Successful breeding of geese requires not only high-quality housing conditions, but also good nutrition. Subject to a sufficient amount of nutrients and amino acids in the diet, the bird gives a good weight gain and egg production. In winter, it is very important to feed your pets healthy food, give vitamins and stimulate appetite.

Types of feed for geese

A properly compiled diet for poultry feeding is the key to healthy offspring and high productivity of the entire livestock. Weight gain, fertility, egg production and other factors of successful poultry farming depend on how balanced and energy-efficient the feed is.

For example, by the beginning of the tribal period, geese must gain weight and be well-fed.

There are several types of feed, then we will consider their advantages, disadvantages and features. None of the types are used in their pure form. They combine, alternate, and each owner himself adjusts the diet depending on the breed of geese, on the time of year, on the conditions of detention and on the task that he pursues.

Wet

The wet type of food, or the so-called "mash", is especially popular with small farms and private breeders, as it makes it possible to save a little - you can cook it partially from the rest from your own table.

It includes:

• root crops (potatoes, carrots, beets);
• fresh white cabbage;
• pumpkin;
• turnip, swede;
• freshly cut grass;
• fish tripe (in small quantities);
• slaughterhouse waste;
• boiled blood;
• milk serum.

It is very important to monitor the consistency of wet food. The ingredients should not stick together, it can negatively affect the digestion of the bird. Checking the density is easy: collect a little feed into a handful, squeeze your palm, and then sharply release it to the ground. If the pile turned out to be friable, then everything is in order, and the food is suitable for consumption.

Important! Wheat, which was harvested the day before, can be included in the mix for no more than 20%, otherwise the feed risks becoming gluten.

Do not leave wet food in the feeders for a long time, especially in hot weather. It may turn sour or moldy. After the geese have eaten, the containers are best cleaned immediately.Mash feeding involves three meals a day. At the same time, the first meal is morning, no later than 7 o’clock in the morning, and the second - after dinner, so that the wet food has time to digest a little in advance.

Dry

Dry or coarse feed is also very beneficial for the poultry, especially in winter. They include various crops - both crushed and whole.

Dry Food Ingredients:

• wheat;
• chopped corn;
• barley grain;
• rye waste;
• chopped oats;
• millet.

The amount of harmful impurities should not be high.

The approximate norm is:

• cockle - 0.25%;
• tares - 0.1%;
• ergot - 0.05%.

Important! Coarse food is easier to digest if you mix a little wet food into it.

Geese eat better dry food if flavored with concentrate with the addition of beets, potatoes or pumpkins. Beets can be taken both fodder and sugar. Also, birds are given clover flour, the daily norm can reach 300 g per day.

Combined

Special compound feed can be purchased at an agricultural store; it varies in age and composition. In order for the bird not to choose only large parts of the feed and eat fully, the responsible producers began to produce their products in granules.

The composition of the feed includes artificial growth stimulants, preservatives and hormones.

Compound feed is necessary for goslings in the early stages of feeding, and it can also be an excellent help in the winter, if there are difficulties with the preparation of dry food.

Basic rules for feeding geese in winter

There are some features of the winter nutrition of geese:

• an abundance of protein food (it is necessary to give more grain, oats, chaff);
• morning feeds are easier, in the evening they give rough food;
• vitamin supplements (both natural and industrial production).

How to feed geese in the winter at home

In winter, birds do not have the opportunity to independently obtain food on pastures and reservoirs to diversify their diet. This makes some adjustments to winter nutrition. In the cold season, three meals a day: in the morning, at lunch and in the evening. Time must be clearly defined in order to develop a food reflex in the bird.

Hay

They have been harvesting hay since the summer: they mow each forage crop at a suitable time, dry it in the sun and then dry it in a shaded, well-blown place. Hay is then stacked in stacks or stacks at special sites.

Hay bale is considered a more advanced technology, but this method is not possible in small households, as it requires special equipment.

Hay to geese is given dry or steamed, the main condition is to chop it thoroughly. In order for this product to be especially useful, it must be composed of different grains. Dry nettle does not lose its beneficial qualities when drying, so it can be prepared and given to birds in winter.

Green flour

Herbal flour is harvested by artificially removing moisture from perennial and meadow grasses. Raw materials are previously dried in the sun, leaving the field after mowing. Then they are collected and ground as carefully as possible with special mills and dried in dryers. The moisture content of the finished product should not exceed 12%.

Did you know? In American cottonlands, there is a practice of calling geese for weeding beds. Geese do not eat cotton, but effectively fight weed.

