Black geese

[Skyle]

Hi everyone!
I was wondering, why there are no black domestic geese breeds? (black as a cayuga duck, for example). Is maybe because breeders were not interested in creating a black one? Or maybe there's a genetic reason? I didn't find nothing so far.
I was wondering if it's possible to create one, maybe with a long breeding project, using a gray breed and breeding only the darker geese and ganders. It can be done?
Thanks to everyone

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@Pyxis @ColtHandorf

 

[Goosebaby]

That would be interesting, there are geese with black feathers on at least part of their bodies but not within the Anser family, and domestic geese are all derived from Anser. Maybe the black never evolved within Anser and the mutation occurred in Branta after it split from Anser, or it just disappeared, or maybe it’s still lurking in their recessively.
Gray is a different gene than black though in most animals so breeding for darker and darker greys I don’t think would result in black eventually anyways, it would take some genetic work to isolate what causes black in waterfowl like Canada geese “Branta” or in ducks “Anas” to see if they’re the same gene, closely related genes, and if it is still lurking within the Anser gene code. If not it would take a random mutation for black to happen or some gene editing.

 

[Goosebaby]

A black goose would be beautiful, so would a solid chocolate goose actually.

 

[Goosebaby]

Looking up the Anser family members, Ross’s and Snow geese do have black pinions, though without looking at them in person I can’t say if they’re true black or if they’re dark grey and look black against the contrasting white, but it could mean there’s a chance that other members of Anser have black in them genetically.

 

[Skyle]

A black goose would be beautiful, so would a solid chocolate goose actually.

Yeah, I think that would be awesome
Tall as an Embden and black as night, I think that would be my dream goose

Looking up the Anser family members, Ross’s and Snow geese do have black pinions, though without looking at them in person I can’t say if they’re true black or if they’re dark grey and look black against the contrasting white, but it could mean there’s a chance that other members of Anser have black in them genetically.

Thank you for replying. So one option is to inbreed geese and search for some that develop randomly some black feathers (which could be a homozygous gene), then breed these ones? Or either a laboratory study comparing the DNAs of more types of waterfowl related to domestic geese to see if there's still a gene hiding somewhere?

 

[Goosebaby]

An interesting thing to try would be to cross a white goose, Chinese or Roman with typical grey geese and then breed the offspring with the darkest feathers.

My classic Roman had a gosling with one of my Toulouse and their baby “Tuesday” was noticably darker as a gosling and as an adult than the others, her feathers are more of a charcoal tone than grey with a white crescent on the chest. Someone I know on instagram has a white goose, possibly a Chinese cross with a grey goose and it’s a dark feathered female with a white crescent on the chest too. Maybe that mix brings up some old darker toned genes?

 

[Skyle]

An interesting thing to try would be to cross a white goose, Chinese or Roman with typical grey geese and then breed the offspring with the darkest feathers.

My classic Roman had a gosling with one of my Toulouse and their baby “Tuesday” was noticably darker as a gosling and as an adult than the others, her feathers are more of a charcoal tone than grey with a white crescent on the chest. Someone I know on instagram has a white goose, possibly a Chinese cross with a grey goose and it’s a dark feathered female with a white crescent on the chest too. Maybe that mix brings up some old darker toned genes?

Maybe. Would be interesting to try, maybe that's the key to start.

 

[AGeese]

I support this project.

 

[telandra2]

Listed as Snow Goose x domesticated White Chinese.

https://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/NDG/Geese/Snow/BRKSnowG.html