Keeping geese in a poultry house. Geese are undemanding to heat, able to tolerate low temperatures, on dry litter they are not afraid of even severe frosts. In the backyard for keeping adult geese, you can adapt an existing room or build a new one. For the construction of a capital poultry house, expensive material is not required; you can use local material left over from the construction of other facilities or from the dismantling of old premises. The roof can be made of wood, reeds or straw, smeared with clay. The floor is better to do with wood. You can leave it earthen, but then it should be raised above ground level by 15-20 cm. The walls should be plastered and whitewashed with 20% lime milk. Install windows at a height of 50 cm from the floor, the illumination at floor level should be at least 15 lux. It is necessary to equip the poultry house with heating and ventilation, provide for the possibility of dividing it, preferably with a mesh partition, into sections accommodating 50-150 birds.

The room for geese should be clean, dry, well ventilated, without drafts. Drafts and dampness adversely affect the productivity of the bird. For one head of a bird, the cross section of the ventilation holes should be: for exhaust - 8-10 cm2, for supply - 16-20 cm2. The change of air in a closed house should be at least 8 times per hour and not more than 11 times per hour. If the room is built from logs using tow or moss, which are laid in grooves, then the walls of the house are covered with planks from the inside and outside at a height of up to 1 m, otherwise the geese will pluck everything. With excessive crowding of birds, the room is quickly polluted, gases released from the litter worsen the air regime, microorganisms develop more intensively and can cause disease in geese. In the northern and middle zones of the country, rooms for geese are built with a facade to the south so that the sun illuminates the room more, and in the southern zone, where there is an excess of solar radiation, to the southwest or southeast.

The height of the room along the aisle is at least 2 m, at the walls - at least 1.7 m. Manholes for birds and windows should be located on the south or southeast side of the building. The roof should reliably protect the bird from precipitation. The floor must be warm. It should not absorb water and allow rodents into the room.

bedding

The well-being and health of geese is affected by the litter, the state of which depends on the temperature and humidity of the air. Any material available on the farm (sawdust, shavings, straw, sphagnum peat, crushed corn cobs, sunflower or millet husks) is used as bedding. It must be dry, clean, hygroscopic, without mold. Bedding made of plant material, in addition to its hygienic purpose, insulates the floor. In autumn and winter, warm bedding is used: straw, peat, in the summer - sand and sawdust. For one adult goose for a year, it is necessary to prepare up to 40 kg of bedding material.
When keeping geese on a damp litter, their feather becomes dirty, becomes disheveled and does not retain heat well. In this regard, the productive use of feed worsens, the body's resistance decreases, geese can get colds. It should be remembered that clean plumage protects geese from hypothermia. With the onset of cold weather, before laying a gradually layered litter (deep), it is advisable to sprinkle the dry floor with slaked lime or fluff lime at the rate of 0.5-1 kg per 1 m2 of area, and then lay a litter of small chips, crushed corn cobs, sawdust, cut straw, etc., with a thickness of at least 5 cm and not more than 15 cm. Feeders, drinkers and nests are installed on top, when dampness appears, wet places are sprinkled with fluffy lime, and then with bedding material. The deep litter is replaced when the batch of geese changes or the season (fall or spring) changes.

Temperature regime. Geese have a warm downy coat that protects them very well from the cold. They tolerate the temperature in the poultry house up to -10 "C, while its temporary drops can reach -25 ° C. However, low temperatures, especially in the breeding season, can drastically reduce the egg production of geese, so the walls in the room must be carefully fitted, smeared so that it is warm in the goose house, the temperature does not fall below 4-5 ° frost.At temperatures below -4 C, laid eggs may freeze slightly, and during the period of incubation or incubation, goslings will not hatch from them.

Light mode

Under normal conditions, under natural daylight hours, geese begin to lay eggs in late February or early March. If from January we increase daylight hours to 14 hours (that is, turn on the electric light at 6 o'clock and turn it off at 20 o'clock) and maintain a positive temperature in the room, eggs
you can receive from them already at the end of January - beginning of February.

Electric lighting is used until the natural daylight hours become equal to 14 hours. After reaching this day length, it is turned off. If the geese began to lay in January-February, it should be remembered that during these months there are still severe frosts and the laid eggs may freeze. Therefore, care must be taken to ensure that a good nest is arranged in an unheated room.
Planting density. For each goose there should be at least 1 m2 of area in a stationary room and at least 0.5 m2 in a mobile house. The planting density rate depends on climatic conditions. In the southern regions, where the bird spends almost the whole day on the paddocks, the stocking density can be increased to 2.5 birds per 1 m2 of poultry house floor area.

Inventory and equipment

Goose feeders are made in such a way that there is no large loss of feed. They should be light and comfortable. They can be made from boards (cuttings), plywood or other materials. There are enough feeders so as not to create a crush of geese during feeding. They should approach the feeders all at the same time. For feeding mineral feed, feeders with several compartments are used - for gravel, lime, shells. Feeders are suspended at a height of 20 cm from the floor. To feed the green mass, nursery-type feeders are made. They must always be clean.

drinkers

Under drinking bowls for adult geese, wooden, cement troughs, buckets or other containers are used. Troughs can be made from pottery or metal pipes of large diameter. To avoid splashing water and keeping the litter dry, drinkers are placed on baking sheets covered with a metal or wooden mesh. In winter, so that the water does not freeze, the drinker is insulated or hot water is periodically poured into it.

