Pilgrim Geese thread

[ChrisGR]

Hi Chris.  Do you still live in Greece?  In the northern hemisphere geese start to breed from late December through the spring.  
Your geese are likely to breed in 2015, you may or may not get success, but Pilgrims are very good breeders, so you may get goslings.  I always take away the first eggs as they´re usually very small, but when she lays a reasonably-sized egg, you could let her keep some and see how she goes.  I left 2 eggs with one of my year-olds, and she´s done ok.  Two other year-olds have produced nothing...infertile, dead-in-shell, etc.  Usually the second year is much better, and the third year they do well.  
But, as I said, Pilgrims are good breeders anyway.  Have fun!  

Thank you for your answer livinbrazil!
Yes I live in Greece, it was a miracle that I found Pilgrim type geese here!
Here are two pictures of them:

 

[andreacroyle]

Thank you for your answer livinbrazil!
Yes I live in Greece, it was a miracle that I found Pilgrim type geese here!
Here are two pictures of them:

great pics!!

 

[livininbrazil]

Thank you for your answer livinbrazil!
Yes I live in Greece, it was a miracle that I found Pilgrim type geese here!
Here are two pictures of them:

Is the person you got them from a breeder of Pilgrims?
Your goose has a lot of white on her, which a serious breeder wouldn´t want for an ideal Pilgrim goose. A good Pilgrim colour-wise only has the white around the face.
But the important thing is that you enjoy your geese. I have Pilgrim-type geese, they´re not exactly the ideal Pilgrim, but they´re close. They just have a single lobe, but the rest is pretty well the same, so I refer to them as Pilgrim on these threadds, as 'auto-sexing common geese´ is a lot to write and to say.

I wouldn´t think it´s that uncommon to find auto-sexing geese in Greece, as these types of geese were originally developed in Europe. Although Pilgrims are an American breed, they originated from the European birds. It could be that you don´t actually have Pilgrims, but maybe just descendants of the original common 'auto-sexing' birds from around there, which could explain the amount of white on the goose. Having said that, English Pilgrim breeders sometimes have a problem with their geese having too much white on them, according to a goose breeder that lives in England.
I was surprised to find them here in Brazil, but when I thought about it, well, there are loads of birds and animals here from Europe that came with the various people that settled here over the years. Anyway, I love mine, they´re just so nice.

 

[ChrisGR]

great pics!!

thanks!

 

[livininbrazil]

He is a breeder but I dont think that he specializes on pilgrim geese.
I believe too that they are not purebred, as the gander is not as white as he should be,however he has blue eyes. nevertheless they are still changing feathers so...
I love mine too as they are and with high propability they are pilgrim type-auto sexing common geese.

thanks!

Well, they´re gorgeous, and hope you stick around to keep up with things here.

 

[livininbrazil]

Here´s my family of Pils with their latest little ones, 2 males, 2 females, 3 weeks old:

 

[ChrisGR]

Very beautiful and sweet family there m8!

how old are your adults?

 

[livininbrazil]

Very beautiful and sweet family there m8!

how old are your adults?

I don´t know how old they are. I bought them a few years ago from a farmer who simply referred to them as Common Geese, and they were already adult. He´d had the flock for some years, and I bought a couple. But on reading up a bit and realising they were probably auto-sexing, a fortnight later I went and got another female from him. She was obviously the gander´s preferred goose that I just happened to get, and there was just so much jubilation when she set foot in our place, such a noise of extatic geese! A bit like those romantic films of lovers running toward each other on the sand....
They´d been free-range on a farm, but after the first breeding season here, they became more trusting, and now they´re just so calm and easy to care for. I have about 4 generations of this family now, and they´re such sweet geese.

 

[ChrisGR]

Happy and funny moments! Geese are very nice living with, so unique and special!

I would like to ask you if letting them breed would make them offensive to me, as I have read in forums! (In contrast to what you said: "but after the first breeding season here, they became more trusting, and now they´re just so calm and easy to care for")

 

[livininbrazil]

Happy and funny moments! Geese are very nice living with, so unique and special!

I would like to ask you if letting them breed would make them offensive to me, as I have read in forums! (In contrast to what you said: "but after the first breeding season here, they became more trusting, and now they´re just so calm and easy to care for")

Geese get a bit protective of their territory and nest and young in the breeding season, but it tends to depend on the breed a bit, and mine haven´t caused any problems ever. Then once the goslings have grown a bit, they all calm down again.
Are yours tame enough to touch? Or do they run away? If they´re tame now, the only thing may be that the gander will 'threaten' you to stay away, but it´s not much of a problem. If he should do that, just stand your ground. There´s a thread on here about training geese, which is very useful if someone has a difficult gander. Just this morning my Pilgrim gander put his head down as I went near, though I think it was toward a duck, and I just went closer to him and he backed off, snaking his head, but that´s all. He´s just doing what comes naturally, being a great parent bird.