Currently, breeding and keeping geese at home is becoming very relevant. This is due to the fact that geese are very large birds, in addition, they grow quickly. The meat obtained from breeding geese is low-calorie and dietary. In just one season you can get up to 6 kilograms of meat from each bird. An interesting fact is that The goose gains most of its weight by the fourth month of life.

Benefits of raising geese

But this poultry is famous not only for its meat. From geese they get down, fat, feathers and eggs. To be fair, it is worth noting that egg production is not the strong point of geese. Goose eggs are rarely used for food. They are mainly left to increase the number of livestock. But goose liver pate will please any gourmet.

It is worth noting that the goose is a rather unpretentious bird. It tolerates any climate change. Adapts perfectly to environment. If it is possible for geese to graze freely, then the cost of food is minimal.

Breeding and maintenance depending on the time of year

To begin with, it should be noted that there are quite a few breeds of geese. a large number of. Among the most popular are:

• Gorkovskaya;
• Obroshenskaya;
• Kuban;
• Rhineland;
• Chinese;
• large gray.

The best time to start breeding geese is in the fall. It is at this time that geese begin to select pairs for themselves. It is at this moment that great attention should be paid. Crossbreeding of related birds is not allowed. This negatively affects the breeding of offspring.

Important! If the goose has chosen a male from someone else’s flock, then it is recommended to buy or exchange this bird.

For breeding, it is best to leave fighting males who are able to protect the flock. At the same time, it is not recommended to leave males who slaughter geese to breed. This point must be taken into account if you want to regularly receive offspring.

During the cold season, geese must be kept on special bedding, the thickness of which should be at least 30 centimeters. Despite the fact that geese are quite unpretentious birds, the temperature in the poultry house should not fall below minus five degrees. It is recommended to either insulate drinking bowls or regularly add water to them warm water. This is done so that the water does not freeze and the birds do not suffer from thirst.

It is best to divide the poultry house itself into several compartments in which several birds will be kept. If you want your geese to lay eggs well, you need to walk them periodically. In winter, the number of geese is kept in such a way that there are no more than five geese per male.

Breeding season begins in spring. At this time, geese usually begin to lay eggs. At this time, it is best to fence off the nests, this will give the geese the opportunity to calmly breed their offspring. Layed eggs must be placed under the hen no later than 10 days from the date of laying. The ideal option would be if all the geese begin to hatch eggs at the same time. This will allow you to get offspring of the same age.

IN summer time It is best to keep birds in natural conditions during the year. Ravines or swampy meadows are good candidates for goose pastures. The presence of a pond near grazing is only welcome. If this is not possible, the geese will have a great time in the enclosure. You just need to equip such an enclosure with a canopy and make a special trough for swimming. If there is an aviary, the birds do not have to be driven into the house for the night.

Nutritional features and what to feed when breeding for meat

Before moving on to how to feed geese, it should be recalled that birds do not have teeth. Therefore, they grind food in the stomach. That is why it is recommended to mix gravel with the feed. The size of the pebbles should not exceed 6 millimeters, and the gravel content in the diet should be no more than 1%. If this rule is not followed, the birds will not be able to fully digest food, which can lead to diseases.

So, about feeding. As already mentioned, the goose is an unpretentious bird, so warm time years, with free grazing, he will find his own food. If the bird is kept in an aviary or poultry house, then you will have to take care of the feed. Currently, there are three ways to feed geese. These are dry, wet and combined.

With wet feeding, the diet of geese consists of various mixtures, which include ground grain, cake, mineral and fortified supplements. The dry feeding method always contains grain. It is recommended to give sprouted grain in the morning, and whole grain in the evening. In addition, there are special concentrated mixtures. These mixtures can be diluted with broth or skim milk. The combined feeding method involves adding flour mixtures to the diet.