Insufficient amount of water, especially in hot weather, leads to mass diseases of birds.

nests

In order for the geese to get used to laying eggs in the allotted place, nests are installed indoors (on the floor along the wall) no later than a month before the start of laying, at the rate of one nest for 2-3 geese. If there are not enough nests, geese look for secluded places to lay eggs. The nests use the same litter as in the goose. Since geese rush in the morning, in order to have fewer dirty eggs, bedding should be poured into the nests in the evening. It is not recommended to place nests close to cold walls and in places with bright direct lighting.

The internal dimensions of the nests are as follows: width - 0.4-0.5 m, length - 0.65 m, height - 0.6-0.65 m, height of the nut - 0.01 m. Nests are made of wood, plywood, slab or other materials and positioned so that the eggs can be inspected and collected, the nest can be cleaned and the bedding changed if necessary. The bottom for the nest is made of wood, but by no means metal, since the geese try to bury the laid eggs in the litter. During the cold season, eggs may freeze or break.

Trapping cages are used to catch goslings. Should be easy to carry, pass freely through the door of the house. Usually designed for 5 birds: height 0.5 m, length 1.1-1.2 m, width about 0.7-0.75 m.
Mobile houses. For the warm season, lightweight mobile houses can be equipped for keeping 15-50 geese. The frame of such a house is made of bars or a corner, the walls are sheathed with thin boards or plywood, the floor is wooden, the roof is covered with plywood or boards. A very simple summer house can be made from mesh and roofing felt, film. Make the frame from bars or boards, fix the mesh on it, and strengthen the roofing material or film on top of the mesh. The roof is made of slats, with a gap between them of about 0.3 m, covered from above with roofing material or film. The dimensions of the house for 15 geese are 2.5x2.5 m, the roof is shed, the height along the facade is 2.1 m, at the back wall is at least 1.4 m. Feeders, drinkers and nests must be made portable and hinged so as not to pollute the site .
A semi-open summer house is built in the same way as the previous one, only I close the facade! boards to a height of about 0.6 m from the floor, and above - with a fine mesh. In summer, such a poultry house is more convenient for a bird, since it is always in the fresh air.

Aviaries

In suburban settlements, where it is impossible to release geese to pasture, they are kept in paddocks. Green mass in a freshly cut form is fed to geese from separate: feeders, and in crushed - added to the mash in the amount of 40-50% of the diet. For bathing geese, a container is adapted, periodically adding water to it to a constant level.

The area per bird should be at least: 1m2 - for goslings, 5m2 - for young animals, 15m2 - for adults. The aviary should be located on the south side of the building. The aviary should have canopies that protect the bird from the sun and rain.
You ghouls and ponds Pasture keeping of geese using ponds. The use of pastures and reservoirs by them has a positive effect on the general condition of the body of geese. They are able to eat up to 2 kg of green mass per day. Adult geese are released to the pasture immediately after the end of the laying. For grazing geese, you can use flood and upland meadows, ravines, swampy areas, as well as areas unsuitable for pastures for other animals. On pastures, geese can fully meet their nutritional needs by consuming a lot of greens.

For more economical use of feed, after the harvest of grain crops is harvested, geese can be grazed on the stubble, where they will eat grain-carrion. When feeding grain-carrion in geese, the live weight rapidly increases. In order for the geese to stay on the pasture for a longer time and make the most of greens and other feed, they are constantly provided with water. If near pastures, especially in the southern regions of the country, there are no reservoirs and natural shading to protect the geese from the scorching rays of the sun - shrubs, trees and other vegetation, it is necessary to arrange light portable canopies from twigs, straw and other local materials and put a drinking bowl with water .
The use of ponds by adult geese has a positive effect on the general condition of the body. The heat especially affects ganders, and therefore the fertility of eggs is reduced. Therefore, the use of reservoirs by geese helps to increase the fertility of eggs.

There was an erroneous opinion that it was not advisable to breed geese without reservoirs, since in this case goose eggs have poor incubation qualities. Clean flowing reservoirs with good vegetation along the banks, of course, create good conditions for keeping geese. However, scientific research and experience in keeping geese in large poultry farms show that geese can be successfully bred without water bodies. With good feeding and maintenance, geese of productive breeds that do not use water bodies lay 50 eggs per season, and with high incubation qualities.

Bird care

One of the important conditions for obtaining high productivity! and disease prevention of geese is! cleanliness in the room. With the onset of warm spring days, once a year, the room is cleaned of old litter and bedding, the walls are cleaned of dust and dirt, and they are whitewashed with freshly slaked lime. It is advisable to whitewash some parts of the room in preparation for winter. Nests and other equipment located in the poultry house are also whitened with lime, feeders and drinkers are washed with a 2% solution of caustic soda diluted in hot water.

In summer, it is not necessary to drive geese into the room. They can be left overnight in the yard, but for this you should fence off a special paddock and place feeders and drinkers in it. Geese! love to swim, so you have to adapt for! them a large trough or some kind of container and periodically fill it with water. In winter, in good sunny weather, geese are released into the yard. On cold frosty days, they can be released after 11 o'clock in the afternoon for a short time.

Goose plucking

Adult geese are plucked twice a year. The first time - when there are signs of molting (at the end of May - beginning of June). The second plucking is carried out after 7-8 weeks (at the end of July - beginning of August),
With two periods of egg-laying, geese are plucked once a year: in late May - early June.
In the process of growing, goslings are plucked twice: the first time at the age of 70-80 days, the second time at 120-130 days.
In young people, for the first plucking they get 60 g of a downer, for the second - up to 100 g.
In adult geese, in one pluck, 120-150 g of feather-down raw materials are obtained, of which 38-40 g of down.
Removing the feather from geese when natural molting has begun is painless, since the old feather is rejected by the newly growing one.

