How to select healthy goslings? A complete guide to selection methods
Raising meat geese on shed netting not only delivers good economic returns, but the meat geese also have a fresh and tender flavor that consumers love, making it a path to prosperity for many farmers. The quality of goslings affects their growth rate and is directly tied to the survival rate and production performance. When buying for rearing, you should select them one by one, pay attention to transport management, and ensure the goslings' health. The main selection methods are as follows:
1. Farmers should choose good breeds: egg-type geese include Wulong geese, Taihu geese, and Sichuan white geese; meat-type geese include Shitou geese, Yunnan white geese, Landes geese, Rhine geese and other breeds. As the saying goes, "Good seed makes a good slope" - a good breed produces good offspring. If the parent stock is well managed and vaccination is thorough, egg production will naturally be good, and the hatched goslings will be stronger and have a higher survival rate. When ordering goslings, you must distinguish the company's grade and the hatching time of the young birds. Be sure to choose a company with a good reputation and check its "Breeding Livestock and Poultry Production and Operation License" and "Livestock and Poultry Farm Sanitation and Epidemic Prevention Certificate." Some companies keep only a small number of breeding geese and instead buy goose eggs from scattered backyard raisers to hatch, then mix the hatched goslings with those from their own breeding farm for sale. Eggs from scattered backyard layers not only lack the "Breeding Livestock and Poultry Production and Operation License" and "Livestock and Poultry Farm Sanitation and Epidemic Prevention Certificate," but the feed nutrition is also incomplete, disinfection management is not properly supported, and vaccination is not guaranteed; artificial insemination is used during the laying period, so the hatched goslings are weak. Farmers should pay close attention to this. Goslings whose egg sources are unclear, whose sanitation and epidemic prevention are not strict, and whose hatching conditions are poor must not be ordered.
2. Select superior individual goslings: Look at the hatching technique. A uniform hatch rate and normal hatching on the expected date show that the egg quality and hatching technique have reached a relatively high level. Goslings that hatch on schedule are certainly healthy; those that hatch late or early indicate deficiencies in hatching technique, poor temperature control, or inadequate nutrition in the eggs, and the resulting goslings have a short growth period, so they should not be selected.
3. Look at the goslings' appearance: A robust gosling shows the characteristics of its breed, with pure and uniform down color, clean and glossy down, consistent body weight, a lively posture, a large head, large eyes with a bright look, thick and solid legs, strong struggling when held in the hand, a clear call, and thin green droppings.
4. Look at the vaccination program: To prevent viral infectious diseases such as duck plague and gosling plague, the hatchery injects vaccines within 24-36 hours of hatching and provides farmers with rearing guidance materials.
5. Pay attention to the hatching time: After the hatchery picks the goslings out of the hatcher, it must immediately count them and inject the gosling plague vaccine, pack them into boxes prepared for transport, and deliver them to the farmer's rearing shed within 36 hours. At the very latest they must arrive at the rearing destination within 48 hours. The earlier the transport time, the less dehydration, and the higher the goslings' survival rate.
6. Divide into groups for rearing in time: Check each gosling according to its body size and group them by size for rearing. When checking, note the body condition: a short time since hatching means a plump body, while a long time since hatching means a thin, small body. Goslings past 48 hours will become dehydrated; to the naked eye the goose looks dry, thin, and small, and without timely drinking water the mortality rate is high, the survival rate is low, and infectious diseases easily occur.
7. Be sure to give the goslings water in time. While adjusting the temperature, provide guided supplementary wet feed and drinking water. Especially for small goslings, which indicates a high degree of dehydration, water must be given immediately. The water quality matters; preferably give physiological saline or electrolytic multivitamin solution. Next best is cooled boiled water or ordinary tap water. You can also add brown sugar, white sugar, and Subu 14 for timely drinking.
8. Do a good job of revitalizing weak goslings: When weak goslings are found in the flock, they should be picked out and given an auxiliary heat source and added feed to build them up. Put those of similar weight in one small pen and the weak ones together, especially gathering the weak, small ones around the heat source to promote yolk absorption and raise the survival rate. You can also add brown sugar water or multivitamins and Subu 20 to help weak goslings improve their metabolic capacity, increase nutrient intake, speed up growth, and achieve basically uniform condition across the whole flock.
9. Refuse to raise those that are blind, have crooked heads, or splayed legs. Especially for stunted and deformed goslings with poor yolk absorption, they must be culled and disposed of in one go; keeping them only increases contamination. They will die within 2-3 weeks, and keeping them for rearing is a genuine waste and a source of infection.
10. Pay attention to disinfection: also called drinking water disinfection and disinfection with the geese present. Within 2-3 days of age, use a 1-in-10,000 PP solution for drinking water for one hour to clear the meconium from the digestive tract. Also check whether the shed equipment is complete and make repairs to prevent accidents during brooding.
In short, choosing healthy goslings is the first condition for rearing, production, and creating profit. It should be grasped well so that the flock grows well.