When breeding geese at home, you should take into account the fact that females gain weight much faster. If a goose becomes obese, this negatively affects its egg production and breeding. Therefore, if the goose is not intended for meat, it needs to reduce its daily ration.

In winter, it is best to feed geese a mixture of root vegetables and grass. The presence of carrots and potatoes in this mixture is recommended. In the cold season, birds need more balanced diet, they need vitamins. Therefore, the daily diet should include:

• about 700 grams of green food;
• about 500 grams of vegetables;
• about 300 grams of herbal flour.

In addition, it is useful to add phosphates, table salt, yeast and chalk to food. The content of these substances should not exceed several grams.

Important! Keep in mind that geese also feed well at night. This feature should be taken into account when preparing your daily diet!

When breeding geese for meat, the diet is not much different from ordinary feeding. About a month and a half before slaughter, birds need to be intensively fattened. Protein concentrate mixed with cereals is best suited for these purposes. You can buy protein food for turkeys. The crude protein content must be at least 15%.

During this period, feeders and drinkers should be constantly filled and placed throughout the house. This will allow the geese to gain weight evenly. During the fattening period, grazing of birds should be stopped. They should get their food indoors and move less. To allow birds to feed at night, it is recommended to leave lighting in the room.

A properly fed goose yields about 5 kilograms of meat. Moreover subcutaneous fat practically absent, there is only a small layer.

Features of breeding at home and at the enterprise

Goose farming is very profitable business, therefore geese are bred not only in enterprises, but also in household. They are quite unpretentious to the conditions of detention and, accordingly, do not require large financial costs.

Household

You can start raising geese even in your country house. In summer, birds graze freely, so you practically don’t have to worry about food. If there is no suitable place for birds to walk, then you can build a pen and mow the grass needed for food yourself. The most suitable are clover, sow thistle, sorrel and dandelion. We should not forget the fact that Geese cannot eat grass alone, so it is recommended to give them some grain in the evening.

Wooden troughs with a high side can be used as feeders. The size of the feeder is determined based on 15 centimeters of space for each bird. It will be nice if the feeders are placed in several places.

In winter, geese can be kept in any spacious barn. The only condition is a warm bedding on the floor and ventilation. Geese tolerate frost well, but their paws are very sensitive to low temperatures. In a musty and unventilated room, birds can get sick.

After harvesting, the geese can be released into the garden. There they can find something tasty for themselves.

Industrial breeding

In this case, more attention should be paid not to the conditions of detention, but to industrial equipment. Geese do not require a specially built housing for them, so they can be kept in unnecessary pigsties or barns. The main thing is that each bird has at least 0.8 meters of area. For 5000 geese, you will need about 60 hectares of area. This includes housing, incubator and pasture.

From necessary equipment You will need machines for cutting and mixing feed, and devices for slaughtering poultry. However, some large farms turn away from the latter, preferring manual labor.

What should not be neglected is the incubator. The presence of such equipment at the enterprise allows you not to worry about increasing the number of geese. Such an incubator, of course, is not cheap, but in the end the costs quickly pay off.

Breeding geese is an excellent business option. The mini-farm will begin to pay for itself in just six months, and in a couple of years it will reach a stable profit. To successfully sell meat, eggs, fluff and other goose products, owners will have to register entity, acquire the necessary certificates and correctly calculate financial investments.

How to breed geese at home? Read our new article with step-by-step instructions!

When choosing a direction of activity for a future farm, many entrepreneurs opt for goose farming. These birds have a lot of advantages.

Breeding geese as a business has the following advantages:

• fast growth. The gosling acquires the size and weight required for slaughter within 3-4 months after birth;
• good performance. Purebred geese lay about 70 eggs per year.
• unpretentiousness and simplicity in content;
• resistance to diseases and infections;
• low costs for fattening and maintaining poultry;
• waste-free production. You can sell not only goose meat and eggs, but also offal, feathers, and down. Breeding young animals are also in demand, as is goose droppings, which are used as fertilizer.

