Content
The Kuban breed of geese was bred in the middle of the twentieth century at the Kuban Agricultural Institute. The institute made two attempts to develop a new goose breeds... The first time they crossed the Gorky breed with the Chinese one. The result was a wild goose-colored bird.
Later, the Kuban Agricultural Institute made a second attempt to breed new geese, crossing three domestic breeds: Gorkovsky, Emdemsky and Vishtines. This version of the Kuban geese turned out to be white.
Thus, today the Kuban geese exist in two versions: gray and white. The white version turned out to be inferior in its productive qualities, and the first gray population of the Kuban geese became widespread.
This color may be the result of a mutation of the gray representative of the breed. Or piebald geese - offspring from the crossing of two Kuban populations. Since populations are actually not related offspring, due to the effect of heterosis, it can have better productive characteristics than a “pure” line.
But today, when the words "Kuban breed" are usually meant, it is the gray geese that are 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 heads.
Description
The 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 the size on the meat characteristics of the Kuban breed of geese, attention is usually not focused, giving preference to their egg productivity.
But the egg production of the Kuban geese is very high for this type of poultry: up to 80-90 pieces per year. The eggs have a very good taste and high weight: 140-150 g. The shell is white.
Appearance
The 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 the gray Kuban geese, a bump on the nose, inherited from the Chinese breed, and a brown stripe on the neck are especially emphasized as a distinctive feature. For some reason, special attention is paid to the strip, although this is the wild color of the dry goose and many other breeds, whose ancestor was the dry goose, also have this strip.
But the lump on the nose, as seen in the photo of the Kuban goose, is different. It is less pronounced and more regular in shape than that of the Chinese. 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, the wallets of the Kubans are weakly expressed, and for many they are completely absent. The beak is thin. The cone and beak of the Kubansky are black.
The neck is long, thin, very flexible. The body is ovoid, slightly raised in front. The wings are long, tightly attached to the body. The tail is short and raised. The chest is rounded, with well-developed pectoral muscles. The legs are of medium length, the metatarsus are red-orange.
Starting from a year, the Kubans are actively gaining fat, storing it in the lower body. In adults, a "bag" of subcutaneous fat is formed between the paws, although the description of the breed indicates that the Kuban geese lacks a fat fold. It is the folds, which are present in other geese, that the Kuban ones really do not have. The photo of adult geese of the Kuban breed shows that the description is true, but the birds have a supply of fat.
As the name itself implies, dark feathers predominate in the color of the gray Kuban breed of geese.But on the rump in the lower part of the body, the plumage is white. Also, the color of the gray Kubans is sometimes called brown because of the very strip of brown on the back of the neck, passing 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 in order to get an unpretentious bird, well adapted to Russian conditions. The launch targets were achieved. According to the description, the advantages of the Kuban geese 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 moment is compensated for by the good survival rate of young animals, as a result of which, in mass quantities, the Kubans are not inferior to the breeds of the meat direction.
As you can see in the photo, the geese of the Kuban breed perfectly tolerate winters, calmly walking right in the snow.
The Kubans have a rather docile nature and are easily tamed.
The disadvantages of this breed are rather arbitrary: a small live weight and a lack of maternal instinct in geese. Whether the second point is a disadvantage depends on the purpose of breeding geese. For some owners of the Kuban geese, judging by the reviews, unwillingness to incubate eggs is a virtue. Refusal of incubation allows you to get more eggs from one goose, and hatchability of goslings in an incubator is 90%.
If the geese were planned for meat, then the small body weight is really a disadvantage. In this case, a light Kuban goose is crossed with a heavy gander, obtaining a large number of meat goslings.
Early maturity
The ideal age for slaughtering the Kuban geese is 3 months. By this time, the young have time to gain an average of 3.5 kg of live weight. Until puberty, geese will have to be raised for almost a year. Ganders ripen at 240-310 days of life. Goose before.
After 4 years of life, the goose sharply reduces egg production, so keeping the geese for more than 4 years is impractical.
Keeping goslings
Since usually the breeding of goslings of this breed takes place in an incubator, the goose cannot lead them. Like any other incubator chicks, goslings are placed in a brooder, where the temperature is initially set to 30 ° C. The goslings drink a lot, but they don't need a pool. Moreover, if you put a bowl of water for them, they can drown in it. Therefore, 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, the 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.
On free grazing, geese find forage grasses for themselves. If there is no grazing, then the birds are fed:
- various cereals;
- mint;
- legumes;
- swan;
- nettles.
It is better to scald the nettles before the dacha so that the birds do not burn their tongues.
Both adult birds and young birds need to walk. On warm days, young animals can be released earlier than they can be allowed to swim.
Adult geese have many diseases that they tolerate asymptomatically. These same diseases are very dangerous for goslings.
You can not deprive young and adult birds and winter walks. The cold of this breed is not so terrible that geese can begin to lay eggs in February directly on the snow. The video shows domestic geese of the Kuban breed on a winter-spring walk.
Testimonials
Conclusion
With the declared abundance of the breed in our time, the description and photos of the Kuban geese often do not correspond to each other. It's almost impossible to find a photograph of a purebred bird. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the owners of the Kuban breed often cross it with the heavier meat representatives of the goose tribe. In any case, fans of the Kubansky need to be careful when choosing a seller of the desired product.
