goslings with starter broiler feed for up to 3 weeks, after which the goslings are transferred to regular feed for broilers. With such feeding, goslings gain weight of 5 kg by 3 months.
Feeding goslings from a daily age
After a month and a half, when the goslings can be sent to pasture, the owner needs to decide how to feed the geese. Whether to continue to give compound feed for the fastest weight gain or is it better to wait longer, but on free grass.
After the goslings gain an average body weight of 7 kg, their growth slows down greatly and further maintenance becomes unprofitable. If the bird was fattened for meat, it is slaughtered. If this is a self-repairing young, they are transferred to cheap feed.
How to determine the sex of geese
When selecting young animals for self-repair or buying fresh blood for your livestock, it is important to know how to distinguish a goose from a goose, because until the geese grow to full size, it can be difficult to figure out where the goose is and where the goose is. In addition, the gander can also be medium-sized. Therefore, a surer way would be to establish the sex of a goose when checking the cloaca. The video clearly shows how the gander differs from the goose.
A new way to determine the sex of geese
Such hybrids give a lot of meat, but reproductive functions must be checked.
Feedback from Lindov geese owners
Conclusion
The newly bred breed of Lindov geese meets the modern requirements of poultry farming: maximum weight in minimum time. When kept in household plots, lind geese can produce a significant amount of tasty meat for the winter.