# Goose breeding & siblings



## weendogmom (Mar 14, 2013)

Hi !

I have two goslings, purchased from a local guy. They are incubator hatched and not direct siblings, but hatched together and are the same age, etc.

I was hoping they would eventually breed and make more little goslings for us to eat or sell, however I read somewhere online about goose behavior, and it said that Geese will not mate with a sibling.

Anyone have any experience with this? 

Will they mate when they are older, or avoid it because they grew up together...:huh:

They are Pilgrims.


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## Yellow Creek (Nov 15, 2007)

In my small flock it makes no difference. Mom-son, Bro-sis parings seem to work fine when the season hits.


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## parrotman (Jan 27, 2008)

Have you heard the phrase..."if you can't love the one you want, love the one you're with."
If it's truly a goose/gander pair, they will breed as if they met on match.com. 
Actually, growing up together is the best pairing/match for bonding and breeding.


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## sriston (Mar 30, 2013)

Our pair of geese are brother and sister. They are several years old now. If we were going to keep any goslings, I would not want a pair so closely related, but since we eat all of their goslings it doesn't make any difference to us if the goslings are inbred. The meat still tastes mighty fine.


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## weendogmom (Mar 14, 2013)

Good to know  How old were yours when they began laying?


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## sriston (Mar 30, 2013)

Ours were 2 years old when they started laying. They raise babies every year, and during the time period when they don't have their own babies, they will raise any babies they can kidnap.  Our geese love babies. Our geese are almost 5 years old now. They are Production Toulouse.


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## Dusky Beauty (Jan 4, 2012)

Inbreeding is relative in poultry... I heard somewhere that all the "poultry science university studies" in a breed starts with just a breeding trio and produces hundreds or more offspring without issues. 
I have a gosling I hatched out from my chinese pair. Mom sat until the last day, I finished in an incubator and raised "Gigi" like a hatchery goose, then put her back in with the geese when she was 3 mos. The geese accepted her, but didn't parent her. I'm hoping to mate her back to her sire and complete my chinese trio. I can't get rid of Gigi... she was the only thing that comforted my DD (10) when her bottle buckling died.


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