In the herd, not all geese molt at the same time. When plucking, they pay attention to geese in which molting began earlier and there are many new, not fully formed ev, which cannot be plucked. If new feathers have grown to such a length that it is difficult to know whether these are new feathers or old ones, you need to pull out a few feathers and look at the opening. If it is dry and transparent, then the feather is fully developed (in young feathers, the quill is filled with blood). Young feathers cannot be plucked, since the downy part of the fan is not developed and the entire feather does not have the necessary elasticity.

3-4 days before and after plucking, anti-stress feeding is carried out with a complex of vitamins per 1 kg of fed feed: A - 20000 AND E, D3 -2000IE, K -8 mg, B - 3, B2 - 8, B - 20 , B5 - 50, Be - 7, Sun - 1.5, biotin - 0.2, Bi2 - 0.02, choline chloride - 1500 and C - 50 mg. In the absence of a set of vitamins with feed, 100 mg of ascorbic acid per 1 kg of feed are fed.

The preparation and collection of feathers and down depends on the number of birds on the farm to be plucked. The day before plucking, the geese are given the opportunity to bathe well (preferably in a pond) and clean their feathers from dirt and dust. In the morning of the next day, leave such an amount of birds that will be plucked in the morning. The plucked geese are left in the yard (in the corral) until the next day or released into the pasture if it is located near the house. Plucked birds should not be mixed with unplucked birds, as frequent distillation, sorting and other movements adversely affect the geese. After plucking all the geese, they are again combined into one herd. You can pluck them in any convenient bright room. All operations during plucking are carried out carefully, carefully and calmly, since geese are naturally nervous and do not tolerate crowding.
The plucking of the feather is carried out as follows: the plucker, sitting on a stool or chair, puts the goose on his knees with his back down and legs away from himself, which he either ties or holds with his left hand, and begins to remove the small feather from the lower part of the neck with his right hand. The fluff in these places is not completely removed, but only softened to such an extent that there are no bare spots. The feathers of the wings, tail, upper neck, shoulders and hips remain intact.

When plucking the neck, the goose is held with the elbow of the left hand. It is especially necessary to ensure that the wings are tightly pressed to the back, as the bird will try to free itself by waving them. In this case, the geese may be injured.

Before you start plucking, you need to run your right hand over the feathers of the abdomen several times against their location in order to remove dust, make sure the integrity of the skin (no injuries) and establish the presence or absence of young growing feathers. Plucking should be done with the index and thumb of the right hand. In order not to tear the skin when plucking, a small amount of feathers is taken in one pluck in the direction of their location.

It is necessary to start plucking the feather from the rear end of the keel of the sternum. When the feathers of the posterior abdomen have been removed, they continue to be removed from the anterior to the sub-atrium. Then remove the feather from the back of the back and neck. Under no circumstances should feathers and down be removed together.

In the southern regions, geese can be plucked twice. The second time they pluck as soon as they have completely grown plumage. At a positive ambient temperature and the complete formation of the feather cover (20 days after the growth of feathers), a partial molt occurs in geese, at which the cover feathers of the body are replaced. The feathers of the wings, tail, hips, shoulders do not change a second time. For double plucking, up to 240-300 g of feather and down are collected from the goose.

In the process of plucking, the bird behaves calmly in most cases. After the plucking, during the first day, she is a little agitated, nervous and timid. However, this condition quickly passes, and the geese begin to eat the food offered to them with appetite. Already two days after the plucking, nothing could be noted in the behavior of the geese that could be mistaken for a reaction to it. In the first three to five days after plucking, the geese are reluctant to go into the water, but then they adapt and use the reservoir normally. The case of a bird after plucking is not observed.

After plucking, the geese are kept isolated in a closed room for two weeks, while they are fed not with top dressing, but with a complete diet in order to accelerate the growth of the feather.
After plucking, the feather and down are dried in the sun or in a well-ventilated room with occasional tedding. Store in small or cotton fabrics.

Purchase and transportation. You can take goslings for rearing earlier, but no later than 24 hours from the moment of hatching. Day old goslings can be transported in windproof boxes or baskets lined with dry straw, hay or soft cloth. The body temperature of day old goslings is maintained by the residual yolk present in their bodies. Older goslings must be provided with heating: put a heating pad with warm water on the bottom of the basket or box, and lay a bedding on top of the heating pad. If the goslings are overcooled due to some circumstances on the way, then the initial temperature in the room is raised against the usual one by 3 0C, otherwise cooling may cause the departure of the young during the first two weeks. If the goslings are well preserved in the first period (up to 10-15 days of life), then subsequently, with sufficient feeding and pasture provision, they can be completely preserved.

bird droppings

In order for goose manure (litter, litter) to be used as a fertilizer (for incorporation into the soil of a personal plot), it is necessary to periodically add simple or double superphosphate to a deep litter during their maintenance. Adding fertilizer in the form of a powder is carried out once a week: simple superphosphate 400 g, and double 200 g per 1 mg of goose floor area. In addition to enriching the litter with minerals, superphosphate dries out excessively moistened litter well and prevents the release of a large amount of ammonia from it.

