Duck, Duck, Goose

Instead of just a children’s game of duck, duck, goose, we can now play on our homestead a game of duck, goose, duck, goose, duck, goose, duck, gander! These are real, live ducks and geese I’m talking about. A fellow traded them for one of our piglets, and I think it was a good trade. They are all relatively young birds so we should be able to get much use from them.

There are two Chineese geese, and two production Toulouse geese. The Chinese are Whites and both females and the Toulouse are Grays, a goose and a gander. Both breeds are capable of breeding naturally and hatching off goslings. The gander should work well with all three hens, so I hope we will get to see little goslings swimming around our pond someday.

The Chinese are known for being prolific layers, averaging around 50 to 60 eggs per year. That doesn’t sound like many to this chicken raiser, but I guess that is pretty good for a goose. I don’t think ours have started laying yet, being young. The Chinese are a light-weight goose so they won’t have a lot of meat, but I’ve read that the meat is very good. The males are supposed to be between 5.5 and 14 pounds. They are also good foragers, which is a good thing for our setting.

The Toulouse are a heavy breed with the male weighing 22 pounds or more, according to one book. It should be a wonderful meat bird! He does not have to worry about that, as I want to keep him around for a while to see if we can hatch off any young. They are good foragers as well, and should do great in the wild. I think that they are the prettiest of our new fowl.

Here is a picture of the geese:



We’re not exactly sure about the breeds of our ducks. We think that the two white ones are Pekins, but they do not seem to be as big as I would picture Pekins. Maybe they are young enough to still have some growing to do. The Pekin is a heavy breed of duck with the male weighing 9 pounds or more. We have females, and the one Matthew picked up seemed to be about 5 pounds. Pekins can lay upwards of 150 eggs per year, but the hens rarely go broody. (I’ve read that you can use a chicken hen to hatch off duck eggs.)

The other two ducks look like the pictures I've found of the Rouen or the Australian Spotted. The problem is the Rouen is a heavy breed but the Australian Spotted is a bantam breed. Our ducks appear to be in the middle somewhere. We will have to wait and see if they grow much more. They are very pretty ducks, though.

Here is a close-up of the ducks:



I am going to be on the lookout for a drake that might be able to breed with our four ducks. We would love to see little ducklings on the pond someday. In the meantime, we just need to keep the ducks alive. I do not yet have any secure housing for them and I’ve read that they are susceptible to many different predators. The geese are a bit more safe being bigger and more aggressive, so hopefully they will help to keep the ducks safe. We put a box with hay for them in the barn, but I do not know if they will use it.

We are excited that the Lord chose to send some waterfowl our way. I believe they will be a blessing and we are thanking God for them!