Content
Italian geese are a relatively new breed of which there are two versions. According to one of them, birds with the greatest productivity were selected from the local population. According to the second, the local stock was crossed with Chinese geese. It was first presented at an exhibition in Barcelona in 1924.
It appeared on Russian territory during the existence of the USSR. It was imported from Czechoslovakia in 1975.
Description
Geese of the Italian breed belong to the meat category and are mainly intended for producing delicious liver. This is a tightly built bird with a compact body. The description of the white breed of Italian geese specifically states that they should have no folds of fat on their belly.
This is due to the fact that geese accumulate fat not in the meat or under the skin, but on the stomach. Typically, goose meat is drier than duck precisely because of the lack of fat reserves under the skin. Italian white geese need to accumulate internal fat. Otherwise, it is impossible to get high-quality liver.
The average live weight of a gander is 7 kg, and a goose weighs on average 5.5 kg. The head is small and wide. The back of the head is flat, the chewing muscles are well developed. The orange beak is short and thin, and there is no bump on the bridge of the nose. The eyes are large and blue. The eyelids are orange, matching the color of the beak.
The neck is short, straight, thick. There is a slight curve at the top. The long body is slightly raised at the front. The back is wide, sloping towards the tail, slightly convex. The tail is well developed and horizontal.
The chest is wide and well muscled. The abdomen is well developed and deep. There are no skin folds between the paws. The wings are long and fit tightly to the body. Shoulders set high and well developed.
At the same time, they can sell real purebred Italian ones; they just put a photo of not their own birds, but took them from the Internet.
Legs of medium length, strong, straight. The metatarsus is red-orange. The plumage is hard. The amount of fluff is very small. Color white. Gray feathers are evidence of an admixture of another breed, but in small quantities they are acceptable, although undesirable.
The egg production of geese of the Italian breed is very high. They lay 60-80 eggs per year. Egg weight 150 g. White shell. Hatchability of goslings is up to 70%.
Usually, even in the presence of a reservoir, due to the size of the birds, the fertility of goose eggs is about 60%.
Productivity
The productive characteristics of Italian geese relate more to the liver for which they are raised. The weight of the liver is 350-400 g. Although these geese also have a good taste of meat. Goslings reach a weight of 3-4 kg by 2 months.
How to distinguish goslings
Thanks to the sex-linked color dilution gene, future ganders have yellow or light gray down on their backs, while geese have mostly gray backs. When selecting goslings by sex, the color of the back is used as a marking. The accuracy of sex determination based on this characteristic is 98% when sorting 1140 heads per hour.
Content
Thanks to the cliche that Italy is a warm country, descriptions of the Italian geese breed are usually expected to acknowledge the heat-loving nature of this bird. But Italy, even on average, is not a very warm country and snow happens there regularly. In addition, it stretches from north to south, which is why its northern part is much colder. According to reviews from their owners, Italian geese tolerate cold well. Moreover, during the time during which they were bred in Russia, the population managed to adapt and adapt to frosts. Adult geese do not need very warm shelter.
This is especially critical for Italian ones, which do not have a lot of fluff. A dirty, wet feather loses its protective properties, and birds can become hypothermic.
It is very undesirable to keep Italian breed geese as in the photo below.
Dirty and dirty feathers begin to let in cold air and water. And waterfowl do not become hypothermic in bodies of water only because the water does not reach their body. If their feathers become contaminated, waterfowl die in the water from the cold in the same way as land birds.
A photo of keeping white Italian geese on a Western farm clearly demonstrates how it is possible to maintain dry bedding even with a large population.
Feeding
Initially, geese are meadow herbivorous birds.Typically, descriptions of Italian geese do not indicate their diet. Most often this is due to the fact that producers of gourmet liver do not want to reveal their secrets.
Therefore, if you need to fatten Italian geese for their liver, grain feed is introduced into their diet. Geese are often fed acorns, hazelnuts or walnuts.
If the herd is kept for the tribe, it should not be allowed to grow fat. Therefore, such geese are mainly fed grass in the summer. If free grazing is possible, they are released to graze. To train geese to return home, they are fed once a day in the evening. But in this case, you will have to give them grain, since the geese will find everything else on their own on free grazing.
The winter diet must include hay as a grass substitute. At the same time, grains can be given so that the birds have energy for heating. You can give dry bread soaked in water.
Also in winter, geese can be given finely chopped pine needles as a vitamin supplement. But in spring the needles become poisonous.
In any season, geese, especially geese, should be provided with feed chalk and shells. These birds have nowhere else to get calcium for their eggshells. Unlike omnivorous ducks and chickens, geese do not consume animal protein, which means they will not eat snails.
Breeding
Italian geese have a weak brooding instinct. Therefore, when breeding Italians, 3 methods are used, depending on what is more convenient for the owner:
- incubation on an industrial scale;
- choice of hen among Italian geese;
- laying eggs under geese of other breeds.
For gander breeding, 3-4 geese are selected. When breeding in incubators, medium-sized eggs are selected, without defects in the shell. After 6 days, the eggs are examined with an ovoscope and the unfertilized ones are removed. It is recommended to turn the eggs every 4 hours. From the third day, before each turning, the eggs are sprayed with cold water. From the 6th day, the eggs are cooled by opening the incubator for 5 minutes. Goslings are usually hatched 28-31 days after the start of incubation.
With natural breeding, according to reviews from owners of Italian breed geese, it is necessary to select experienced geese for incubation. Young first-year students often neglect their responsibilities.
Breeding by placing geese under other geese is no different from natural breeding. But the goslings will be led by a female of a different breed.
Nests for geese are made taking into account their natural inclinations. Theoretically. In fact, the description of the nest for Italian breed geese contradicts the real photos of these nesting sites.
With a “natural” design, the nest can be made of straw in the shape of a circle with a diameter of 40 cm and a height of 10 cm. But geese with a well-developed brooding instinct build such a nest themselves if “building materials” are available. The disadvantage of such nests is that they can be built in any place that the female likes.
Typically, goose owners prefer orderly nesting boxes made of boards and a straw-lined bottom.
Such a nesting arrangement allows a larger number of birds to be placed in the same area, since the goose “thinks” that it is in a secluded place away from its relatives. It is not recommended to use sawdust as bedding due to its too high flowability.
Reviews
Conclusion
Given the declared large population of Italian geese in Russia, descriptions and photos of these birds often differ from each other. This may be due to the fact that today the percentage of Italian geese in Russia is small or they are mixed with other breeds. Usually crossbreeding is carried out with the Gorky breed to improve the brooding instinct. As a result, due to cross breeding in Russia today it is very difficult to find purebred Italian geese. The Italian breed is good for producing foie gras, but for producing goose it is better to use other breeds of geese.
