cotton patch geese

[hollyk]

Does anyone have cotton patch geese? I have been researching these as additions to our farm. We are focusing on heritage breeds. These geese were used to weed the cotton fields in the South- hence the name. I would like to know anyones experiences with these birds

 

[livininbrazil]

Well, I´ll certainly be reading the posts, they´re very interesting. Just that as I was reading more, I realised that my geese here were very similar to the cotton patches I was reading about, and didn´t want to be sitting on something if it was important. I came across a number of articles about CPG on the internet and they looked much the same, same colour beak and feet, (tinge of pink) so I decided to make the post. I did research about the various landrace breeds, and learned about the european birds having the sex-linked gene. I´m convinced that they are a strain of CPG, as it makes sense that they would have arrived here due to the amount of cotton that was grown, and probably were left to develop their own local characteristics, Maybe next time they breed I´ll have some grey-billed female goslings, and if they all turn out to be white males, grey females, at least I ´ll know they´re true sex-linked breed of some sort. I´ll have to give them a name of their own! The locals call them Common, but actually they were quite difficult to find! The true common geese here are all grey, male and female, and tend to be unfriendly. There is also a mix, they look very much like landrace, but males and females come in both white and pied, mainly pied, however they all have the blue eyes. I have 3 of these. Very pretty, also not aggressive. The poss sex-links I have are the same, they´re great. And they´re so sweet towards the muscovy ducklings. They let the ducklings share the corn, no probs, but the parent birds are chased away. Don´t geese love baby things!! So family oriented. I´m also enjoying reading the posts about two chicken breeds that I have here, Brahmas and Delawares, they´re also delightful. Talk to you again,....bye

 

[pasofinofarm]

Beautiful geese.

Thank you. We have 9 pairs and hatched 64 goslings last year. These geese are critically endangered and we'd love to see them find homes where they can be preserved and numbers will be increased. We use them to weed our corn patch and to keep weeds down in our cow pastures. They are VERY gentle. We've never had anything more than some hissing even when checking their nests.

 

[livininbrazil]

Thank you. We have 9 pairs and hatched 64 goslings last year. These geese are critically endangered and we'd love to see them find homes where they can be preserved and numbers will be increased. We use them to weed our corn patch and to keep weeds down in our cow pastures. They are VERY gentle. We've never had anything more than some hissing even when checking their nests.

How lovely. Mine are auto-sexing, but I´m told they´re not cotton-patch as they don´t have the pink bills, and I can see they´re not quite pilgrim either, but their natures are so unbelievably mild compared to what I read on these threads about some other breeds, and they´re just so pretty too with the diluted grey of the geese and that beautiful pale grey hidden in the white of the ganders. I just stumbled across mine, and I´m so glad I did. They´re super geese, and very good foragers, too.

 

[livininbrazil]

Is there a Cotton Patch Goose thread on BYC? We just aquired our first trio and would like to follow along with others that have them Thanks!

Hi Kiwi. Welcome. well, this is about it for Cottonpatches. Not a very active thread, but we´d all love to see your cottonpatch babies. Some of us on these threads have pilgrims and shetlands and West of England, which as you probably know are also auto-sexing, and I have some here which are auto-sexing, not quite cottonpatch, not quite pilgrim...and I picked up a couple of geese which I believe to be auto-sexing, but they´re saddlebacks, so this year I´ll breed them with my quto-sexing ganders to see what results. Why not join us on the Goslings 2014 thread. we´re all potty about gozzies, all the breeds. Got pics of your gozzies?

 

[AuroraSprings]

There's a Facebook group that's active, PM me for an invite. We'd love to have more members

 

[jynxster]

I have a male and female cotton patch. Male 2 yrs old female just over a year. She has been a prolific layer this spring. I currently have 16 in the incubator. Today was the first time Ive heard a peep. Ive decided to stop turning them and to keep warm awter misting any advice. Never hated in an incubator before but her first clutch all did not hatch. We had really weird weather I think that's what did it. over 90's in the day and down to low 40's at night. I was trying to let her sit on them but alas ended up buying an incubator and started that route. But again never hatched them before. Any advise??

 

[pasofinofarm]

Just getting back to this. The geese can be loud when honking but they don't honk at night no. Come on out anytime and meet the geese. We had 78 goslings this spring that made it to new homes ... Trying to do our part to keep the breed going.

 

[PlumTuckered]

My Husband's Grandparents had them. My Husband said that the geese would clear the patch of grass in one day. I'm afraid he said he can't remember any details about them. I'm interested in this subject as well.

Michelle

 

[jjdward]

I would also like to have a few myself. From what I have read they are rare and very hard to come by. I have found some at Green Fire farms in FL. They were $200 a pair.