In the animal world there are species in which the differences between a male and a female are completely obvious. This also applies to some poultry such as chickens or turkeys. But if a handsome rooster in a flock of noisy layers is visible from a distance, then in a goose flock it is not so easy to determine the sex of individuals.
Goose and goose: role in the herd
Geese are the closest relatives of swans, and the swan, as you know, is a steam bird. The role of the goose in the herd is not limited to fertilization of the egg, the father of the family is directly involved in the cultivation and upbringing of offspring, but also carefully takes care of his pair, keeping her faithful throughout her life.
Did you know? The fate of a wild goose who lost a pair, very often turns out to be tragic. In the fruitless search for a loved one or a loved one, a bird becomes completely defenseless in the face of danger and can easily die. However, even having coped with his grief, such a goose often does not create a new family, but simply adjoins the families of relatives - parents or brothers.
Like roosters, geese in an effort to win the attention of females may show aggression towards rivals, sometimes obviously stronger, but this touching recklessness is more likely aimed at establishing relations with the beloved than at fighting for primacy or for territory. 
After the couple is created, the geese together begin to build the family nest, separated from the rest of the flock. Now the roles between them are distributed quite clearly: the task of the goose is to hatch eggs, while the gander is responsible for the safety of the mother and offspring.
Learn how to distinguish a turkey from a turkey.It is very interesting to observe how the female, having left the clutch for a short while, before continuing the procedure of incubation, necessarily takes water procedures. It turns out that the point here is not cleanliness and hygiene, but the need to constantly moisten the eggs.
In addition, to prevent the oxygen starvation of chicks, the goose necessarily turns the eggs so that their blunt end, where the air chamber is located, is on top. The goose family remains after the appearance of offspring.
Did you know? Trying to protect their offspring from predators, the goose is able to show miracles of cunning. There are cases when a bird pretends to be wounded and, flapping its wings in good faith, involves a potential enemy in an excitable chase as far as possible taking him away from the cherished nest.
The barely hatched goslings happily run after the mother, responding to her cheers, but even in a huge goose flock the chicks never get mixed up: each baby knows how to distinguish his parents from many other birds and just the same parents unmistakably distinguish their little ones and never do not care about strangers.
Interestingly, geese is not only characterized by a feeling similar to love (married and parental), but also friendship. In the face of common danger, the males in the herd unite and protect each other and their families with concerted actions.
In some species of these birds, the prerogative to choose a pair belongs to the females, while the males, trying to draw attention to themselves, arrange demonstration fights among themselves.
Fighting for their place in the difficult hierarchical ladder manifests itself in goslings-boys very early, while it is interesting that parents watch such battles attentively, acting as a kind of referee: they can pull out a too zealous fighter and feel sorry for the loser, but directly into a fight never interfere. 
Did you know? Responsibility and attentiveness, which geese show when defending their flock while resting (often birds literally put up night watch from males alternately keeping their watch), was used by the ancient Romans. Guard geese, no worse than guard dogs, are capable of alerting to impending danger: as you know, once these birds even saved Rome from the attack of the Gallic army.
It should be noted that the above subtleties, characteristic of the behavior of geese in the wild, are largely lost by animals, which for many centuries were purposefully bred for keeping in captivity.
Providing a separate male for each goose is a real waste for the farmer, so the habit of monogamy was diligently destroyed by the breeders.
And yet sometimes it makes itself felt even among the domestic geese, when, tied to one female, the gander refuses to pay the attention expected from him to other geese. This feature is one of the reasons why the selection of the male in the pack must be approached with special attention. 
In addition, you need to know that it is the goose that lays the foundation for healthy, strong and numerous offspring, much less depends on the goose in terms of genetics.
It will be useful for you to read about how to breed geese at home, why geese are sick and how to treat them when geese start to fly at home, how to properly feed geese from the first days of life.
Hierarchical features of the construction of the goose flock should also be taken into account because the unfulfilled relationships between individuals, which are very characteristic of these intelligent and wayward birds, inevitably affect the overall productivity.
This persecution, which fellows can organize against the female they like, inevitably leads to the fact that her egg production is declining, and you can not count on the appearance of ducklings at all. 
Why you should know the sex of geese
If for the owner, who has acquired several goslings and expects to grow them for the purpose of subsequent slaughter, the floor of their wards is not so important to know, then if you want to breed a bird without the appropriate skills, you can not do for several reasons:
- Young geese should be maintained by dividing them by gender: this prevents premature showdown in the flock, eliminates closely related breeding and, in addition, allows significant savings on feed (lack of need to show excessive activity results in a higher weight gain with the same amount of food) .
