The most wonderful Insta pics of the Toulouse goose is captured on the Instagram channel @cat_in_france.
A gaggle is hilarious to watch and listen too. After researching this goose breed I'm secretly looking at geese I can adopt from local rescues. There are two types and the "dewlap" Toulouse is the largest breed of goose, adults sometimes weighing in at close to 30 pounds. The "production" Toulouse goose is found on most homesteads.
The Livestock Conservancy shares that this breed was selected as a general-purpose farm bird.
"The Production Toulouse are also large (18-20 pounds) moderate egg-laying (25-40 eggs per year) geese suitable for the home or small farm flock. Most gray geese on farms and homesteads are Production Toulouse or crosses."
Reasons to love them
After watching this video, what's not to love!
Toulouse are good foragers and can withstand cold winters and hot summers. The Toulouse goose is a solid egg layer, and their easy-going behavior makes them great pets. The Toulouse goose is also an exhibition bird.
History
The Livestock Conservancy shares that the name Toulouse is used for several types of gray geese descended from the European Greylag.
"People have selected Toulouse as general-purpose farm birds, as producers of fois gras, and as show-birds. Oscar Grow, in his 1963 article "The Toulouse Goose", discusses how trying to include both aesthetic and practical traits under the name of one breed is problematic. For this reason, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy recognizes one breed, "Toulouse," and two types: Production, and Dewlap."
People have bred the production type, as a utility bird found on small farms. The dewlap Toulouse is a massively boned bird, bred for the ability to gain weight rapidly and produce fois gras.
Qualities
According to experts at Backyard Poultry the appearance of the dewlap Toulouse is remarkable.
"Both varieties of the Toulouse are gray, with loose feathering and upward-pointing square tails. They have orange beaks and feet. Goslings are gray with black feet and beaks. The production variety is fairly unremarkable but elegant, with a stout neck and sizable wings."
The production Toulouse can be more aggressive, but they are still known to be relatively quiet geese with pleasant attitudes.
Egg production
The Toulouse is a moderate egg-layer, laying 20-35 eggs yearly.
Toulouse geese also come to mind when people consider foie gras, which many people are no longer ordering, thankfully.
If I had to choose domestic geese for the flocks, I'd consider Toulouse goslings since they're so easy to handle. These wonderful creatures are great additions to both the homestead and the farmyard. They seem a lot friendlier than roosters, too!
Since they're a heavy goose breed, I'd only want a few, as farm animals are so much work to begin with. And, these watchdogs would be great with the predators we have around the coop. There are many poultry breeds that would get along with geese but I'm confident even my large rooster wouldn't mess around with this geese breed.
Now backyard geese are on my radar and breeding season is just around the corner. Ducks and geese seem to be what's missing in my backyard flock and hobby farm. I should start an informational thread with the local hatchery!
Are you interested in raising geese? If you have any questions or comments, please let us know as we'd love to hear from you!
