11-Month-Old Goose Broody?

[The Dim Side]

Hey, all! My goose is almost 11 months old, and she recently started laying eggs again. She actually started at around 5 months old, which we weren't at all expecting until she was at least 1 year old. Even then, I had read that it didn't usually start till maybe 2 years in. We didn't even realize she was laying eggs again now until we found a few of them buried in the straw. But we made a designated space by filling up a kiddie pool with straw for her to sit in. She just seems to be sitting on her latest egg indefinitely today, sleeping on it. So I was wondering if she's going broody (she had been leaving the other eggs alone to hang out outside all day with my gander if it's not crazy cold, which it is today). I also don't know if the egg is fertilized.

My 11-month-old gander has also been trying to mate with her, though I'm not sure if he's actually successfully doing anything. We re-filled up their little pool yesterday, and he mounted her, started yelling, slowly slid off her to the side, then stood up very tall, puffed up, and proud as he continued to yell. It was hilarious to watch, but I don't know if he actually accomplished anything? So what are the chances this egg is fertilized?

Is she too young to raise goslings? And it being deep into winter with temps below 0 at night sometimes, is it a good idea for goslings to incubate/hatch at this time of year? Sorry for the million questions, but this just came up now, and I hadn't thought about any of this! Thanks in advance!

Also, just checked, and she's up now over at the water and food, so I don't know if that means she's not broody or if she's just taking a break.



And this is Tooey. I don't know what kind of goose she is. We were told she was a Roman Tufted and would molt to white after a year, but she has brown eyes instead of blue and no tuft. She's smaller than my Roman Tufted male but heavier/denser. He's so light and airy like holding a bubble, lol. And then just for fun, here's a pic of my male, Lemongrab, because he's a goofball and was taking selfies with me.

 

[Percheron chick]

I have had yearlings successfully hatch and raise goslings. Hatch rates were 25-50%.
The first thing to know is are the eggs fertile? The only way to know for sure is to crack an egg and find the bulls eye on the yolk. Don't waste her time sitting on duds eggs. Because she started laying very young, I'd be most inclined to not let her raise babies at this point and for her to put her energy to growing and maturing. Let her raise babies next year.
Nothing says tufted Roman with her. She's a Grey.

 

[The Dim Side]

Thank you so much for the reply! And yeah, I agree that it'd be better for her to wait till she's older. I just wasn't sure if they were considered mature enough at this age to raise young yet or not, but they're still just babies to me, haha.

And good to know about her being a Grey! Greylag goose is the same, right? Looking at pictures, they do look very similar. I also came across this picture on BackYard Chickens a while back:

The markings on the gray ones are the same, even that whitish tan strip on their stomachs, but Tooey's bill is orange. It did start off a very dark brown/gray color when she was little though. Do you know what kind those gray ones are in the photo?

And is it possible that she's a mixed breed at all? Her breeder showed me pictures of the parents, and the male was definitely a Roman Tufted, and the female was white but didn't have a tuft. I asked if it was possible that the eggs got mixed up (the geese hatched and raised them), but the breeder said the different breeds get separated during mating season. So if it wasn't a mix-up, then I assume the mother wasn't a Roman either but white. Otherwise, the eggs must have been mixed up at some point, lol.

 

[telandra2]

The brown ones look just like my new-to-me African. Everything else about her matches the other Africans except the white chest.

 

[Percheron chick]

I'm going to take that back even though that is what she looks like. When you said Greylag, that didn't sound right. Grey/Greylag is a migratory goose. Could she be a cross? Absolutely. Do you have baby pictures? How dissimilar we're the two?

 

[The Dim Side]

The brown ones look just like my new-to-me African. Everything else about her matches the other Africans except the white chest.

She does have the white chest actually! Just hard to see in that pic. Here's another:

 

[The Dim Side]

I'm going to take that back even though that is what she looks like. When you said Greylag, that didn't sound right. Grey/Greylag is a migratory goose. Could she be a cross? Absolutely. Do you have baby pictures? How dissimilar we're the two?

We actually got them from different breeders, and she was about 4 weeks old when we got her (top photo). And he was about 3 weeks old when we got him (bottom photo). Her bill and feet got much oranger over time, too, though there are still speckles of dark on her bill. Edit: In the photo with her, the dark spot on her chest around the white is just because she was a little wet, lol.