Content
The Kuban breed of geese was bred in the mid-twentieth century at the Kuban Agricultural Institute. The institute made two attempts to develop a new breeds of geese. For the first time, the Gorky breed was crossed with the Chinese. The result was birds with the coloration of a wild goose.
Later, the Kuban Agricultural Institute made a second attempt to breed new geese by crossing three domestic breeds: Gorky, Emdem and Vishtines. This version of the Kuban geese turned out to be white in color.
Thus, today Kuban geese exist in two versions: gray and white. The white version turned out to be worse in its productive qualities, and the first gray population of Kuban geese became widespread.
This color may be a consequence of a mutation in the gray representative of the breed. Or piebald geese are the offspring of crossing two Kuban populations. Since the populations are actually unrelated, the offspring, due to the effect of heterosis, may have better productive characteristics than the “pure” line.
But today, when people say “Kuban breed,” they usually mean gray geese as the most common. Today, gray Kubans are bred in the Volga region, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Ukraine. If in 1974 the population of this breed numbered 20.5 thousand birds, today there are already 285 thousand birds.
Description
Kuban were bred as an egg breed of geese. Their live weight is not very high: the gander weighs 5.5-6 kg; goose – up to 5 kg. Due to their size, attention is usually not paid to the meat characteristics of the Kuban breed of geese, giving preference to their egg production.
But the egg production of Kuban geese is very high for this type of poultry: up to 80-90 eggs per year. The eggs have a very good taste and a large weight: 140-150 g. The shell is white.
Appearance
Kuban geese have a medium-sized body with dense muscles. The head is large and long. The eyes are oval, dark brown. In the description of gray Kuban geese, the bump on the nose, inherited from the Chinese breed, and the brown stripe on the neck are especially emphasized as a distinctive feature. For some reason, special attention is paid to the stripe, although this is the wild color of the swan goose and many other breeds, whose ancestor was the swan goose, also have this stripe.
But the bump on the nose, as seen in the photo of the Kuban goose, has differences. It is less pronounced and more regular in shape than the Chinese ones. Due to this, the head of the Kuban goose, although it has a “square” profile, is more accurate than that of the Chinese one. In addition, Kuban residents have weak wallets, and many have no wallets at all. The beak is thin. The cone and beak of the Kuban are black.
The neck is long, thin, very flexible. The body is ovoid, slightly raised in front. The wings are long, tightly pressed to the body. The tail is short and raised. The chest is round, with well-developed pectoral muscles. The legs are of medium length, the metatarsals are red-orange.
Starting from the age of one year, Kuban cats actively gain fat, storing it in the lower part of the body.In adults, a “bag” of subcutaneous fat forms between the paws, although the description of the breed states that Kuban geese do not have a fat fold. It is precisely the fold that is present in other geese that the Kuban geese really do not have. The photo of adult geese of the Kuban breed shows that the description is true, but the birds have a reserve of fat.
As the name itself suggests, the color of the gray Kuban breed of geese is dominated by dark feathers. But on the rump part in the lower part of the body the plumage is white. Also, the color of the gray Kuban is sometimes called brown because of the same brown stripe on the back of the neck, running from the back of the head to the body, as well as the brownish color of the lower part of the neck.
Advantages and disadvantages
The breed was bred with the aim of producing an unpretentious bird well adapted to Russian conditions. The breeding goals have been achieved. The advantages of Kuban geese, if you believe the description, include:
- good frost resistance;
- unpretentiousness to feed;
- large eggs;
- high hatchability of goslings;
- good preservation of young animals;
- tasty meat, albeit in relatively small quantities.
But the last point is compensated by the good survival rate of young animals, as a result of which, in mass quantities, Kubans are not inferior to meat breeds.
As you can see in the photo, geese of the Kuban breed tolerate winter well, walking calmly right in the snow.
Kubanskiys have a rather docile character and are easily tamed.
The disadvantages of this breed are quite conventional: small live weight and lack of maternal instinct in geese. Whether the second point is a disadvantage depends on the goals of breeding geese.For some owners of Kuban geese, judging by the reviews, reluctance to incubate eggs is a virtue. Refusal of incubation allows you to get a larger number of eggs from one goose, and the hatchability of goslings in the incubator is 90%.
If geese were intended for meat, then their low body weight is indeed a disadvantage. In this case, a light Kuban goose is crossed with a heavy gander, obtaining a large number of meat goslings.
Precocity
The ideal age for slaughtering Kuban geese is 3 months. By this time, the young animals manage to gain an average of 3.5 kg of live weight. Geese will have to be raised for almost a year until sexual maturity. Ganders mature at 240–310 days of life. Geese before.
After 4 years of life, the goose sharply reduces egg production, so keeping geese for longer than 4 years is not advisable.
Contents of goslings
Since goslings of this breed are usually hatched in an incubator, the goose cannot lead them. Like any other hatchery chicks, the goslings are placed in a brooder, where the temperature is initially set at 30°C. Goslings drink a lot, but do not need a pool. Moreover, if you give them a bowl of water, they can drown in it. Therefore, the chicks are provided with free access to a drinking bowl with fresh water, but the ability to get into the water is limited.
In the first week, goslings are given starter feed mixed with a boiled egg. Later they begin to add fresh grass. Before feeding, the grass is cut into small pieces.
When grazing freely, geese find their own forage grasses. If there is no grazing, then the birds are fed:
- various cereals;
- bluegrass;
- legumes;
- quinoa;
- nettle
It is better to scald the nettles before dacha so that the birds do not burn their tongues.
Both adult birds and young birds need to walk. You can release the young outside on warm days earlier than allowing them to swim.
Adult geese have many diseases that they suffer asymptomatically. These same diseases are very dangerous for goslings.
Young and adult birds should not be deprived of winter walks. This breed is not afraid of the cold so much that geese can start laying eggs in February right on the snow. The video shows domestic geese of the Kuban breed on a winter-spring walk.
Reviews
Conclusion
Given the stated abundance of the breed in our time, descriptions and photos of Kuban geese often do not correspond to each other. It's like it's almost impossible to find a photo of a purebred bird. Perhaps this is due to the fact that owners of the Kuban breed often cross it with heavier meat representatives of the goose tribe. In any case, fans of the Kubanskys need to be careful when choosing the seller of the desired product.