Farm breeding of geese as a business: where to start, how to succeed?

• You need to start work by choosing a location for the future farm. The easiest way is to rent a country plot with free access to water. The ideal body of water for goose farming is a shallow river with creeks or a small pond. An industrial pit with gentle slopes to the water is also suitable.

It is desirable that the leased land can be purchased over time. Own areas significantly increase the profitability of the farm.

• The next point is registration of a legal entity. The process of collecting papers can take from several days to a month, so it is worth starting in advance.
• Having decided legal issue, start organizing the space. Geese need a house with fairly thick wooden walls and a strong roof. Any shed that can be additionally sheathed with boards will do. Nearby you need to organize a spacious walk with access to water. It is recommended to equip the poultry house with an incubator; it will increase the number of eggs and the survival rate of newborn goslings.
• Purchase breeding eggs or young stock. For beginners, it is recommended to start breeding geese at home with breeds that quickly gain weight, are unpretentious and have strong immunity. The choice should be made depending on what direction you plan to develop.

For example, geese of the Kholmogory and Gorky breeds, as well as the Danish Legard, are suitable for meat production. Large gray geese are distinguished by good egg production and unpretentiousness. Representatives of the Toulouse breed will be the supplier of gourmet meat and liver. It is worth considering that the gentle Toulouse is very demanding in terms of care and does not tolerate cold well.

Business plan for breeding geese: expenses and income

For example, you can take a small farm of 500 heads:

• The purchase of breeding birds will cost about 40,000 rubles, another 15,000 will be needed to build a poultry house, organize nests and walk.
• Registration of documentation for the farm and obtaining veterinary certificates will cost 30,000 rubles.
• The purchase of feed and monthly maintenance of the poultry house will cost about 15,000 rubles.
• Rent of land for the farm is added to the expenses - about 150,000 rubles.

The bird gains the weight required for slaughter by 3-4 months. When selling from 100 whole carcasses per month (weight from 5 to 10 kg), you can get up to 70,000 rubles. Thus, the farm will reach the level of profitability within a year, the return on business will be 75-80%.

You can learn how to properly raise laying hens at home and how to draw up a competent business plan with calculations

Nuances of product sales

You can sell goose products at markets or industry fairs. Whole and gutted carcasses can be sold; by-products can be sold separately: heart, liver, kidneys. High-quality goose down or sorted feathers are also in demand.

A convenient and profitable option is to sell meat by prior arrangement. For example, to New Year's holidays you can specially fatten geese until required sizes. Selling by request simplifies implementation.

You can sell goose meat not only to individuals, but also to restaurateurs who rely on environmentally friendly and useful product. Restaurants can offer offal and cut fillets, which are more expensive than whole carcasses.

Delivering goose meat to buyers is the most unprofitable option, since prices for this category of consumers are very low.

This option is only suitable for large farms that rely not on high quality products, but on fast turnover. It is better for owners of mini-farms to master related industries.

For example, meat can be processed into tasty and healthy canned food. Stewed goose can be stored for a long time, and it can be sold at a much higher margin. Some farmers are experimenting with the production of goose liver pates, an alternative to the famous foie gras. It is important to remember that real “fatty liver” is produced only by special meat breeds, which are not cheap.

Down and feathers collected from your own farm can be used to fill pillows, which you can also sell yourself. The advantage of the goose is its waste-free production; this feature must be used with full dedication.

A promising option is the sale of breeding eggs and young animals. If you have purchased high-breed poultry, such a business can bring significant profits. You can sell breeding eggs at fairs or specialized Internet portals.

Information about the farm and its products can be disseminated through trade magazines, both print and online.

How to breed geese at home? The answer is contained in the following video tutorial:

The meat of young, lean poultry is always in great demand. For this reason, many farms are engaged in raising chickens, geese and other birds not only for themselves, but also for sale. From the point of view of economic benefits, the most profitable is breeding geese for meat. Why geese? Yes, because they are unpretentious, they prefer green food, which allows them to save a significant amount of money, and besides dietary meat, they can be used to obtain valuable fluff, as well as liver - main component the famous "Foie gras".