Before sending the finished flour for storage in bags, it is kept in a container for a day. Flour is stored in a dark room, where there is no access to moisture. This product is rich in carotene, protein, vitamins and minerals.

Silage

Extremely valuable winter product because it retains its beneficial nutritional qualities during long-term storage. Geese get vitamins, amino acids, beta-carotene and successfully gain weight. For siloing, green corn, beets, cabbage, carrot tops, legumes and cereal mixtures are most optimal.

Silo is a forage crop, harvested without air, fermented in its own juice. If there are a lot of sugar-containing crops in the silage, fermentation can occur. Silage is harvested at the rate of 35 kg per adult goose.

It is considered to be of high quality if it has a light brown color and a smell with a slight acidity.

Basic procurement rules:

• compliance with the optimal mowing phase for each type of plant;
• preliminary withering (increases the concentration of sugar);
• thorough grinding (in the secreted plant juice, lactic acid bacteria multiply well);
• the moisture content of the mass is not more than 70% (moisture can be removed using straw, and added by introducing pumpkin or water);
• good sealing (to displace air as much as possible);
• storage in airtight trenches or pits (without access of oxygen and water).

To store the silo, you can arrange a pit: dig up the earth to a depth of two meters with the expansion up, cover the walls with clay. The width and length of the pit is up to the owner. The bottom is covered with straw or dry leaves. Then there, in layers of 25 cm, compacting, lay the ground greens.Then a densely packed pit is covered with a film and crushed with bales of straw (you can sprinkle with earth). A canopy is arranged over the pit to protect against wind, and grooves are pulled out to limit access to moisture. Feed from the silo pit is taken at once - in the open air it quickly loses its useful properties.

Seeds

Weed seeds, as well as the seeds and fruits of some trees (horse chestnut, acorn) are easy to harvest for the winter, providing your goose herd with additional food. It includes quinoa, nettle, burdock, mannitol, chicken millet, sorrel, beech, linden, ash, oak, acacia, birch catkins.

The seeds are dried, and the fruits are soaked for several days in water to remove the bitter aftertaste.

Brooms from deciduous trees

Leaves contain useful carotene, so they also need to be harvested for future use. In temperate zones, it is best to collect them in June, since the concentration of vitamin A during this period is maximum. Useful leaves for birds include maple, aspen, birch, poplar, willow, acacia leaves and elderberries.

For the convenience of preparation and storage, the collected material is connected with small brooms and dried in the open air, but in the shade. In winter, these brooms can be ground into flour and added to the mixes, or you can simply hang them in the house and let the bird peck this vitamin “supplement”.

Water plants

Duckweed, Elodea, Salvinia contain many useful minerals, vitamins and trace elements, including iodine, magnesium, cobalt and copper. This product can be mixed into wet food, or can be given as an independent food.

Did you know? If the goose is not watered for two days with water, its egg production completely disappears. Recovery can be very difficult and time consuming.

Harvesting of aquatic plants takes place in the same way as the feeds already mentioned above: some are subjected to silage, hay is prepared from sedge and reed, and cattail and manna, for example, go to grass meal.

Vitamin Complexes

A lack of vitamin C will help make up for conifers (spruce, pine). Also, the use of needles positively affects the digestive tract, increases egg production and the nutritional value of eggs. Goslings develop more actively and acquire good immunity.To prepare such a useful supplement, it is enough to dry the coniferous branches and grind them together with needles using a meat grinder.

Amino acids are very important for geese, so in winter it is useful for them to give meal and cake. Make sure that the cake is fresh, not musty and has no bitter aftertaste. Meal (oil waste) geese love more.

Grain is the main source of nutrients in the cold season. Oat is rich in fiber, sprouted barley makes up for the lack of vitamin B.

Carrots in dried and salted form are a source of healthy vitamins, it is obligatory for birds to include it in their diet. You can also pickle cabbage for the winter. It is rich in amino acids, and one goose can eat up to 200 g per day.

In the beginning of autumn, mountain ash and hawthorn are harvested, which will also make up for the lack of vitamins in the bird's body in winter. It is best to store the collected clusters in a barn or in the attic, you only need to make sure that it is dry.

How to make a feeding ration

When developing a diet for geese, one should take into account not only the season, but also the needs of the age, as well as the breed of bird. It is very important to pay attention to compound feeds, since their composition is balanced and already contains useful mineral and vitamin supplements.

For little goslings

The diet for young animals is based on their breed and age, as well as taking into account the tasks of the farm.

