Need help to sex my pomeranian geese

[TheHomesteadTrail]

Hello! First time goose wrangler here, and I have 9 Pomeranian geese that are now 5 months old. Here in indiana there seems to be a goose shortage, so I’d like to try breeding these guys in the spring, but I’m having a heck of a time sorting out which are males/females to start planning out my culls and pairings. Any experienced goose folks able to help me out?

The only ones I’m fairly confident are females are #1 and #9, and I’m slightly fearful I ended up with 7 ganders because the rest look fairly similar to my unexperienced eyeballs (Also side note, I’m thinking #2 will be a pet-only cull just because its coloration is very salt-and-pepper.) I don’t really want to pay for feather sexing and I’d rather not vent sex-
What do you guys think, just from the picture?

 

[DiYMama540]

Yikes...wish I could help you out with sexing, but it's really difficult with geese. A lot of subtle clues can be found in their behavior though.

As far as breeding, if you're going to do it, you might as well do it right. I would keep the birds that are closest to the standard of perfection. Looking at them, that would be 1, 4, 7, and 8. I will link you the conservation livestock page that talks about preserving the pom breed.

Also... @Gray Farms is really good at sexing

 

[DiYMama540]

https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/pomeranian

This is the page that goes over what to look for as far as breeders Best of luck!

 

[Gray Farms]

Vent sexing is the way to go. It's really easy and 100% accurate.

 

[TheHomesteadTrail]

Vent sexing is the way to go. It's really easy and 100% accurate.

It seemed from other threads that you could guess the sex from the outward characteristics but it’s sounding like that’s not actually the case. I will look into vent sexing, thanks everyone!

 

[DiYMama540]

Some breeds are much more distinguishable than others, particularly ones with knobs, and obviously the ones with color sexing characteristics. Poms are always difficult...you could just wait until late winter, early spring and see who's hooking up with who.

 

[Gray Farms]

It seemed from other threads that you could guess the sex from the outward characteristics but it’s sounding like that’s not actually the case. I will look into vent sexing, thanks everyone!

When they are fully mature you can. Around8 to 10 months.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Just guessing here, but I'd say 1, 2, 3, and 9 are hens. 4 and 8 are ganders. 5, 6, and 7, I'm unsure of.