The key to successfully raising geese at home is choosing the right breed. Like all birds, geese are divided into three main groups: light, medium and heavy (meat breeds or broilers). Since in this case the goal is to breed geese for meat, you should choose among heavy breeds with good meat performance. Such birds grow quickly, gain weight within 4–5 months, and their meat has a higher taste.

The group of heavy (meat) crosses numbers more than two dozen, but the most popular are the following breeds:

1. Kholmogorskaya. One of the largest breeds, characterized by rapid fattening and carcass weight gain. Already by the age of 60–65 days, young animals grow up to 4 kg, so this particular breed is most often bred for meat.
2. Large gray. A heavy cross obtained from crossing the Toulouse and Romny breeds. These geese are agile, have a strong build, a muscular, broad chest, and a low fat content. For slaughter, it is recommended to raise goslings until they are 9–10 weeks old – at this age their weight is 4–4.5 kg.
3. Lindovskaya white. A very popular breed among domestic poultry farmers with high productivity, including meat production. Young animals reach their slaughter weight (4–4.5 kg) by the age of three months. Geese gain weight well, eat pasture, and are not demanding of care.
4. Toulouse. French breed, characterized by rapid weight gain, not only meat, but also fat. Toulouse geese are inactive and do not eat plant foods well, so young animals are slaughtered when they reach two months of age, otherwise the meat will become too fatty.
5. Broilers G 35. Highly productive cross, bred by French specialists through genetic selection. Ideal for breeding geese at home, since the birds rapidly gain weight and have a high immunity to disease. Young animals reach slaughter weight (4 kg) by the age of 7 weeks, and already a three-month-old goose weighs about 7 kg.

How to keep

The technology for raising geese on a private farm requires the creation of favorable conditions for keeping birds. While the goslings are small, they will need a bright and heated room of such a size that there is at least 1 m² of space for every 8–10 chicks. In the far corner of the poultry house, a resting area with bedding should be installed, and drinkers and feeders should be installed on the opposite side.

For chicks up to 20 days old, it is necessary to maintain the temperature at 26–28 °C. When the temperature drops, infrared lamps can be used. Daylight hours for normal growth of chicks should be approximately 17 hours.

IN farms Raising young geese for meat occurs mainly in mesh or wooden cages. Typically, such pens have several partitions (sections), each of which houses 15–20 animals.

If cages are used to keep geese at home, then it is necessary to ensure that the number of goslings per 1 m² of area does not exceed 3-4 heads. With denser housing, the livestock grows slowly and often gets sick, becoming infected from each other.

Mandatory conditions for cage keeping include daily walking of birds for 1–2 hours. In normal home keeping, geese should always have access to water. It is advisable for the goslings to grow up near a pond, but if this is not possible, then large containers of water should be installed in the yard for the birds to bathe and swim.

What to feed

The diet of goslings depends on their age. During the first two weeks from birth, chicks should be fed healthy and light foods: boiled egg, low-fat homemade cottage cheese, chopped cereals. When babies turn 10 days old, you should gradually add bone meal, chopped greens: dandelions, nettles, ordinary grass, onion feathers. For the first 4 weeks, the chicks need to be fed frequently - up to 8 times a day.

When they are a month old, you need to put out an additional feeder for solid grain feed. Geese are very fond of mash made from vegetables (zucchini, carrots) and grains. You can and should add good combination ingredients to this food. vitamin mixtures, promoting growth and weight gain.

The water in drinking bowls should always be clean and in sufficient quantity. Sand and small shells should be poured next to the feeders - these components improve digestion. As the chicks age, the frequency of feeding decreases to 4–5 times, and the size of the portions, on the contrary, increases.