Winter does not want to give up its rights yet, but the breath of the approaching spring is already felt in the air, and young drakes are looking more and more closely at the geese, in view of the approaching mating season. And this means that it is time to prepare nests for the geese, because laying will begin very soon. Want to know how to make them yourself? This is exactly what we will tell.

Goose nests should be located in the location of your choice approximately 30 days before laying starts. Only in this way the hens will have time to get used to the new conditions. Nests for domestic geese can be very diverse: it can be a basket with straw or hay bedding, or even a car tire that fits in diameter and is filled with bedding material.

It is important not to forget to adapt a small ladder or ladder to the nest so that the bird can get inside. Some craftsmen make nests for geese from pipe-shaped construction mesh, lining the interior with straw. But if you have a lot of birds, traditional wooden blocks placed on the floor of the house are best.

Nest requirements

Geese are large birds, so places for brood hens should be made in the appropriate size. Here are a few mandatory nesting requirements:

• The standard dimensions of each drawer must not be less than 50 cm wide, 70 cm long and 60 cm high. Depending on the breed of birds, nests may be slightly larger or smaller;
• the back wall is necessarily made deaf, and the front is missing. Instead, a low restrictive rim is installed so that it is convenient for the goose to climb inside and the eggs do not roll out;
• when equipping several egg-laying places, make the partitions between them high so that the birds do not see each other. This will make it easier to accustom females to nests;
• the number of nests directly depends on the population of the goose family: normally for 3 females, 1 box is quite sufficient.

Selecting an installation site

Wayward females, who, for certain reasons, did not like the prepared places, will try to arrange nesting sites at their own discretion, sometimes in an absolutely inappropriate place. To prevent this from happening, try to take into account the "wishes" of the birds, then it will be easier to accustom the goose to the nest. Unlike other poultry, nests for geese should be installed directly on the floor of the house, choosing a place in the shade, where there are no drafts and dampness. At the same time, you should be able to freely access the nesting area to collect eggs and regularly change bedding material.

Step-by-step instruction

You can make a place for oviposition from improvised materials available in every household. True, there are several restrictions: you should not use metal as a base, because geese always try to hide eggs in the litter, and when in contact with cold metal, it is highly likely that the shell will break or the contents of the egg will freeze.

Box-shaped nest

The structure is a wooden section with several compartments. To make it, you will need a wooden lining, bars, self-tapping screws, a sheet of plywood or a wide board for the bottom, a hammer, a hacksaw and a tape measure. The slats are cut in accordance with the size of the future box, attached to the support bars with self-tapping screws. After that, you should mount the bottom, attach the front limiting bar so that you get a wide hole for the birds. After that, it remains to attach a ladder, treat the wood with protective compounds, fill the boxes with bedding, and that's it - it's time to accustom the goose to a new place.

wicker nest

If a small number of geese live on your farm, it is better to make wicker nests for them. Birds are very fond of such shelters: natural material and natural rounded shape attract females; no need to puzzle over how to accustom them to a new nest. For work, you will need fresh willow twigs, a sharp knife, a special awl and a metal ring made of thick wire. First you need to weave the cross, gradually giving it a rounded shape.

Then they form a frame: in the center you need to cut 3 twigs and place 3 more in the hole. The next one - the seventh twig - is fixed to the side of the cross made at the beginning. All elements are carefully leveled, and on the opposite side, another twig is attached, from which the braid will be formed.

We begin to weave the bottom, laying the turns close to each other until the future bottom reaches the desired size. To form the side walls, you need to prepare dense and durable rods, each of which needs to be sharpened well with a sharp knife. Place the resulting guides around the entire circumference of the product at regular intervals. Now braid them in the same way as the bottom until you reach the required height. The edges can be decorated with a decorative pigtail. It's time to install the ring: collect all the rays in one bundle, fix them with wire, and insert the ring inside the structure, fixing it on the sides.

Hatching nests

Do-it-yourself nests for geese, where the female will incubate young, must be additionally prepared. Mandatory disinfection will be required before laying. Only straw is used as bedding, the hole should be hung with a piece of clean cloth, placing clean water and fresh food nearby. The nest should be placed in a warm room to avoid hypothermia of the eggs.

It is important to remember that if the eggs are transferred from the nest where the goose carried them to another box, the bird may refuse to sit on them, it is better to leave the clutch in the same place.

Video "Making goose nests"

From this video you will learn how to make goose nests with your own hands.

Featured Articles

How to make a poultry house for keeping geese with your own hands

Do-it-yourself poultry house for keeping geese: basic requirements. Selection of material and the main stages of construction. Arrangement and creation of a microclimate.

Breeding geese in household and garden plots is very profitable, since their maintenance requires relatively little cost and money. Already in early spring, geese almost completely switch to pasture. They are not afraid of cold weather and are very unpretentious. The main condition for keeping geese is the abundance of bedding. Unlike other types of poultry, geese are later maturing: puberty occurs at the age of 8-10 months. With age, egg production in geese increases - up to the age of three, on average, by 10-20%. During the spring-summer period, up to 100 eggs can be obtained from one goose. Well-fed young animals at the age of 2-2.5 months weigh up to 3.5 kg.

Goose breeding begins with the selection of pairs. When choosing females and males, attention should be paid to their origin; you cannot acquire a related bird. The gander is usually 1-1.5 kg heavier than the female, it should have two small feathers (“scissors”) on its wing. In the autumn, the female chooses a gander for herself, and here it is necessary to ensure that there is no family connection between them. If the female has chosen a gander from someone else's herd, it is better to purchase it or exchange it for another bird. When selecting males, in addition to reproductive ability, attention should be paid to their combativeness, the ability to protect their herd from strangers. A good gander should have ten primary and secondary flight feathers, the same number of tail feathers and tail feathers. You can’t leave a gander to the tribe, which is slaughtered by geese. Every year, a herd of geese is replenished by 20-30% with a young bird.

