Credits: Biovision-Infonet
As with all geese, the breeder flock can be kept under a variety of systems. In organic herds, all animals should have access to an outdoor area, and since geese are waterfowls, they should have access to a pond, if in any way possible.
The primary objective for housing the breeder flock is to maximise the number of goslings produced per goose and it is important to have well designed, clean nests in order to get clean eggs.
The recommended nest size for geese is 50 cm wide, 70 cm deep and 70 cm high. Nests should be installed at ground level for easy access and have a retainer of 3-6 cm in height across the front of the nest to hold in the nesting material. There should be at least one nest per five or six geese. Eggs should be collected preferably more times per day to ensure that the eggs are neither broken nor soiled by other geese entering the nest.
In warm climates, the provision of a simple roof over part of a fenced area to provide shade, protection from the rain and a slightly darker and quieter area for the nests may be adequate.
The major disadvantage with such a low-cost system is to keep the geese from dirtying the nests, and often there is no opportunity to use artificial lighting to increase egg production. This, however, would be the system of choice for an extensive scavenging-based systems.
A popular system of housing in larger flocks is deep litter combined with access to an outside yard and/or pasture.
The geese would need 0.5 m2 per bird inside on the deep litter and a minimum of 1.0 m2 per bird in a yard or run. The geese will graze and forage and can use much more space.
Again, it is desirable to place the feeders and particularly the drinkers in the yard in a way that the litter is kept clean to ensure cleaner eggs. When this system is operated in conjunction with a pasture, a stocking rate of 150 birds per hectare of pasture is recommended, depending upon the quality of forage.
A more traditional type of intensive housing is the deep litter system. For this system it is recommended that each bird be given approximately 1.0 m2 of floor space. It is important that the drinkers are designed and placed in such a way that the litter does not get wet. Wet litter can contribute to a substantial increase in the number of dirty eggs.
Lighting programmes
Geese are seasonal breeders with males and females becoming sexually active under increasing hours of daylight. Close to equator, the seasons cannot be formed by varying day length.
The subsequent laying season will last approximately four months with egg production being quite low during the later part of the laying season. In big herds, artificial lighting programmes are used to enhance the productivity of geese, like in other poultry, and can be used to create breeding seasons, although the animals should have at least 8 hrs darkness per 24 hrs.
On small holder farms lighting programmes are not always possible for the goose breeder because of the high capital cost of buildings, and/or the erratic supply of electricity.
This does not mean that nothing can be done to improve egg and gosling production. In the temperate areas of the northern hemisphere, after the natural start of the lay, it is possible to increase the total number of eggs by prolonging the laying period.
To do this, it is necessary to restrict daylight to nine hours per day up to a 25 weeks after the beginning of lay. A simple way to achieve this is to shut the birds in a dark building every evening, and to release them the following morning (the geese must be kept inside in the dark for a total of 15 hours).
This is not practised in tropical countries where daylight averages 10-12 hours, although it would be useful to determine if such a lighting programme would increase egg production in this area.