In the warm season and good weather, it is better to let geese outside for the whole day. Forbs, various insects and the sun will have a beneficial effect on the growing organism. The birds themselves will be able to choose which pasture food suits them. In general, an adult bird can eat about 2 kg of greens throughout the whole day, and will only have to feed it 2 times - in the morning and in the evening, which is very economically profitable.

How long does it take to grow

How long do geese usually grow before slaughter? – the answer to this question depends on the breed. The main criterion to focus on is that the bird reaches a weight of 4 kg. For some breeds of geese, 60–75 days are enough for this, while for others it takes 3–4 months. You can determine the period of readiness for slaughter by the condition of the feathers - if you can’t feel the stumps when you run your hand over them, this means that the bird has fully fledged and can be slaughtered. Having mastered this knowledge, breeding birds at home will not be difficult for beginners and experienced poultry farmers.

Video “The Basics of Breeding Ducks and Geese”

From this video you will learn how to raise ducks and geese on your own.

Raising geese in rural areas or even at a summer cottage, it solved the problem of many families in providing themselves with meat and eggs.

Caring for this bird is not difficult - even a beginner can handle it, and the payoff is significant, because literally in the first ten weeks the goslings reach a weight of 4.5 kg, and within summer season you can get up to 6 kg of meat from each individual.

Before you get a bird, you should decide on the purpose of raising it. Usually, novice poultry farmers, especially summer residents, take pets for the summer and raise them, so in such cases the breeds should be chosen accordingly. If you decide to breed geese permanently and keep them all year round, then you can’t do without breeds that are high.

Today approximately 25 are known, which are divided into:

• heavy. These are large meat animals that gain weight well and quickly, which are difficult to breed at home due to low egg production rates. Such geese are purchased from breeders and raised until autumn. Popular breeds include Tula Fighting, Landish, Large Gray, Kholmogory, Lindovsky;
• light - they have a high egg production, are easy to breed, and are used in industrial poultry farming. Of the breeds, the most common is the Kuban;
• medium-heavy. If you value rural flavor, and the practical side is of little interest to you, then decorative breeds that do not have the highest productivity indicators, however, will suit you appearance will decorate any courtyard. Among the famous ones, the banded geese with curly feathers and the Rhine individuals stand out.

Requirements for keeping geese

Adult geese are unpretentious, but with babies it is imperative to observe the temperature regime. It is better to buy chicks 5-7 days old and immediately place them in a warm room.

If it’s still cold outside and there’s no suitable shed, you can use them as a summer kitchen. Goslings 1-5 days old need a temperature of 27-28 degrees, for chicks 6-15 days old - 24-26, individuals up to 20 days can already withstand temperatures up to 18 degrees.

If the regime is violated, losses in the livestock are possible. What is dangerous here is overheating, from which the bird dies, and cold - then the goslings will stick together and can crush each other.

As for the area, up to three weeks per 1 sq. m can get along with up to ten individuals, in extreme heat - 6-7 pieces. If the livestock is large, then it is necessary to divide the territory with partitions. Water and food should always be freely available.

When trying your hand at poultry farming, start by raising geese for slaughter. Usually, young animals are kept for 2-2.5 months, and solid buildings are not needed, especially since the bird is outside all day, coming indoors only at night. An ordinary barn or even a shed will be suitable for maintenance; you can also build a mobile gooseneck. The latter is made from wooden slats, which are covered with mesh, and the top is covered with roofing felt.

When small goslings are moved into the barn, the room is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and it is highly advisable to whitewash the walls and ceiling. A 10-15 cm layer of straw is poured onto the floor.

Geese make maximum use of pasture, so the main problem with nutrition is solved on pastures.

Goslings are accustomed to walking from the age of one week, and the bird can graze where other animals will not go: wetlands, ravines, etc.

