My goodness, they look all grown up: Seems like you only got them yesterday.
They have more than doubled in size in the last month. It is amazing to me how fast geese grow.
Wish I could be of some help, but I am still trying to sort things out myself...lol. I just ordered by own APA Standard Book so maybe that will help me a bit. I am in relatively the same position you are though concerning sorting out the breeders.
Just having a support system is a big help. I just found out that one of my neighbors have a female that she picked up at an auction for next to nothing, and she has beautiful markings, but she is older and my friend does not have a male. She is new to the breed too, and isn't even sure she is going to keep the goose. I am hoping if she sells her, she will be mine. I sure wish the APA had a good publication on breeding geese. Descriptions and pictures aren't much help. I'm glad we have our group here.
As to the orange bills and legs: I have noticed with these birds, as they get older their bills do get pinker, so have not given up on the youngest with orange bills yet. Also, with their legs and feet...so long as the foot itself is pink as they grow you have a chance for that bird to have the pink coloration on the legs and feet.
This is great to know. All of mine have pink feet and legs. I will give them more time.
Something else I have noticed is that their markings get better and more distinct with age. The oldest of the goslings I hatched this year are now 5 months and finally have what I consider to be their adult feathers. The markings on the youngest of this batch finally became completely apparent in the last couple of weeks: She is about three weeks younger than the others. Only one of the four birds I hatched in January has a nice light pink bill, with just a hint of orange at the base. The rest have orange that bleeds to reddish/hot pink. Their markings are all over the place and I really hope their are some pictures in the SOP, or I'll be left going
So, given this, I would say that yours are still too young to make any final judgments: I would give them a few more weeks.
Too bad we are so far apart, we need to get our pink birds together, unless they are both girls, or guys.
Their aren't any waterfowl shows around here other than county and the state fair, so I'm not worried about showing them right now. However, like you, I do want to breed toward the SOP. I guess our best route may be to make a Pomeranian thread and then all four of us that have them can talk on one thread.
Seriously though, with such a rare breed, it is going to be difficult to find much help.
Of all those that raise Pomeranians on here, I would say the Oregon has the most knowledge when it comes to quality issues. It just isn't fair for the rest of us to lean on Oregon all the time to evaluate our birds.
The International Waterfowl Breeders Association does have photos of a Buff Saddleback goose and gander on their page. If this is what they are saying show birds should look like, at least we'd have something to look at and a starting point.
I think we should try to show, just to get feedback from the judges. Usually they know quite a bit about breeding. In the meantime, we can start our huge group and hope we don't crash BYC. I think that Oregon has the best birds I have seen, so I hope she continues to help us get to her level. If we get some good birds eventually, maybe we can have a group of 6 or 7 next year. I wish geese hadn't gotten such a bad rap as a fatty bird, and being aggressive, and needing a pond, so people stopped raising them. It grieves me to think how many varieties have been lost, and I think geese are the best poultry I have ever raised as a pet or as meat. I may not be able to save the Poms, but I will talk about the joys of geese to anyone who will listen.
Cindy