In winter, geese are kept on a deep litter with a thickness of at least 30 cm. Several nooks and crannies are fenced in the room, in which old and young ganders with geese are kept separately. To get more fertilized eggs from geese, the bird should be constantly walked. For each gander, 3-5 geese should be left. The service life of good proven ganders is 8-10 years. If there are only young ganders in the herd, then for insurance, the load on them is reduced. Ganders that have not justified themselves are slaughtered for meat in the fall. In the breeding season, ganders are best kept separately, as they can fight each other. In order for the ganders to live together, in winter they are fed separately from the geese. All ganders are fed from a common feeder, except for the leader. In the spring, ganders keep and feed each separately with their families, and after replenishment with young animals, all families unite into one herd.

In the breeding season, nests are installed, which are best blocked so that the geese sit quietly and there are no fights. From the end of February - the beginning of March, the geese begin laying eggs. Laid eggs should be carefully collected and stored in a dry place at a temperature of 7-13°C. Eggs are laid daily and stored for no more than a month. To increase the hatching of goslings, eggs are laid under the mother goose no later than 10 days after they are laid. In the herd, not only brood geese are usually kept, but also geese, which do not incubate eggs well, but are distinguished by high egg production. From such geese they get a lot of eggs, which are laid on the hens. It is necessary to try so that all the geese almost simultaneously sit down to incubate eggs, which will allow you to get the same age broods. If any of the geese sat down before the others, then do not disturb her, but put one egg to her. When the rest of the geese sit on the eggs, lay eggs on this goose, and take the first one (preferably the lining). It is good to lay eggs under the geese in the evening.

The nests are made of wood 60X70 cm in size, the height of the walls is 15-20 cm. A litter is laid on the bottom, on top of which goose down is placed. Goose usually sit in nests from mid-March, which depends on weather conditions and bird keeping. Laid eggs are stored in a vertical position with a sharp end down, periodically the eggs are turned over. Usually after 3-5 days the eggs are laid under the goose. After 10-12 days, the eggs are carefully removed from the nest and viewed on an ovoscope, removing fat and suffocation. On the 28th day, the eggs are sprinkled with water, on the 29th day, pecks appear, and on the 30th-31st days - the whole hatch.

As a goose house for year-round keeping of geese, you can adapt a plank shed (see figure) with a wall thickness of 3 cm. Two boards are side by side, and the third overlap closes the gap between these boards.

The height of the front wall is 220 cm, the back wall is 170 cm. The roof is also made of boards and covered with two layers of roofing felt.

The goose house is divided by a deaf wooden partition with a door into two sections. In the first section there is a door 220 cm high, 70 cm wide, and next to it there is a 30 × 25 cm manhole so that the geese can come in and rush. The barn should have a lush bed of straw, especially in winter. For the winter, all the cracks in the barn should be covered with a wet mixture of clay and mullein equally, since geese are not afraid of frost, but drafts.

By the beginning of oviposition, nest boxes for geese are placed in the dark corners of the goose coop (see figure). Boxes can be knocked down from slats or boards. The distance between the slats should be such that the goose's head could not crawl through. A hole is made at the end of the box for its entire width. The bottom should be solid, with good bedding of straw or hay. In such a nest, the goose is protected from three sides.

How to properly make and equip nests for geese so that egg production and hatching of eggs are optimal?

To teach geese to lay eggs in a place prepared for this, a month before the active period of laying eggs, various types of nests are installed in the house.

There are many options for such designs: you can simply put a large wicker basket with straw or adapt an old car tire of a suitable diameter for this purpose, filling it with sawdust or other bedding. It is important to take care of the bridge through which the goose can get into such a nest.

Use craftsmen and slate construction. The bottom of such a box is wooden, with sides holding eggs and straw, and the side walls and roof are made of slate sheets fixed on a wooden frame.

The original trumpet-shaped straw nest is found on American sites. A suitable piece of welded construction mesh is taken as a basis. Having formed a pipe of a suitable diameter, it is fixed with clamps and lined with straw, securing it with the rest of the mesh. The edges of the reinforced base are tied with wire. The end edges are not cut, tucking the straw inward to make a denser edge, trim only the ends of the wire. The nest-pipe is tied with wire to a wooden base board.

But with a large number of livestock, the most optimal option is compact ground wooden sections, which are made of plywood, tesa, slab, chipboard. One nest can be beautifully designed in the form of a small doghouse. If there are many birds, it is better to make a compact block of 3-4 sections on a common platform.

Video - What do goose nests look like

Features of goose nests

The equipment of places for laying eggs and hatching offspring in the poultry house must be taken with all responsibility so that the goose can comfortably stay there for a long time. The goose is a large bird, and its nests are different from chicken nests.

First of all, they must be spacious enough. Standard dimensions: width - 50 cm, length - 65-70 cm, height - 60-70 cm. For incubation of eggs, nests can be deeper. The size of the nest can be adjusted, depending on the breed of geese - larger or smaller.

The back wall adjacent to the wall of the room will be deaf. A 10-15 cm high limiting board is installed in the front part to hold the bedding.

The cross boards separating the place from the next one should be high enough so that when seated, the mother hen is not distracted and cannot disturb her neighbor.

