boys or girls?

[Smithy]

How do I tell my geese apart? The only difference I can see is the males seem to have longer thinner necks and the females look smarter and more feminine.

When I tried to explain this to my son he didn't seem impressed with the reliability of my method, so I need a more scientific answer.

[cakadu]

What breed are the geese - do you know? Sometimes there are easy ways to tell, and in other breeds, there are not so subtle ways. Generally the males tend to have larger heads, but that isn't always the case. Many of the females have an "egg track" underneath them which is sometimes not too far off the ground.

Other breeds like Pilgrim geese are sex-linked with males being white and females being a tan color.

[grumpy]

I've found that ganders tend to walk more upright whereas the females tend to carry themselves more forward.

[Smithy]

My geese are Embdens.
Which ones hiss the most? The ones I think are males are hissing all the time and more aggresive. That is probably why I thought they were males.
The ones I thought were females actually have fatter necks and heads.
grumpy: I will take another look when I go back out and see if I can see a posture difference.

[cakadu]

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/other/

Smithy - try this website - it might help you.

I'm also looking for my book that gives descriptions of both the male and female geese, but I can't find it at the moment. If I do happen to come across it, I'll post what it says.

Cheers!

[flint]

Smithy How old are your geese? If they are 2yrs or less it can be hard to tell them apart. Once they get older the ganders will tend to be bigger more upright in posture and more aggressive. The ganders will also tend to be more on the "watch" when every you go near the flock.
You can also sex them much like rabbits but holding a goose up side down to show your kids which is which probably isn't what you had in mind!
Hope this helps.