Italian geese are a relatively new breed with respect to the breeding of which there are two versions. According to one of them, birds with the highest productivity were selected from the local population. According to the second, the local livestock were crossed with Chinese geese. It was first presented at an exhibition in Barcelona in 1924.
It appeared on the territory of Our Country during the years of the existence of the USSR. It was imported from Czechoslovakia in 1975.
Description
Geese of the Italian breed belong to the meat direction and are mainly intended for obtaining a delicious liver. This is a densely built bird with a compact body. In the description of the white breed of Italian geese, it is specifically indicated that they should not have folds of fat on the stomach.
This is due to the fact that geese accumulate fat not in meat or under the skin, but on the stomach. Usually goose meat is drier than duck precisely because of the lack of fat reserves under the skin. Italian white geese need to accumulate internal fat. Otherwise, it is impossible to get a quality liver.
The average live weight of the gander is 7 kg, the goose weighs 5,5 kg on average. The head is small and wide. The occiput is flat, chewing muscles are well developed. The orange beak is short and thin, there is no bump on the bridge of the nose. The eyes are large and blue. The eyelids are orange, the color of the beak.
The neck is short, straight, thick. There is a slight curve at the top. The long body is slightly raised in front. The back is broad, sloping towards the tail, slightly arched. The tail is well developed, horizontal.
The chest is broad and well muscled. The abdomen is well developed and deep. There are no skin folds between the paws. The wings are long and close to the body. Shoulders set high and well developed.
At the same time, they can sell real thoroughbred Italians, they just put a photo not of their birds, but took it from the Internet.
Legs of medium length, strong, straight. Metatarsus red-orange. The plumage is hard. The amount of fluff is very small. The color is white. Gray feathers are evidence of an admixture of another breed, but in small quantities acceptable, although undesirable.
The egg production of Italian breed geese is very high. They lay 60-80 eggs per year. Egg weight 150 g. White shell. Hatchability of goslings up to 70%.
Usually, even in the presence of a reservoir, due to the size of the birds, the fertility of goose eggs is about 60%.
Productivity
The productive characteristics of Italian geese are more related to the liver for which they are grown. The weight of the liver is 350-400 g. Although these geese also have a good taste of meat. Goslings by 2 months reach a weight of 3-4 kg.
How to distinguish goslings
Thanks to the sex-linked color dilution gene, future ganders have yellow or light gray down on their backs, while geese have mostly gray backs. When breeding goslings by sex, the back color acts as a marking. The accuracy of sex determination on this basis is 98% when sorting 1140 heads per hour.
Content
Due to the stamp that Italy is a warm country, the description of the breed of Italian geese is usually expected to recognize the heat-loving nature of this bird. But Italy, even on average, is not a very warm country and snow happens there regularly. In addition, it stretches from north to south, which is why it is much colder in its northern part. Italian geese, according to their owners, tolerate cold well. Moreover, during the time during which they are bred in Our Country, the population managed to adapt and adapt to frost. Adult geese do not need very warm shelter.
This is especially critical for Italian ones, which do not have a lot of fluff. A dirty wet feather loses its protective properties, and the birds can get cold.
It is very undesirable to keep Italian breed geese as in the photo below.
Dirty and dirty feathers begin to let in cold air and water. And waterfowl do not get supercooled in reservoirs only because the water does not reach their body. In the case of contamination of feathers, waterfowl die in the water from the cold in the same way as land birds.
A photo of keeping white Italian geese on a western farm clearly demonstrates how you can keep dry bedding even with a large population.
Feeding
Initially, geese are meadow herbivorous birds. Usually, in the description of Italian geese, their diet is not indicated. Most often this is due to the fact that the producers of delicacy liver do not want to reveal their secrets.
Therefore, if you need to fatten the Italian geese for the liver, they are introduced into the diet of grain feed. Often geese are fattened with acorns, hazelnuts or walnuts.
If the herd is kept by the tribe, it cannot be allowed to grow fat. Therefore, such geese are mainly fed with grass in the summer. If there is an opportunity for free grazing, they are allowed to graze. To teach geese to return home, they are fed once a day in the evening. But in this case, they will have to give them grain, since the geese themselves will find everything else on free grazing.
Hay must be included in the winter diet as a substitute for grass. At the same time, you can give cereals so that the birds have energy for heating. You can give dry bread soaked in water.
Also in winter, finely chopped pine needles can be given to geese as a vitamin supplement. But in the spring, the needles become poisonous.
In any of the seasons, geese, especially geese, should be provided with fodder chalk and shells. These birds have nowhere else to take calcium for eggshells. Unlike omnivorous ducks and chickens, geese do not consume animal protein, which means they will not eat snails.
Breeding
Italian geese have a weak brooding instinct. Therefore, when breeding Italians, 3 methods are used, depending on what is more convenient for the owner:
- incubation on an industrial scale;
- choice of hen among the Italian geese;
- laying eggs under geese of other breeds.
For breeding under the gander, 3-4 geese are selected. When breeding in incubators, medium-sized eggs are selected, without defects in the shell. After 6 days, the eggs are translucent with an ovoscope and the unfertilized are removed. It is recommended to turn the eggs every 4 hours. From the third day, before each turning, the eggs are sprayed with cold water. From the 6th day, the eggs are cooled by opening the incubator for 5 minutes. Goslings are usually hatched on 28-31 days from the start of incubation.
With natural breeding, according to the reviews of the owners of Italian breed geese, experienced geese should be selected for incubation. Young first years often neglect their duties.
Breeding by placing under other geese does not differ from natural. But the goslings will be driven by a female of a different breed.
Nests for geese are made taking into account their natural inclinations. Theoretically. In fact, the description of the nest for the geese of the Italian breed contradicts the real photos of these nests.
With a “natural” device, a nest can be made of straw in the form of a circle with a diameter of 40 cm and a height of 10 cm. But geese with a well-developed instinct for incubation build such a nest themselves in the presence of “building materials”. The disadvantage of such nests is that they can be built anywhere the female likes.
Usually goose owners prefer orderly nests made of planks and a straw-lined bottom.
Such a nesting arrangement allows a larger number of birds to be placed on the same area, since the goose “thinks” that it is in a secluded place away from relatives. Sawdust as bedding is not recommended due to its high flowability.
Reviews
Conclusion
With the declared large number of Italian geese in Our Country, the description and photos of these birds often differ from each other. This may be due to the fact that in fact today the percentage of Italian geese in Our Country is small or they are mixed with other breeds. Usually crossbreeding is carried out with the Gorky breed to improve the incubation instinct. As a result, due to crossbreeding in Our Country today it is very difficult to find purebred Italian geese. The Italian breed is good for getting foie gras, but for the production of goose it is better to use other breeds of geese.