Pilgrim Geese thread

[Tivona]

There didn't seem to be a thread for Pilgrims when I searched so I am starting one. I wanted to post pictures of my babies anyway and this seemed like the easiest way.


Ready to hatch


Mother Pilgrim goose named Nimbo with first baby gosling to peek out. Others still hatching




Can't remember how old but under a week.


One month old exactly

One month old Exactly

Male pilgrim gander named Cirrus





I love this breed. Super sweet and color sexed. What do you think of Pilgrims? Do you have any?

 

[RURU]

Well I want to see if I can get it first time. Don't want to loose any babies

.

Because of foxes and raccoons when we had ducks as well we lost 48 ducks to the predators and one young adult goose and two newly hatched goslings. All of the goslings were inside of the pen when the raccoon got them! Plus the raccoons pulled ducks right through the pens. Even welded wire that was 1" x 2"!!!!! So that is why we put hardware cloth all around the whole pen 3 foot high. So fingers could not get through there. Even put it on the doors.....

 

[Rafter H Farms]

What a gorgeous pic. what is sainfoin? a type of grass?

Sainfoin (French - Healthy Hay) Lat. ( Onobrichus vicifolia ) also known as Esparcette in some parts of northern Europe is a deep rooted , non- bloating legume that has several qualities that make it good replacement for alfalfa in neutral to highly alkaline soils. It does not cause bloat like alfalfa and many other legumes. It is drought tolerant but with ample water can rival or beat alfalfa yields with only slightly less nutritious value. Sainfoin can be overseeded and will also re-seed itself if allowed to mature seed before cutting every 2 years. Alfalfa is auto-toxic making it unsustainable in my opinion. Under ideal conditions sainfoin can and has produced for 20 years and more. Alfalfa is a short term ley at best. Furthermore , Sainfoin also contains condensed tanins in sufficient amounts to be a natural and safe anthelmintic without being harmful to livestock. Plus , it has a beautiful pink bloom akin to to a lupine. I realize this is probably more than you ever wanted to know about sainfoin but I am a strong proponent of sustainable agriculture and Sainfoin fits the bill. And NO , I am not selling seed . I just like to spread the word so to speak.

 

[Rafter H Farms]

Ok, so my 4 extra ganders' fates are sealed. 1 will be processed because he has angel wing and we don't know if it's hereditary or if he just got too much protein when he was young. The other 3 are going to a swap on Valenheart Day to hopefully get new homes as pets. That will leave me with 2 pairs. They will be 1 year old this spring so we'll see if we get any fertile eggs from them. Not holding my breath on that.

Sounds like you have a good plan with your extra ganders and while I can't say about hereditary angel wing I do believe it can be caused by hi protein intake.One of our pilgrim geese , Frega , turned up with angel wing in her left wing when she was young. That is when my wife found this fantastic video on how to cure the problem. I thought maybe you and others might be interested in case you had a young bird you wanted to save in the future. Good luck at the swap meet. I wish we had those in Montana. I miss them.
Here are the links :
High Speed connections
http://www.phillipsmediaservic...m/anglewinghispd.wmv
Dial-up connections
http://www.phillipsmediaservices.com/anglewing56k.wmv

 

[eyeofthechicken]

My Pilgrims arrived this morning looks like I have two boys and two girls I'm so excited!! they were happy

to get water so they are wet in the pic!!

 

[Tivona]

I crossed him with a 'white' goose, but she´s actually spot gene, but it´s blind, so she just looks white. I´m planning to breed one of the young males (photo) back to his pied aunties to see what happens, and I´ll breed this female back to one of the results of that the year after. I have 11 that resulted from this mating, and the same pair are about to start breeding again soon.
The boys have dark blue eyes, the girls brown. That´s the only 'auto-sexing' bit about them, though. and the females have very similar light grey colouring like the pilgrim females, including white developing around the eyes. None of the males has this. Most of the 11 have pied colouring, that is, white flights and white chest, (some of them have white, others have off-white like the dilute gene). I´m very intrigued at what will come of these in the next few generations. I´ve just had a look at the belted geese. they´re very similar, yes. Some of my young females have white in their necks, too, but no white males were produced. Young gander. Blue eyes, white belt, white flights.

Very interesting. I know nothing about the Normandy Geese. I did a search and all I found was feathersite.com showing a female that looked much like a Shetland. They described the males as being like the Pilgrim ganders in coloring. Am I searching the right breed?