If you are limited closed area, then you need to organize areas for walking with forbs. Pasture size is calculated based on age:

• for young animals up to two months, 1 square meter is enough. m/individual;
• birds from two months already require 5 km. m/individual;
• adult geese – 15 sq. m.

In the evening, the livestock should be fed with grain, and if the walking areas are already well eaten, then in the morning.

Keeping geese at the dacha can be in an aviary. Usually such areas are small, pastures are not readily available, so it is enough to build an enclosure and provide a ready-made diet: mown grass, mixed feed, food waste, aquatic plants, root crops. Vitamin and mineral supplements, as well as gravel (1% of the weight of the feed) should be mixed into the feed. The bird has no teeth, and food is ground in the stomach using small stones - up to 6 mm.

Geese are waterfowl, and it is optimal for the flock to have access to water. But if there is no pond, lake or river nearby, then place a large trough for swimming, not forgetting to change and add water.

Disease Prevention

Geese have excellent immunity, and in most cases in the population or individual birds the owner is to blame. Compliance with simple hygiene rules and special feeding will protect the flock from possible problems:

1. Before introducing new flock into the house, they should be thoroughly cleaned and surfaces disinfected. For disinfection, you can use an available and inexpensive solution of caustic soda (2%). They also use it to treat feeders, drinking bowls, and other equipment.
2. Clean the room in a timely manner, avoiding heavy contamination of the litter. If it is already 25% wet, then pathogenic flora will develop in it.
3. As for water, geese, of course, love it. Both drinking bowls and troughs for swimming in the summer (if there is no reservoir) should be freely available. However, this bird is extremely susceptible to wet grass, so it is better not to release young animals onto pasture immediately after rain or if there is heavy dew on the plants, as this can lead to bloating or enteritis.
4. To prevent bacterial intestinal infections, goslings are given special nutrition:
   • on the 11-12th day of the chick’s life, kormogrisin K-5 is mixed into the feed at the rate of 4 g of the drug per 10 kg of feed weight;
   • on days 13-14 give Biovit-120 - 0.41 g/kg live weight;
   • on days 15-20 – paraform (2 g per 10 kg of feed).

Arranging a goose barn for winter

Having decided to keep geese all year round, it is necessary to build a stationary building with maximum protection from drafts, to which the bird is very susceptible.

You can make a shed from adobe or wood; in the latter case, they use the technology of stuffing a third one onto two boards placed side by side, which closes the gap. Then the wooden walls are caulked, plastered, and the inside must be whitewashed with lime for disinfection. It is better to make the roof sloping; it is advisable to cover it with roofing material on top.

It doesn’t matter what height the windows will be, but they must be there and provide sufficient illumination for the goose house.

Ideally, the floor should be wooden, but if you don’t have enough boards, you can leave it with earthen floor, but it should be added 20 centimeters deep. The dimensions of the floor (and, accordingly, the poultry house) depend on the number of individuals. It is necessary to build at the rate of 1 sq. m of floor for one goose.

Inner space divided into two parts - smaller and larger. In the first section the birds will sleep, in the second they will receive food. Dampness should be avoided in the poultry house, for which not only regular cleaning of the room, but also the bedding is important. In winter, it is better to use peat, seed husks, millet, and straw. Before laying the litter for the first time (in autumn), the floor is treated with fluff lime (one square meter one kilogram of product). The bedding is changed as it becomes dirty, usually once every five days in the feeding section, once every 10 days in the “bedroom”.

Necessary equipment

In a stationary room it is necessary to have:

• cleaning tools, to which will be added a shovel for clearing snow;
• drinking bowls, which are placed on trays with mesh so that splashed water does not fall on the litter. There should always be access to water, and in cold weather be sure to add warm water;
• feeders. You need to stock up on metal containers for wet food, and dry food can be poured into plywood boxes. The size of the feeders depends on the number of birds - approximately 15 cm of sidewall per bird;
• nests These can be boxes made of board, plywood (50x65x65 cm) or wicker baskets; for 2-3 females one nest is enough. They are placed a month and a half before laying so that the geese get used to them.