At the end of February, the geese begin an active period of laying eggs. A month before the mating season, it is necessary to equip the nests so that the female looks at the place, insulates it with her plucked fluff.

Control sockets must be closed. In front of the entrance it would be nice to put a board with nailed cross bars.

According to the norms (see table), one nest is set for two or three females, although this does not guarantee an even distribution of the clutch. For one place chosen by many, 2-3 geese can fight, even if there are free sections. But the laying hen should always have a choice.

Standard dimensions for test sockets

Standard sizes for regular sockets

Where should nests be placed?

A stubborn goose that does not like the standard sections or simply does not have enough space at the right time can arrange a nest right on the ground or concrete base, in a secluded place. For comfort, you can put a sheet of slate for it at an angle to the wall, and insulate the floor with clean bedding or foam.

Unlike chicken counterparts, goose nests are installed directly on the floor. The place should be chosen dark, away from drafts. Sections must be constantly dry, well ventilated.

The goose prefers to rush and hatch chicks in one nest. Ideally, each laying hen should have her own personal “apartment”.

If the breeder breeds geese in families (3-4 females per goose), then each such family should have its own corner and its own nesting site in an unlit area. It is desirable to equip the entrance from the south side. Birds that are raised in a common herd must also have the required number of seats.

Nest locations should be accessible for regular viewing, egg collection and litter replacement. To prevent the eggs from becoming contaminated (which impairs their incubation ability), it is important to change the bedding every day. Dirty eggs must be cleaned no later than two hours after they have been laid. For this purpose, a solution of hydrogen peroxide and potassium permanganate are suitable.

How to properly equip a goose nest

Geese tolerate negative temperatures well, but if the nest is 4 degrees below zero, the eggs freeze slightly, and during incubation, the chickens will no longer hatch from them. Therefore, it is so important to equip solid insulated nests in unheated rooms in winter.

Until daylight hours approach 14 hours, to increase egg production from 6 to 20 hours, electricity must be turned on.

If a goose is used repeatedly to incubate eggs, it is strongly not recommended to transplant it to another nest. This will be a major stress for her. So that a caring mother does not refuse to hatch offspring, lay other people's fresh (no more than 10 days old) eggs in her usual environment.

A goose will quickly get used to a new house for her if she lays her first egg in it. The confirmation that she has chosen it may be the fluff that the female plucks out, covering the chosen nest.

To awaken the incubation reflex, farmers put special dummies into the nests.

The creation of general comfortable conditions for geese will help to consolidate the result: birds do not tolerate stuffiness and high humidity. It is also necessary to regulate the length of daylight hours with the help of additional lighting.

Building a nest for laying eggs

It is not difficult to make a nest, besides, you can always use the materials at hand on the farm. It is not recommended to make metal nests, as laying hens sometimes hide eggs under straw and, when in contact with a cold surface, especially in winter, they break or freeze. We will need environmentally friendly material: in the first version, wooden lining, in the second, willow twigs.

Construction dimensions

Option one: a nest in the shape of a box made of wood

Compact rectangular sections with several nest-boxes, occupying a minimum of poultry house space, are indispensable in large farms where a flock of geese has several hundred heads. Making such a nest does not take much time and effort.

Tools and materials:

• planks, lining, OSB - everything that was found on the farm. You can also use a non-new tree, the main thing is that it does not have mold and dust;
• bars for support - 4 pieces of 5-6 cm in diameter;
• fasteners (self-tapping screws, nails, etc.);
• tools: hammer, tape measure, saw;
• plywood or board for the bottom (if you want to install it).

Detailed instructions

Step 1. We prepare the slats. It is necessary to cut the planks or lining into identical fragments. For the side walls, the length of the rails will be 60-70 cm. You need to prepare two of these. You will also need two end blanks 50 cm long, in one of them you need to make a hole for the goose.

Step 2. We sheathe the frame. Planks are nailed to the four supporting bars at small intervals. The gap can be 5-6 cm, the main thing is that the goose's head does not fit into it.

Step 3. We make out the front wall. Three walls should be the same in appearance, and on the front they leave a free entrance, limiting it with a pair of slats on top and a small (10 cm) sill on the bottom so that eggs do not roll out and straw does not fall out.

Step 4. We nail the bottom. You can install the box directly on the foam-insulated floor. On a bare concrete base, it is better to make the bottom of wooden boards or plywood.

Step 5. Protecting the wood. To extend the service life, the tree is treated with protective agents. Choose products that will not be toxic to birds.

Step 6 We build a bridge. To make it convenient for the clumsy goose to climb, it is necessary to build a wooden lattice-bridge along the width of the nest. The ladder is attached to the threshold.

The nest is ready. Make them in the required quantity and place them away from drafts in a semi-dark part of the house, not leaning tightly against cold walls. Most often, nests are located on the side walls of the house.

Option two: wicker nest

In the country, in a small household plot, a herd of geese, as a rule, is not numerous, and a wicker nest can also be made for several geese. Geese really like these baskets: warm natural material, familiar rounded shape, as in the wild, light construction is well ventilated.

Tools and materials:

• fresh willow rods of various thicknesses and lengths (thick ones are needed for the base, thin ones for the sides);
• spacer metal ring (diameter - 75 cm);
• tools - a knife, an awl.

Step-by-step instruction

Step 1. Material for the base. First, a cross is woven, which gradually takes on the shape of a circle. Prepare an odd number of rods. One of them will be shorter than all the others.

