Poultry »Geese
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Determining the sex of geese is difficult, but you cannot do without it, because a well-formed flock is the key to the future success of any farmer. If the main task is the reproduction of these birds, it is necessary that in the general group of females and males there should be an equal number. It is best to take different-blooded geese, otherwise it can lead to permanent death of the offspring. In this article, you can learn a few tricks on how to tell a gander from a goose.
How to tell a gander from a goose
Why is it so important to know the sex of the geese?
As already mentioned, gender-specific diet for geese is very important for productivity. After all, different types of feed contribute to either weight gain or good egg production.
Having correctly formed the herd, you can get:
- good egg production if there are more geese than geese;
- a lot of meat if the herd is formed mainly from males;
- correct offspring, provided that the best individuals are selected for breeding;
- successful implementation of young animals, then the business will be profitable.
Did you know? When the female and the nest are in danger, the goose becomes fearless. In this impulse, he can easily cripple even a person.
Tips & Tricks
To accurately determine the sex of a bird, use these tips:
- Use the most reliable method - scientific. Since it is based on the anatomical structure of the bird, you can see as accurately as possible what sex it belongs to. Geese have no hermaphrodite breeds.
- For the accuracy of the result, use all methods in combination. This is how you can most reliably determine the sex of an individual. Because the more methods indicate a particular gender, the more likely it is. Any signs are important. At the same time, remember that there are breeds in which geese and geese are visually almost indistinguishable from each other.
- If in doubt, consult a professional. If, after applying all the methods for determining the sex of a bird, you still have any doubts, contact a specialist who will help solve this problem. Please note that this procedure may be a paid service.
When breeding geese, observe their behavior. It may turn out that one of the ganders turns out to be a monogamous and tries to mate with a particular goose. In this case, it will be very difficult to lead him astray, since he is guided by instincts based on the behavior of wild ancestors. Change such males to their more polygamous counterparts.
Choose only strong and resilient males. Since they are the ones who lay the genetic foundations for healthy offspring. In this case, not much depends on the female.
Make sure that there is a normal, friendly atmosphere among the geese. It so happens that geese are organizedly baiting against a particular individual. This negatively affects her productive qualities. And if this is a female, then the indicators of her egg production will decrease, and the goslings may not appear at all.
There are many ways to determine the sex of geese. Use them all together to get the most accurate result. If in doubt about your decision, contact a professional who is guaranteed to determine the sex of the bird.
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How to distinguish a goose from a goose at an early age?
The most accurate way to determine the sex of birds is by first sex characteristics. Only they become most pronounced when the chicks reach the age of one month. To determine gender at an earlier age, various methods are used, based on scientific and popular approaches to the matter.
Scientific methods
We propose to consider the existing scientific methods for finding differences between a female and a male by sex:
- Japanese (probe)... Requires experience and skill. In addition, the approach implies the presence of a probe ("chick-tester"), which is inserted into the cloaca of the bird. Allows you to determine the sex with an accuracy of 98%, and the sexing speed is about 500 heads / hour. Unfortunately, the technique has disadvantages: low productivity and a high probability of spreading infections.
- Autosexing (genetic)... It implies the breeding of breeds of domestic geese with a special set of marking genes, which will make it possible to distinguish between a male and a female by the color of the down.
- Federsexing (genetic)... Allows you to distinguish the female from the male by the feathering of the wings, or rather, by its number.
- Acoustic method. Based on differences in the timbre of the voice of females and males... Day-old youngsters are held by their paws upside down and forced to scream into a microphone. An analyzer is connected to the microphone, which, with the help of the program, processes the received sound signal. The result is displayed as a light signal. If the female gives voice, then the lamp connected to the analyzer lights up blue, if the male - red. The green light of the lamp means that the gender could not be determined. The accuracy of this technique is 85-95%.
The described techniques are more often applicable in industrial poultry farms, as they require certain equipment and skills to work with it. In small private farms and backyards, folk methods are usually applicable.
Did you know? All geese have an identical skeletal structure, body shape, webbed feet and an elongated neck. Therefore, the division into breeds occurs visually and by weighing.
Folk ways
The folk methodology for determining sex is based on characteristic differences in behavior, in voice, in appearance, in reaction to stimuli between a goose and a goose.
Fright
This method is based on the nature of the conditioned reaction to danger. Your task is to scare the herd in any way and monitor the behavior of each of its members.
Sensing danger, males instinctively stretch their necks to find its source. Females, on the other hand, nestle on the ground, trying to hide from the source of anxiety.
