Pilgrim geese - male or female???

[Camotracey]

Time flies! Comming up to 8 weeks old now, and as expected the largest gosling has remained the odd one out, so we are assuming we have 1 Gander (attitude would also suggest it, as he is the leader and happy to stand up for the others). Here is an image showing him (?), with the most mature of the others (females?)





And next to the youngest (still a bit of feathering to go)



Goslings and ducklings now happily sharing space (well in this case waiting for me to take a fence panel down), but they are getting along well.



Moscovy ducklings take over the feed bowl, as always Midnight (mum) steps back to let them eat first, she is a good mum.



Soon the chickens take over, and storm (our Labrador) watches on.



Lastly, just when we thought the baby stage was over....



Unfortunately although one of our other girls was successful at hatching these 3, she is a good sitter, but a lousy mum (she has no interest in them once they hatch), so these 3 were sharing a bit of grass time, before returning to the brooder. There not to sure about this outside world (it's there first time in the pen, and it doesn't help that a scary camera is looking at them )

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Camotracey those babies have grown so much all of them and so gorgeous too. I just love the 3 lil ones always fun to have tiny's they just don't stay tiny long

Thanks so much for updating with great pics..

 

[Camotracey]

Hi all,

Here is a video taken today.

As you can see, they are all now close to fully feathered. They are all now independent, but still come over for a bit of a pat.



[VIDEO]

Now they are fully feathered, I am assuming they are Pilgrims, and the white one is a gander, and the others are female, can someone confirm that for me?

Cheers,

Cameron

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Camotracey I'm no expert on Pilgrims but it sure looks like you have pilgrims and how nice to just get 1 gander among all those ladies. Gorgeous too.

 

[servpolice]

so I bought 3 pilgrim thinking I bought a male and 2 female but now that they are feathered out they all look like males. What do you all think? [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR]

The gosling in front is a white Chinese not pilgrim. You probably know by now

 

[Camotracey]

Hi all,

Just a quick update and 2 questions.

Firstly things are going well, and they are doing a great job at keeping the grass down , they really are nice birds, always greating us, and still wanting to follow us around.

As one has remained white and the others are grey and white, we were thinking we must have 1 gander and 5 Geese, but two of the grey and white ones are more white than the other 5, and we noticed that those ones have blue eyes like the white one and the other 3 have brown eyes.

Does this mean I actually have 3 ganders and 3 geese, and if so will this cause issues in the future (fighting etc).

Cheers,

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hi all,

Just a quick update and 2 questions.

Firstly things are going well, and they are doing a great job at keeping the grass down

, they really are nice birds, always greating us, and still wanting to follow us around.

As one has remained white and the others are grey and white, we were thinking we must have 1 gander and 5 Geese, but two of the grey and white ones are more white than the other 5, and we noticed that those ones have blue eyes like the white one and the other 3 have brown eyes.

Does this mean I actually have 3 ganders and 3 geese, and if so will this cause issues in the future (fighting etc).

Cheers,

Hi @Camotracey can you post some up to date pics.maybe someone who has Pilgrims will see your post and respond.

Plus I'd love to see them.

 

[Tivona]

Hi all,

Here is a video taken today.

As you can see, they are all now close to fully feathered. They are all now independent, but still come over for a bit of a pat.

Now they are fully feathered, I am assuming they are Pilgrims, and the white one is a gander, and the others are female, can someone confirm that for me?

Cheers,

Cameron

Very pretty. Personally I love the belted look but its not in the breed standards for Pilgrims. There is a belted gene that makes that white breast like that and doesn't affect the sex link color.

The white male? looks like a Pilgrim or Shetland gander. Is he (I'm assuming its a boy) pure white? If he is then Shetland gander is more of a possibility.

The 5 colored ones look they are mostly Pilgrims but got a belted gene to add that white breast. Shetland females are supposed to be saddleback color patterned with the wings colored and some color on the face but mostly white. It really varies from what I have read though, so I think Shetlands might be a possibility. They also have the white chest belt and are also sex linked colored as the Pilgrims. Perhaps someone familiar with Shetland geese can give an opinion. Whatever they are they are really really pretty.

 

[Camotracey]

Hi @Camotracey can you post some up to date pics.maybe someone who has Pilgrims will see your post and respond.

Plus I'd love to see them.

Sure.

I took a few short video's, but in hindsight, they are probably not good enough quality to help with identifying things, but I figure why not share them.

From the beginning I have always talked to them, saying "Goose Goose Goose", I'm sure anyone seeing me do this would think I am a little strange, but they talk back, so it can't be that strange can it

. Sometimes they get right into it, but in this case they were a bit put off by the phone I think.

In this next one, one of them decides to follow me, and the rest eventually join in. They are more independent now, they used to always follow me around all the time, but now it depends on how into grazing they are.

Here are a few photos (hopefully a bit clearer). The white one has blue eyes, as do two of the other ones with the more white. The other three have brown eyes.

There are two with similar colouring like this one, and they both have blue eyes





This is the white one, and he also has blue eyes (the photo does not show the blue as much, but they are perhaps a dark turquoise blue)




This is one of the ones with brown eyes




Here is a picture from the front. The white one and the two with the white on the neck are the three with the blue eyes




It would be interesting to find out if they are as they were described (Pilgrims), but the reality is they are really nice geese no mater what breed they are. The main reason for asking is to find out if they will live happily together in the future, and to perhaps help others in the future identify pilgrims (as I have photo's listed going back to early on). So what I really want to know is if it is possible to tell based on the pictures what sex they all are, and if so are they a good mix, or am I likely to have fighting in the future.

Thanks,

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hi @Camotracey My gosh have they grown up and so beautiful. I wish i knew Pilgrims better but from all I've read your ganders will have blue eyes and the females brown but if they are pure Pilgrims I really don't know so lets see if @Tivona can weigh in I have seen her help others with Pilgrims..

How Old are they now?