Step 2. Formation of the frame. Three rods are cut in the center and 3 more rods are inserted into the resulting hole. The seventh rod is attached to the side of the cross. All beams are aligned. On the other hand, a braiding rod is placed in the incision.

Step 3. Making the bottom. The cross is braided in the "cross-wise" way. The coils are applied closely, and the tips are hidden next to the rib. The base is woven until it reaches the desired size of the nest. In our version, the bottom radius is 35 cm.

Step 4. Making the sidewall of the nest. For the side frame, round and large rods are selected. The end of each rod is sharpened with a knife. For the selected base, 29 guide beams are required, which are placed at the same distance from each other.

Step 5. Edge processing. The edge of the nest is braided with a pigtail. You can take material of different shades, then the drawing will turn out more interesting. All ends of the braided rods are brought out so that they can later be cut off.

Step 6. Inserting the spacer ring. The rays are bent, the ends of all the side rods are collected into one bundle and fixed with wire. A ring is placed inside the structure, fixing it on the sides.

Step 7 Finishing the Edge Now you can release the tied rays to braid the edges of the basket with these ends. They wrap one edge around another, bend 5 cm near the next one and trim the tip. It remains to fill the end inside. The last bar is braided and all protruding ends are cut.

Basket options are selected according to your needs: you can weave a high, in the form of a cylinder with an inlet, or a wide, open, in the form of a hemisphere.

Nests for hatching offspring

On average, one laying goose takes up to 90 minutes. If the female is restless, constantly sits on the nest, does not run away when people appear, but flaps her wings, protecting her future offspring, it's time to prepare a place for her to hatch.

Before laying eggs for offspring, the nest must be prepared: disinfected with any of the proposed solutions, line the bottom with soft, dry and clean straw (hay is not suitable for this purpose).

When a mother hen is incubating eggs (usually up to 11 eggs), her hole is hung with a piece of cloth, there should always be fresh water and food nearby. She rarely leaves the nest, reminding herself with a loud cry. After a short walk, she quickly returns to her place.

The goose is not afraid of the cold, but the eggs in the poultry house can become supercooled, so such nests are installed in a heated room - a veranda, a summer kitchen. It is necessary to prepare a place for incubation no later than the end of March - the first half of April.

The female incubates the eggs in the same nest where she rushed all the time. If you move them to another place, she may refuse to hatch chicks. If several hens are planted, the geese should not see each other - this makes them nervous and badly affects the incubation quality of the eggs.

The health and productivity of geese depends not only on the choice of a promising breed, but also on the conditions of their maintenance. When arranging nests for geese, it is necessary to focus on the climatic zone, the features of the room, the number of birds, the availability of suitable material. The goose is not a capricious bird, and with good care and proper equipment, the house will surely please with high egg production.

In a private house or in the country, you can keep not only chickens, but also geese. These birds are larger in size and more picky about the conditions of detention, so the goose coop is significantly different from the chicken coop. How to build a goose coop so that the birds are comfortable in it?

What should be a goose

Geese are larger than chickens, and besides, they are waterfowl, so the requirements for a goose coop are different than for a chicken coop. Geese in general are more demanding on environmental conditions. In a cramped, cold or hot, dry or damp, dark or too light goose house, they begin to rush worse, lose weight, the quality of feathers deteriorates, and the bird may even die. How to build a goose coop?

• The facade of the goose house should be turned to the south in order to receive the maximum amount of sunlight. Also, on the south side, there should be a paddock in which the birds can walk, and spend the whole day outdoors in the summer. Above the corral you need to provide a canopy from the rain.
• It is best to build a goose house on a hill.
• It is necessary to maintain a sufficient level of lighting, a comfortable temperature and humidity. In a damp and cold room, geese will get sick.

For each goose should be about 1 square. m area. If there is less space, then the goose coop will be too cramped, which will adversely affect the health of the geese. In the southern regions, where geese graze almost all day in the fresh air, you can plant them denser - up to 2.5 geese per 1 sq.m.

Advice! It is better to build a goose house with a margin - when the young grow up, he will also need a place.

If there is a reservoir on the site, then the goose house must be built next to it so that the geese have the opportunity to swim. Also good for geese is the neighborhood of a grassy meadow where they can graze.

The following requirements are imposed on the microclimate in the goose coop:

• the temperature should be within 22-25 degrees, a lower one leads to frostbite, in the heat geese can die from overheating;
• comfortable humidity - 60%, in a damp room (with a humidity of more than 70%) mold appears, geese start to get sick, in a dry room (with a humidity below 50%), feathers and mucous membranes dry out;
• good ventilation is also important both in summer and winter, while there should be no drafts, warm floors, comfortable feeders, drinkers, nests;
• it is necessary to maintain cleanliness in the goose house; for disinfection, the floor is sprinkled with superphosphate.

What to build from

For the goose, you can use various building materials:

• tree;
• brick;
• cinder blocks;
• foam blocks.

In some cases, it needs to be insulated, for example, if the goose shed is made of wood with thin walls.

Watch the video on how to build a goose house with your own hands.

How to build a goose

The construction of the goose house begins with the foundation. It is made tape, columnar. On damp soil, you can pour a layer of rubble and fill it with clay mixed with broken glass to protect the barn from rodents, cement on top, and after it hardens, cover it with bitumen for waterproofing.

You can make a strip foundation. To do this, they remove the top fertile layer of soil and dig a trench 30-50 cm deep, pour in a mixture of sand and gravel, ram the reinforcement on it. The trench is filled with concrete.