Important! Remember that an egg for a gosling up to 10 days old must be hard-boiled and peeled.

The first ten weeks of life require a very nutritious diet that promotes growth and development.In the first three days of life, goslings are fed with refined corn grain mixed with a small amount of herbal flour and milk powder.

You can add a little chopped peas to this mixture. Already on the fourth day, you can switch to a complete feed with the appropriate age markings. This includes mixers of finely ground grains with a boiled egg.

Upon reaching 10 days, the goslings begin to receive:

• protein supplements, i.e. meat-bone, fishmeal or fodder yeast;
• fresh greens;
• mineral feed.

If the task is to grow a meat goose, then feeding is carried out more intensively, up to 8 times a day in the first week, and then 3-4 times in the future. To feed wasted economically, it is best to purchase it in granules. The size of the granules for goslings up to 20 days is 2-3 mm, over 20 days - 5-8 mm.

Animal feed is not the best source of protein, but until recently, its use was inevitable. Modern synthetic drugs can reduce or even completely stop the supply of such feed, replacing them with a balanced compound feed.

Also, one should not forget that goslings get used to their diet, and they need time to get used to a new diet. Take your time and accustom him to it gradually.

For adults

With the onset of cold weather, the number of meals increases to 3-4 times a day. The first two meals consist of wet mixes with the addition of potatoes, flour and animal feed. The remaining feedings include roughage: barley, wheat or oat.Best if it is sprouted. You can also add silage, rich in carbohydrates and acids.

Approximate daily rates for one individual are:

• 0.5 kg of potatoes or beets (sugar);
• 0.15 kg of hay dust;
• 0.07 kg of grain;
• 0.1 kg of carrots;
• 0.025 kg of mineral additives.

It often happens that with the advent of winter, geese lose their appetite. To increase it, use yeast. About 20 g of yeast dissolved in warm water (2 l) is taken per kilogram of ground grains or flour. This mixture is infused at room temperature for a while. This forms lactic acid, which is beneficial for geese. Then this solution is watered with food.

The basic scheme for feeding an adult goose in winter:

1. Morning meal (6-7 am) consists of sprouted grain and grass meal in a ratio of 1: 1.
2. Daily meal (2-3 hours of the day) - a mash of beets, potatoes, hay dust or seeds, mineral additives.
3. Evening meal (8 p.m.) consists of a third of the daily norm of grain and grass meal (or ground leaves).

This scheme can be supplemented, permutations and changes are allowed depending on the capabilities of this particular farm and the feed that is available. Mineral feed includes, for example, gravel; it is given once every 7 days in the amount of 1 kg per 100 heads.Also, do not forget to include silage in the diet, if it is prepared. The consumption rate of 100-150 g per day per bird.

An adult goose drinks up to two liters of fluid per day. Drinking bowls can be made from old buckets or troughs, the main thing is to regularly change the water. If there is a lot of snow, it is useful to water the geese with melt water. The lack of water can negatively affect the egg production of the bird, so you need to carefully monitor the watering.

Why not feed geese in winter

When compiling and adjusting the diet of the bird, it is necessary to monitor the behavior of the pets and their development. This will help to understand what the geese need at the moment, and take measures in time so that by the time the geese are brought to the tribe they have gained enough mass.

There are also general recommendations, which should not be done:

• no need to try to make up for the summer days in the pasture with an excess of green food and water, it can lead to intestinal disorders in young individuals;
• do not get involved in dry flourotherwise birds have difficulty breathing and even cough. If this still happened, take care of cleaning the esophagus - solder with water, increase the humidity of the feed;
• In no case should you give geese sprouted potatoes, for them it is a poisonous product;
• do not give potato water, It can provoke a severe gastrointestinal upset.

Useful Tips

Summing up, we highlight the most important points:

1. Harvest food for the future, do not worry that it will remain and labor will be wasted.
2. Harvesting hay and silage must be done on time, for each plant has its own favorable period.
3. Make a drinker flowing, this will save you time, not to mention that it is more useful for birds than ordinary drinkers.
4. Do not neglect vitamins and mineral supplements in the winter, this will affect egg production and fatness of geese.
5. Do not be afraid to give roughage, the goose gastrointestinal tract copes with it perfectly.

Keeping poultry is a very time-consuming task, but geese are distinguished by their endurance and unpretentiousness, so you can safely feed them with grain and various dry herbs and leaves, knowing that your work will be useful. Of course, for the procurement of raw materials will have to try, but the result is worth it.