trying to decide between American Buff and Pilgram Geese

[Omniskies]

I wish I could crossbreed Pilgrims comfortably. With how difficult it is to find stock that are autosex as goslings, and how frustrating the autosex trait is to breed back in, I'm stuck with just finding more Pilgrims.

With that being said, I have no objections to line breeding as needed. I don't think I'll need it with the flock size I currently have, and I'm banding everyone to make sure I know their lingeage. This year I didn't keep anyone who was related, or even from the same breeder. Next January I'll probably have to make stalls of some sort so the geese that pair up are completely unrelated. Then just keep building from there.

 

[Poakahi808]

I have a flock of Pilgrims and a flock of American Buffs. Both have spoiled me on geese, so it will be difficult for me to bother keeping less docile breeds around anymore.

Pilgrims are my favorite of the two. They're the hardest to locate and good quality are even more difficult to find. A lot of strains can't be sexed at birth as easily anymore - the males are a dull grey and the females are a duller grey instead of the clean yellow and dark grey they should be. Other flocks are complaining about fertility issues, more than likely due to a lack of new blood coming in. I've had a hell of a time acquiring my current flock, having driven across state lines more than once to buy a new gander or goose.

Still, I love having a lot of color in my flock and the Pilgrim offers that. It's like having two breeds of geese in one flock.

American Buffs are beautiful birds with docile personalities, too. They can be used to make great sex linked meat geese if you cross an American Buff gander with a Toulouse goose. The males will come out grey and the females a grey-buff (making it easy to tell them apart from the purebred Buffs in your flock).

American Buffs are easier to locate, but still have dangerously low numbers according to the ALBC. If you're wanting to raise meat geese and pick Buffs, I'd recommend trying an American Buff pair with a single Toulouse female: a trio of geese will provide you with more than enough meat in a single year. Any extra American Buff goslings can be sold to other breeders and extra female mixed breeds can be sold as a more easy going meat production strain to be crossed back to another meat breed (without sex linked offspring, of course).

That probably doesn't help much

. If you do decide on Pilgrims I have a waiting list for my eggs and goslings next year. I'm especially proud of my males: they have their gray saddles well concealed and their eyes are an amazing shade of crystal blue. I'll have to take a picture of one and show you.

Im curious about the sex link goslings of a male buff crossed w toulouse female... Would their offspring produce sex link geese as well??

 

[AGeese]

Embden or Toulouse, and the Giant Dewlap varieties for meat production I would say.