Activity and habits
Even newly born chicks differ in their behavior. In geese, it is in their blood to be leaders and protectors, so they try to stand proud and stretch their necks. In addition, they are very noisy and active, they always rush to the source of food first. Geese rarely make noise, do not enter into conflicts and try not to stand out. They can scream only when they feel intense hunger or pain, fear.
Technique for sex determination in goslings
Often, when determining the sex of small goslings, mistakes occur.
When determining the sex of goslings, when they are small, mistakes often occur. This is because the gosling's cloaca and penis are of the same color - pink. In small geese, you can see thickenings in the form of hemispheres, the folds of the cloaca are evenly dispersed. In nippers, the penis looks like a curved gimlet measuring 3-4 mm, the folds of the cloaca are barely noticeable.
The daily gosling is taken with the left hand by the paws, which are fixed between the index and middle fingers. The gosling's head is lowered down, the neck rests on the little finger. Holding the tail, open the cloaca with your fingers.
If gender sorting was not performed at day old, you can do this after a month.
In the cloaca of a male at the age of 180–200 days, the copulatory organ in the form of a spiral curl, divided into hardly noticeable segments, is clearly visible. At this age, the reproductive organ is formed in 75% of ganders.
In the goose, in the lower part of the cloaca, there is a slightly flattened small bulge that does not have penile divisions.
Methods for determining sex in geese 6-7 months old:
- If one person is sorting, he takes the goose, simultaneously grabbing the legs and wings, and knocks it over onto its back. In this case, the neck is brought under the left arm, the left wing is held by the elbow. The hands remain free. The goose is placed on the left knee, the tail is folded back. The cloaca is stretched with the thumb and forefinger of both hands.
- An aged goose must be firmly held (preferably together), laid on the table, with one hand pull the tail towards the back, with the other hand (thumb and forefinger), stretch the anus. The penis is 5–7 cm long, pink, sometimes grayish in color, clearly visible.
If it is not possible to quickly determine the sex - the bird squeezes the muscles of the cloaca or actively resists, it should be released and repeated after a week.
The whole procedure is carried out with light, precise, non-traumatic movements.
Interestingly, the domestication of wild geese continues to this day in the areas of mass habitation of this bird. The local population catches young animals and fattens them. Goslings are well tamed and, with improved feeding at the age of five months, gain 5–5.5 kg of live weight.
Differences in adults
Geese reach sexual maturity by seven months of life, geese - a month or two later. During this period, the primary sexual characteristics are already well expressed, and characteristic differences in appearance can also be observed. Therefore, it is easier to determine the sex in adults than in young animals.
By primary sex characteristics
The primary sexual characteristic in a bird is the presence / absence of a process in the cloaca.
In order to find it, you must do the following:
- Sit on a chair holding a bird.
- Put her on her knees, with her back up, while holding her head under her left hand... The elbows of both hands press the wings tightly against the body of the bird.
- Pull back the tail with your left hand, and open the cloaca with your right... If you can see a pink or grayish process 5-7 centimeters long in it, then you are holding a goose. If not, goose. It is not always possible to complete the procedure the first time, since birds can squeeze the cloaca. Then you need to release the animal and try again after a while.
Video: recognizing a gander from a goose by the cloaca
Important! Geese
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birds are strong, so you need to hold them firmly, or even better, do it together with someone so that you can lay the bird on a table or other flat surface.
By secondary sex characteristics
It is rather difficult to determine the gender by secondary sex characteristics, since you need to know the features of the appearance and the nature of the behavior of representatives of different breeds. But there are still some features that unite females and males of all breeds, and allow experienced poultry breeders to quite accurately establish the sex of each individual.
Gait
If you observe how your herd walks, you will notice that some birds walk imposingly, stretching their necks higher and looking over the surroundings with a proud gaze downward. Others obediently follow them, bowing their necks, as if bowing.
The first type of bird is males. Most often they go at the head of the flock, leading obedient females.
Sounds
Geese, as befits males, have a hoarse, low, rough voice. They serve it quite often and generally like to make noise. In females, the voice is high, sonorous and you can rarely hear it.
You will be interested in learning about the Linda goose breed.
Color
The color of geese weakly expresses sexual dimorphism. Geese and geese rarely differ in color in a way that is conspicuous.But, if you look closely, you can see that the down in males has a yellowish tint, while in females it is grayish. Some breeds have more expressive differences in feather color.
Dimensions (edit)
Like most animals, male geese are larger than females.
A well-fed goose can weigh up to nine kilograms. The female is of the same build - six to seven kilograms. On average, the weight of a male individual differs from that of a female by 20-25 percent.
Head shape
Geese have a large, massive head and a wide frontal part. Their profile looks intimidating. The female's head is neat, small, with graceful features.