- When forming the breeding herd, it is necessary to ensure an optimal ratio of representatives of different sexes: the more geese, the more offspring.
- Knowing the differences between the male and the female will make it possible in the early stages to easily identify the best representatives of both sexes in the right proportion, and then engage in targeted cultivation of the rest of the livestock for slaughter, which implies slightly different housing and feeding conditions.
- When growing poultry for meat, it is more profitable to pay attention to the gander, since it is naturally larger than the goose (the difference can be up to 20%), thus, at the same costs, we get a greater amount of product at the output.
- To obtain healthy offspring, pairs consisting of birds of different blood should be formed; therefore, it is important to separate the brothers from the sisters on time, while there is no need to separate parents or same-sex goslings.
- Many poultry farmers who breed geese in small quantities, guided by their own preferences, pick up birds of a certain gender. For example, someone thinks that geese are more agreeable and not prone to escape, others, on the contrary, choose males, since they are less susceptible to diseases and larger. The ability to distinguish between the sex of a bird will help the salesperson to satisfy the desire of each customer, and this is a guarantee of high reputation and, therefore, financial success.
Familiarize yourself with the species and characteristics of the white-fronted, black, wild, white geese, as well as the geese of the Lind breed.
How to determine the sex of geese
Sexual maturity in geese occurs at different ages. Unlike people, boys are the first to form in a goose herd. Their reproductive qualities are fully processed at about 7 months, while females are 1-2 months behind. 
Nevertheless, it is possible to distinguish a boy from a girl much earlier. An experienced specialist conducts the initial selection of goslings in the direction of use (for breeding or for meat, liver), and separates the brothers from the sisters, as soon as the young are one month old.
How to distinguish a goose from a goose by external data
Ideally, the goose is always larger than the goose. Moreover, in the numerous herd of feathered males it can be clearly seen from afar, since they not only have a longer neck, but also more proudly keep their heads in an elevated state, which also creates the effect of an advantage in growth.
Looking at the physique of a goose and a goose, it can be noted that the first one has a larger head, a more powerful and muscular body, and a harder, more confident walk.
Important! There are breeds of geese, in which the differences between a male and a female are much more definite than the difference in height and size. For example, in the Kholmogory breed, the goose has a quite characteristic bump on its beak (it may be red or yellowish-pink), while in the goose such warlike decoration is absent.
By the structure of the beak, you can determine the sex and other breeds of geese (just these differences are not so obvious). On the whole, it should be recognized that in most cases the external sex differences in geese are very weak.
Character and habits of different sexes
Sometimes a clue lies in the behavior of birds. Having observed a flock or having carried out some procedures with feathered birds, it is almost unmistakable to establish who is who.
Leadership qualities are more inherent to the goose, they are usually more noisy and restless. However, you can make a mistake here, because in the period of incubation of chicks and raising the offspring, the goose often behaves quite actively and even aggressively.
The movements of geese are more squat, the males seem to intuitively pull their heads upwards. While swimming, the males, on the contrary, often stretch their necks parallel to the water, and after bathing they noisily flap their strong wings, standing in one place. 
Gender differences in geese are manifested in the timbre of the voice: the gander makes high, coarse and jerky sounds, the goose - more tender, low and prolonged. If you scare the goose flock, males and females will react differently.
The first will try, stretching out a long neck, to find out the source of danger and with their whole appearance they will demonstrate their readiness to protect the family. The geese, on the contrary, will try to cling to the ground, trying to avoid the threat.
Determination of sex in chicks
The above-described external and behavioral differences between geese and geese appear already in the first weeks of life of the young. Thus, a two-week goose-boy looks bigger than his sister, and from one month of age he begins to show leadership qualities.
We advise you to read about the features of growing goslings in the incubator.
Some poultry farmers use a rather peculiar way of determining the sex of small geese. He received the name "bungee". Carefully take the chicks by their paws and lift them upside down above the ground, after which they begin to drop sharply downwards, causing the gosling to feel an uncontrolled fall. 
The boy’s reaction should be lightning-fast: in an effort to save his life, the bird will try to raise the body up, almost folded in half. The girl is likely to remain limply hanging upside down, completely submitting to fate.
Anatomically: how to inspect the genitals
You can talk as much as you like about the behavior of geese of different sexes, but the real expert will never be guided in this issue by secondary sexual characteristics. This can be done in different ways, each poultry farmer uses his own method.