To protect against rats and mice, another trench is dug around the perimeter of the goose coop and filled with a mixture of clay and broken glass.

The next step is the walls. The goose house can be either frame or built from timber or logs, and walls can also be built from foam blocks or bricks. It is important that their thickness should not be less than 25 cm, and the height - 200 cm. From the inside, the walls are plastered or upholstered with plywood, and outside they can be trimmed with clapboard.

How to build a goose house? If we are building a frame shed from boards, then first we build a frame from a bar. At this stage, windows and doors are provided. In this case, the window area should be at least 10-15% of the floor area. A sufficient amount of light is necessary for birds, especially during the fattening period, in a dark room they will not gain weight well. Windows and doors must be well insulated, otherwise the heat will escape through them in winter.

On the south side of the goose house, at least two windows and two manholes for geese measuring 50 * 50 cm are made. Small ladders are needed for the manholes. The goose house is made facing the entrance to the south in the north and in the middle lane. In the southern regions, the entrance is located on the southeast or southwest side.

Also, near the entrance to the goose house, you need a vestibule for storing inventory, bedding. This vestibule will also play a warming role - in winter, cold air will not immediately go into the room where the geese are kept.

Particular attention should be paid to the floor of the goose. It is raised 20-25 cm above the ground and made inclined so that it is more convenient to wash off the excrement. A layer of rubble is poured as drainage.

The roof of the goose house is made single-pitched or double-pitched. The frame is upholstered with boards first from the outside. Then it is insulated by attaching heat-insulating material from the inside of the boards. The cheapest option is sawdust. After that, the structure is upholstered with boards from the inside.

Any roofing material can be used for the roof. Insulate it, as a rule, with sawdust. It is good to build a goose coop with an attic - you can store hay on it, in addition, it will additionally insulate the goose coop.

Interior arrangement

Before entering you need to make a small vestibule. The rest of the room is divided into two parts. One of them is intended for young animals, the other for adult geese. For partitions use a grid.

How to make nests? Geese, unlike chickens, bury their eggs deep, so the litter must be thick enough. To prevent the eggs from breaking and freezing, there should be no metal objects under the nests. Nests should be made at a distance from each other, they are placed in the southern part of the goose coop, in a dark place.

The floor should be covered with a thick layer of bedding (straw), as in the photo, which is changed as it gets dirty, especially often near drinkers and feeders. Sawdust, peat, straw are used as bedding. Sawdust is covered with a layer of straw so that the goslings do not peck at them.

Drinkers should be large enough, because geese need a lot of water - up to 2 liters per day. With a lack of water, the geese stop rushing. As a drinker, any stable trough is suitable. It should be located high - the bottom is slightly higher than the back of the goose.

The design of the feeders in the goose should be such that, on the one hand, there is no crush near them, on the other hand, the geese should not climb into them and scatter food.

Feeders can be of three types: for dry, wet food and mineral supplements. The dry food trough should hold the daily amount of food. For wet food, a metal trough works well, but it is better not to put dairy products in it.

Ventilation and heating

It is impossible to build a proper goose coop without good ventilation. It is necessary for the influx of fresh air and humidity control. A convenient option is skating. You do not need to buy fans for it, but installing such a system for an inexperienced craftsman can be difficult. Of the pluses - natural ventilation without drafts, of the minuses - snow can blow in a blizzard.

Also a good ventilation option, especially in winter, is coaxial. The system consists of two pipes located one inside the other, while the heat does not escape. The inner pipe is chosen from aluminum or steel, the distance between the inner and outer is 2-3 cm.

It is possible to make supply and exhaust ventilation. Install it at the stage of construction of the roof. One pipe is installed just below the ceiling, and the other - just above the floor level. Valves are installed to control the air flow.

Proper lighting is also important. For this, incandescent lamps of 60 watts are used. One such lamp is designed for 6 square meters of floor. Then the lighting will be about 20 Lx, if it is lighter (more than 25 Lx), then the geese may develop deviations in behavior, they may begin to peck at each other, pluck out feathers. In a dark goose house, the birds will start to eat less and will not gain enough weight.

Artificial lighting is turned on for 14 hours during the laying of eggs, 7 hours are enough for goslings. Do not use artificial lighting if the natural daylight hours are longer than 14 hours.

Heating in the goose is not necessary. If this is a capital building with thick walls and no drafts, then the geese tolerate low temperatures well with good bedding. If the winter is cold and the goose house is not very well insulated, then heating is necessary, and the temperature should be easy to regulate.

Hygiene treatment

When the goose house is built, it is necessary to prepare it for planting the bird.

• The walls and ceiling are whitened with lime. This requires a 20% solution. It is prepared from 5 liters of water, 1 kg of lime and 0.1 kg of salt.
• The floor is disinfected with a solution of creolin or soda ash. To do this, 200 g of soda or 0.5 kg of creolin is taken on a bucket of hot water. After that, the goose house is closed for several hours, and before starting the geese, they are thoroughly ventilated.
• Inventory, drinkers and feeders are washed with a solution of ash liquor.
• A thick (about 10 cm) layer of bedding is placed on the floor. This is necessary for the comfort of the geese, as well as for hygienic reasons. Dry peat, sand, straw are used as bedding. First, they are laid about 5-7 cm, then they are filled up. In winter, the bedding layer may be larger.

Conclusion

Even a novice farmer can build the right goose coop. It is important to follow some rules and then keep the goose house clean. Then the birds will be healthy, and the owners will receive a sufficient amount of eggs and meat.