Important! They have differences and beaks. In males, in the course of evolution, it became larger and rougher. Its color is inconspicuous, dirty. It may even be black.
In appearance
There are several ways to tell the difference between a goose and a goose. One of the first methods is scientific. The goose itself is larger than the female. Its minimum weight starts from 6 kg, while girls gain no more than 5 kg. The neck of the manufacturer is longer and more impressive, and the head is larger. Despite this, it is impossible to say for sure who is in front of us, a goose or a goose, according to external characteristics. For example, it is very difficult to distinguish a boy from a girl of the Linda breed, since they have practically no external differences between themselves.
Most experienced farmers know where the gander and the goose are, their difference is determined by elementary observation. They monitor the habits of individuals, their manner of walking, how they behave in stressful situations. Boys are sometimes quite aggressive, they can chase other members of the pack. Also, males often fight among themselves for females. It is best to divide the flock into different zones. To lodge old people with old people, adults - with adults, young people - also separately. Aggressive adults can attack older geese in the fight for a female, which can cause the geese to suffer.
Males also have leadership traits, which can be observed, for example, during feeding. First, males or a leader approach the feeder with food, and only then females with ducklings.
Taking water baths, the gander pulls its neck up, and the geese, in turn, bow down. The females look much calmer, pull their necks, keep close to the ground.
Very often, beginners ask themselves the question: "How to distinguish a gander from a goose by external signs"? Unfortunately, this is too long a process that takes time. Only an experienced farmer will be able to distinguish geese of different sexes at a glance.
The second method is to trigger a reaction to the danger. To do this, you need to scare the flock. At the moment of danger, the female will press herself to the ground, and the male, in turn, strains, stretches his neck to find potential danger. This is one of the most reliable ways to differentiate between different genders.
There are many videos on the Internet where they tell different ways to help understand where the gander and the goose are, because the differences are easy to see clearly. You just need to choose the most popular video and start learning. You can also find a photo where the sex characteristics of the male and female will be shown.
How many geese and geese should there be in a flock?
The need to regulate the number of males and females in a flock depends on what goals you are pursuing. If you plan on getting a large number of eggs and raising poultry, then there should be more females than males. Their approximate ratio is one to three. Moreover, the male should be the largest and healthiest. If you keep the bird in order to get meat, then the flock should be formed from the majority of males, since they gain weight better and grow larger than females.
Thus, determining the sex of the geese is extremely important. All the methods described have their pros and cons. Therefore, which one to choose depends only on your skills and knowledge.
Why is it necessary to be able to determine the sex of a bird
In fact, choosing the right bird is very important and has many benefits. Some farmers believe that males tolerate diseases much better and gain immunity faster, others think that females are less aggressive and do not fly. In fact, these are all subjective arguments and they depend only on chance - how someone is lucky with the offspring and how they were "brought up". If we take a substantive approach to this issue, we can identify several objective advantages of correct gender selection. Let's consider them in more detail.
- Better egg production. And the goose understands that only females will lay, so if there is an excessive number of males in the herd, then egg production will suffer greatly. As statistics show, in 80% of cases, the ratio is incorrect, since the bird is purchased at the market or "from hands" and a disproportionate mix of sexes is obtained. If you choose a 4: 1 ratio of females to males, then you can get a lot more eggs and set up production as needed.
- Lots of meat. It is known that an adult male is 15-20% heavier, his weight can reach up to 8-9 kilograms, depending on the breed. Thus, you can significantly increase the amount of meat obtained, especially if there is no goal of selling eggs.
- Correct offspring. To select the best individuals for breeding for the next year, it is necessary to be able to determine the sex and arrange one gander for 3-4 females.
- For the subsequent sale of chicks and young animals. If your goal is to sell poultry, it would be better if you start supplying it depending on the wishes of the buyers - this will attract trust and help to gain loyal customers.
There are actually many more reasons why you need to know how to distinguish a gander from a goose, for example, it may simply be the personal wishes of the owner.
Methods for determining sex at a later stage
The late stage is considered to be the age at which the bird turns three to four months. Determining the sex at this time will allow you to find out the answer with one hundred percent accuracy through several options.
Scientific approach
This method is similar to the method of sex determination in newborn goslings, however, it is more effective, since at this age the genitals of geese are easily distinguishable.
It is enough to put the goose on its back, with the tail away from you, and fix the body of the bird with your feet. With your left hand, you need to throw back the tail, with your right hand open the cloaca, in which you can see the penis, twisted in the form of a curl and is about seven centimeters, if we are talking about a male.
The penis does not always have time to develop by this time, so it can be three to four centimeters.
Females have spherical genitals that can resemble bubbles or curls.
