Five Key Points for Winter Feeding and Management of Female Geese

First Must: Increase activity. In winter, female geese reduce their amount of exercise; to prevent the geese from becoming too fat, exercise must be increased. Choose clear weather and drive the geese to a suitable exercise area, letting them bask in the sun more to strengthen their physique, which is beneficial to the growth and development of female geese and increases egg production.

Second Must: Provide sufficient nutrition. In winter, geese consume more energy themselves, so the nutritional standard of the feed should be raised to balance the geese's consumption and enhance their cold resistance. Generally, energy feed such as rice grain and corn should be appropriately increased, and high-quality green and coarse feed should be supplement-fed. Each goose should be fed 150-200 grams of mixed concentrate per day, divided into 3 feedings, one of which should preferably be given at night, which is even more beneficial for increasing the egg-laying rate.

Third Must: Prevent cold and keep warm. Although adult geese have improved cold resistance, when winter temperatures are too low, a series of performance traits of female geese will also be affected to some extent; cold prevention and warmth measures must be well implemented, and stocking density should be increased, with thick bedding material, so that the indoor temperature is controlled above 5°C. Where conditions permit, a plastic warm shed can be built to use solar energy to raise the room temperature, which can increase the egg-laying rate of female geese by more than 15%. 

Fourth Must: Provide warm water for drinking. Female geese consume a lot of heat energy in winter, so they should not be given overly cold ice and snow water; warm water should be provided for drinking both day and night to reduce the consumption of physical energy.

Fifth Must: Reasonable water release. In winter, the number of times geese enter the water should be reduced, the time for water release should be shortened, and they should be released late in the morning and shut in early in the evening. Water release should preferably be done once each in the morning and afternoon on sunny days when sunlight is abundant; generally, it is best to drive the geese into the water at around 10 a.m. and around 2 p.m., and each water release should preferably last 10-15 minutes. On rainy and snowy days, they should not enter the water.