Important! Such procedures should be carried out very carefully, so as not to injure the bird, either physically or psychologically. If the first attempt was unsuccessful, in particular, because of the active resistance of the goose, it is better to leave it alone for a few days and only then repeat the experiment.Video: sex determination in geese We describe several options:
- Birds are captured under the wings and flipped onto their backs. The person holding her puts his foot on a small hill and lays the bird on his knee, feet on his feet, his tail hanging down. If you gently fix the neck of the goose with your armpit, you can release one hand, and by pressing the wing of the bird with your elbow, you release the other. It remains only to slightly delay the tail of the goose down and with the help of two fingers (the thumb and index finger) push the cloaca apart.
- The bird's neck is fixed between the inspecting person’s legs, the body is lifted up with one hand, with the help of the other, the cesspool opens.
- Another way is similar to the first, but taking the bird, you need to sit with it on a chair and fix the wing, leaning a little on it with the body (the neck of the goose is fixed by the armpit). The second wing is held by the elbow, both hands remain free, you can inspect.
Important! The only reliable way to determine the sex of a goose is to examine its cloaca for the presence or absence of a male sexual organ.
A distinctive feature of males is the presence of red in the cloaca (in some breeds gray, and in young goslings pink) penis 50-70 mm long, while in adult birds it is clearly visible, then with a goose, whose size of the genital organ does not exceed 7 mm, problems may arise, so it is better to arm yourself with a magnifying glass.
However, it is much easier to identify a young chick, because it does not resist the procedure as passionately as an adult goose. In females, the folds in the cloaca are evenly spaced; in males, the penis has fewer folds.
We recommend reading about the beneficial properties of goose fat.
In addition, you need to know that in the lower part of the gut cloaca there is a slightly oblate nipple, however, it is quite difficult to take it as a penis. Note that the method described above for determining the sex of geese by mechanical bird catching and peeping under its tail has long been considered obsolete in the civilized world. 
The cloaca of the goose For example, the Japanese have, since the middle of the last century, successfully used a special device in the form of a probe, which is introduced into the cloaca of a bird and determines its sex with an accuracy of 98%.
However, with the help of such testing, you can process no more than five hundred birds per hour (approximately the same results are shown by an experienced specialist during manual inspection, by the way, not conceding to sounding and accuracy), moreover, there are cases of transmission of infections through similar chick testers.
The more modern is the acoustic method, which allows to determine the sex of the chick already during the first days of his life by studying the disturbing sounds made by him (the gecko is turned upside down and brought to the special microphone with a beak to the signal, which signals the result of a certain color of a lit lamp: blue means boy, red - girl).
The accuracy of this method does not exceed 95%, but for day-old chicks, this result is impressive. Thus, scientists are developing more sophisticated, accurate and humane ways to determine the sex of geese. 
Perhaps in the near future the need to pinch the neck of the unfortunate bird between the knees and fumble under her tail will disappear completely.
Did you know? Another unusual method for determining the sex of geese is called colorsexing. It is based on genetic differences in the color of the plumage of the wings, characteristic of males and females, and these differences are not natural, they are laid by man at the stage of breeding chicks by special marking of certain genes.
Ideal home flock
If in a chicken coop it is enough to have one rooster for ten hens, then for a goose family it is necessary to observe completely different proportions. Of course, we are not talking about monogamy, but still the herd should be formed in such a way that there would be no more than 3-4 females for each gander.
It is important to be prepared for the fact that one of the carefully selected males, manifesting the monogamous habits of their wild ancestors, will try to create a family with a certain goose. It is clear that it is impossible to deal with such a phenomenon. 
As a general rule, such geese should be removed from the flock with replacement by less discerning fellows. The family is usually started when the goslings are 6-8 months old, and the birds start to be united in the second half of autumn (accordingly, it is best to take chicks from the May litter for this).
You will certainly be interested to get acquainted with the nuances of keeping quails, guinea fowls, ducks, laying hens, hawks, partridges, pigeons.
Geese carry eggs already from 10 months of age, however, until 3 years of age, their egg production is only increasing (two-year-old birds increase their own indicators of last year by 15-20%, at three years of age the increase can reach 40%)
Далее идет постепенный спад, в связи с чем самок рекомендуют оставлять в стаде до 5 лет, хотя многие хозяева держат несушек намного дольше. Что касается самцов, то их продуктивность достигает своего пика в возрасте от 2 до 4 лет, поэтому гусаки редко задерживаются в стаде дольше достижения шестилетнего возраста, но лучше менять их ещё чаще.
Important! In order to maintain the highest growth rates, an ideal goose flock should consist of 35% of young stock, 30% of two-year-olds, 25% of three-year-olds and 10% of four-year-olds.
Determining the sex of young geese is not easy, but necessary. Only timely separation of males from females, compliance with the recommended proportions and rules in the formation of the breeding herd can ensure the optimal performance of reproductive functions by these amazing birds, distinguished by complex social ties and strict hierarchy in the family.
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