By the way, to increase egg production, a light regime is necessary. From December, daylight hours begin to increase with the help of artificial lighting, bringing it to 14 hours in January. You can use regular light bulbs at the rate of 5-7 watts per square meter.

Walking and feeding in winter

For walking, the area must be cleared of snow, and only then the geese must be released to warm up. Ideally, if the area is 10 square meters. m per individual, but even in a small area your bird will be happy to sunbathe.

The main source of food for geese is grass, but in winter you will have to make do with hay, which is given both dry and steamed. It is better to dry it in shaded, ventilated places to preserve useful elements. For drying, they take both herbs and cereal crops; it would also be optimal to dry nettles and quinoa.

A delicacy for poultry will be silage made from legumes or corn stalks, and to provide the body with all the necessary substances and to prevent diseases, the silage is mixed with concentrated.

Pine needles are nutritious and beneficial for geese, but they need to be harvested during the period when they contain a minimum of tannins - November-March. Before feeding, the needles must be ground in a meat grinder.

Don't know what breed of chicken to choose? Pay attention to the Lakenfelder breed. Read more about these birds.

Diseases in winter - how to avoid?

In winter, geese may experience three problems:

• weakened immunity due to an unbalanced diet. You need to make sure that the feed contains useful substances and vitamins, and if you have a shortage of root vegetables, silage, etc. on your farm, you can add fortified supplements;
• “stagnation” of poultry due to lack of free range. Take the herd out in any weather (except for critical temperatures), especially since sunlight is an excellent preventive measure against the development of rickets;
• colds, inflammation of the frontal sinuses, sinusitis. Geese are not afraid of frost, but as already mentioned, they are susceptible to drafts, so make sure that no gaps form. If the bird does get sick, it must be moved to a warm room and treated with sulfa drugs and antibiotics.

For breeding, the herd is completed in the fall, before the first frost. Usually no more than three geese are bred for one gander. If you decide to get birds only for the summer, slaughtering them in the fall, then buy chicks in May. Choose active and healthy chicks. The goslings grow very quickly; in two months their weight increases almost 40 times.

Goose is a territorial bird; they become attached to one place and to their owner. Therefore, there are practically no problems with their content. They won't run away; won't float so far away that you won't find them.

In summer it should be kept outside: in meadows, near ponds or in a specially built pen. Geese should always have water for drinking and fresh grass within their reach. At night, the birds are driven indoors. In summer, geese on pastures practically do not need to be fed. When walking, they nibble up to 2 kg of grass per day and drink water from reservoirs.

They will not eat tall grass or grass from marshy ponds, so they need to be in meadows with good grass. Among the vegetation, geese prefer dandelions, plantains, sorrel, nettles, bindweed and birdgrass. The remains of vegetation after harvesting are also eaten with pleasure by these birds.

In winter, geese should be kept in a clean and dry room, the walls of which are treated with freshly slaked lime. The room should be well ventilated so that dampness does not settle on the walls. If it is too damp, the birds may catch a cold. The legs and beak of geese are the most sensitive parts of the body, so the floor should be dry and warm.

Raise it 20 cm from the ground and sprinkle it with straw, sawdust or peat. The temperature in the room should be at least 0°C; if the wintering place for the birds is done correctly, then they themselves will warm themselves due to their dense down. Geese are very cold-resistant, so good weather they can be released outside to feed.

In winter, birds are fed twice: in the morning and in the evening they are given grain and water. The water in the drinking bowls must be periodically heated throughout the day to prevent it from freezing. During the egg-laying period, when breeding, increase up to 4 times a day.

Geese are slaughtered for meat in December, before the New Year. Then these birds have the highest meat content. Goose meat is very nutritious, it contains a large amount of proteins and minerals. Goose fat is widely used in folk medicine, and eggs are ideal for baking.