I know I have read some genes that are sex-linked can't be mixed with any others and still work as an auto-sexing. I would think though that if you can get the offspring with the auto-sexing genes in them and cross them with others that you've bred and have the auto-sexing genes you might be able to have some with the auto-sexing with the belt. They wouldn't be pure Pilgrim but I am sure many would love them. You'll have to be very choosy as to what you keep to breed though. The belted Mini's are auto-sexing as I understand so at least the coloring is possible. My guess is Holderread bred pure Pilgrim blood into his mini's. He is the one who seemed to really bring the Pilgrims back here in the USA, then he sold his Pilgrim stock. At least some went to Metzer farms and now they sell them. Point is Holderreads had great Pilgrim stock to bred into his mini's to get that auto-sexing. Something else added the belt, so the belting gene and the Pilgrims coloring genes are not at odds, they work with each other. Then again I really am only going by gut feeling and a lot of reading on the auto-sexing. I have no real expertise. Please feel free to ignore me and my crazy ramblings of thought.

 

[livininbrazil]

Very interesting. I know nothing about the Normandy Geese. I did a search and all I found was feathersite.com showing a female that looked much like a Shetland. They described the males as being like the Pilgrim ganders in coloring. Am I searching the right breed?

I know I have read some genes that are sex-linked can't be mixed with any others and still work as an auto-sexing. I would think though that if you can get the offspring with the auto-sexing genes in them and cross them with others that you've bred and have the auto-sexing genes you might be able to have some with the auto-sexing with the belt. They wouldn't be pure Pilgrim but I am sure many would love them. You'll have to be very choosy as to what you keep to breed though. The belted Mini's are auto-sexing as I understand so at least the coloring is possible. My guess is Holderread bred pure Pilgrim blood into his mini's. He is the one who seemed to really bring the Pilgrims back here in the USA, then he sold his Pilgrim stock. At least some went to Metzer farms and now they sell them. Point is Holderreads had great Pilgrim stock to bred into his mini's to get that auto-sexing. Something else added the belt, so the belting gene and the Pilgrims coloring genes are not at odds, they work with each other. Then again I really am only going by gut feeling and a lot of reading on the auto-sexing. I have no real expertise. Please feel free to ignore me and my crazy ramblings of thought.

Hi Tivona. Goodness, if we lived near each other, the conversatons would go on and on about possibiblities.

Well, the two geese I have that are like Normandies I bought from someone who said that her males are always white and the females always grey and white. That was all she knew about it. So, I figured they must be auto-sexing and brought two females home with me.

Now, my pilgrim-type geese (I say "type" because the geese only have a single lobe, more like the cotton-patch, and the ganders have very light grey feathering on them, and fly readily, but cotton-patch must have pink bills, while mine have orange-and-pink), are quite a bit smaller than a lot of others, of course, but these 'Normandies' are really small, could even be more like Shetlands, they´re the same size as my muscovy drake. Actually, he could be even bigger.

Of course, as you know, the auto-sexing geese probably have been around for a thousand years, more or less, mainly have come from the UK and france, (which may have arrived there from Scandinavia) and then developed in local areas into different breeds, like West of England, Shetland, Normandy, etc. There is such a lot of European influence here in Brazil, that there´s every possibility that these are descendants of Normandies or Shetlands. Also years back, there were so many coffee fields here and cotton fields here, that the geese may well be cotton-patch or pilgrim-types, but developed in their own way, still keeping the auto-sexing. I do know that some people here have closed flocks, being that way for many years. The folks here simply refer to these auto-sexing geese as 'common geese', just like in Europe such a long time back.... MY crazy ramblings of thought!

I´m looking forward to experimenting with them, as I think you may be right, in that some of them, having the spectacles, etc, could well have the auto-sexing genes. I don´t see any signs in the males, though, I think they´ll just produce pieds, so I´m planning to let the 'belted' females breed back again with the young pilgrim-type ganders and see what happens.
I read the minis were also developed by using Romans. Ramble, ramble.....

 

[livininbrazil]

Is there a way to post to people in florida on this site for luck in finding a vet?

why don´t you start a new thread,,,where´s a vet in florida?

 

[livininbrazil]

. . . . Here's some better pics of the Pilgrims. What do yall think? How's the gander look? He's got quite a lot of grey. Do y'all think they're pure pilgrims?

Do you have any reason to doubt they´re pils? They look ok to me..all as Tivona said.
But as I mentioned earlier, next season you´ll know...the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Here´s a pic of my gang.....
You can see they grey in the ganders´wings. The older geese have white faces, you can only see one here, and the younger ones are not really showing the white at this point. (ignore the ones to the far left, they´re crosses.)

 

[AngelxAssassin]

My Pilgrim goose Napoleon 3 months