Pilgrim Geese thread

[livininbrazil]

Why is Settler Geese more accurate then Pilgrims??? Is it something to do with when Captain Cook came to Australia he brought with him these Geese, or don't Pilgrims go back as far as the 1600's???
hahah, I have got you inspire now have I. Well we can share each others ideas. Bamboo is a great idea but I don't think we have any lying around and I don't really want to have to buy anything.
I have already made their little sleeping hut and should be able to extend it as they grow. Now I just need to make their run. We work using the metric system over here so what is 10ft sq to metric?
In Australia, especially down my way, the biggest threat in terms of predators we have would be foxes, Goannas and large eagles. Would any of these attack an adult Goose? I know Goannas won't, they'll just take the eggs, but what about eagles and foxes? *touch wood* I haven't seen a fox around our way for about 3 years now (to many dogs about) but there is still the chance.

You´re not far off. Pilgrims only go back to the 1930s. White ganders with grey geese go back about a thousand years, and certainly by the time Cook went to Australia, there were these geese in the little remote farms dotted around England and france, etc. West-of-England, Normandy, shetland are names recently given to the already existing auto-sexing birds in those regions.
I expect someone has imported Pilgrim geese to Australia, but most likely the auto-sexing geese were already there. That´s one of the reasons why they´re being called settler geese, because they´re not from Pilgrims, most of them will have come from the auto-sexing geese brought over from Europe a long way back.

Happily, we have bamboo growing here, so it´s easy and free! Oh, that makes it easy, then. Metric here, too. 3m sq. I have more difficulty converting the temperature, but I try to use imperial as most readers on here are american.

Foxes will take an adult goose no problem, you´ll have to make it very secure, as they´ll dig, too, so have a little house at night for them that a fox can´t possibly get into. Goanas, I have no idea, but here we have big lizard, teiú, or tegu, which will take eggs and chicks, goslings, etc. There´s no large bird here that would be able to take a goose. What do the eagles normally live on? Will they take a duck or a chicken? Or a lamb? Also, keep an eye on dogs, as dogs will also take geese if they´ve not been trained to leave them alone.
The first I made for little things here was of a wooden frame, but I put 2cm-sized chainlink on it, which made it really heavy, so it was difficult for animals to move, (us too!) and small enough holes to keep the babies in. (Chicks sometimes got out of it, but not the gozzies.) Nothing got into it to harm the babies, it was very strong. I t was mainly to protect them from my own untrained little dogs, terriers, terrible hunters, and possums. Now my dogs are fine, and I think the dogs keep the possums at bay.
Don´t forget we´ll be wanting to pics!

Here´s a pic of one of my gals with her babes...4 boys, 2 girls.


These are pics of Normandies, just for interest.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

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[andreacroyle]

Here´s one of the little lasses.....

is this a boy or a girl?

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Quote:
Well livinbrasil said it is a lass, which in my books is a female. Also I am assuming that Goose is a Pilgrim and because she is grey she's a female

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[livininbrazil]

Before Pilgrims were taken over, the older established auto-sexing types, nameless at that point, would have already been there. I don´t know if cottonpatches are in australia, but they´ve only recently been developed as a named breed, so they weren´t there before the pilgrims. But the ancestors of both the cottonpatch and the pilgrims would have been...hence the better name, Settler goose. There´s a really interesting piece on this on the net, if you google auto-sexing geese, there´s a written piece, a study, about the history of them, very informative, but I can´t remember the writer´s name off-hand.

Of course, if you´re going to let them out during the day, then asmaller tractor would be fine, 2m sq. Or the absolute tiniest 1 x 2m, but that would be very small for two geese to be in during the day. They´d be in a right mess by the time you got back. Mucky and water everwhere, be like Glastonbury Festival!

Sounds like you have few probs with predators, so that´s nice. Goslings will stay with the parents the whole year if you leave them together.

I wouldn´t bother with a chicken to raise them. If you´ve hatched the gozzies in an incubator, best raise them yourself. They´re so enjoyable. They´ll imprint on you, and you can make sure they get all the proper food. a broody isn´t likely to accept them once they´ve hatched anyway.

Geese are happiest in pairs, especially the auto-sexing ones, that´s why there are so many ganders in that pic...most likely you´d find it´s half-and-half.

is this a boy or a girl?

Well livinbrasil said it is a lass, which in my books is a female. Also I am assuming that Goose is a Pilgrim and because she is grey she's a female

.

Yep, a female, a little lass. She´s nearly a year old now, and starting to get her white face. Her sister hasn´t started the white face yet.

 

[livininbrazil]

The article I referred to on auto-sexing geese is by Craig Russell.

 

[andreacroyle]

Well livinbrasil said it is a lass, which in my books is a female. Also I am assuming that Goose is a Pilgrim and because she is grey she's a female

.

thanks, i didnt catch that. I will to post pics of my goose to see what you think. she is disabled. she (i think) was given to my son while we were at a farm swap. farmer said she was a male but now that i am researching the breed i might disagree.

 

[livininbrazil]

thanks, i didnt catch that. I will to post pics of my goose to see what you think. she is disabled. she (i think) was given to my son while we were at a farm swap. farmer said she was a male but now that i am researching the breed i might disagree.

How is your gosling disabled? I see it has a leg bandaged. Can I see white and grey feathers there coming through? Very pretty little thing.
Also, in the pic I see the gosling has a huge amount of crumb of some sort, but don´t see any grass or greens. They need far more grass and greens than the crumb.

 

[andreacroyle]

How is your gosling disabled? I see it has a leg bandaged. Can I see white and grey feathers there coming through? Very pretty little thing.
Also, in the pic I see the gosling has a huge amount of crumb of some sort, but don´t see any grass or greens. They need far more grass and greens than the crumb.We have

We have had her one week. Her? ligaments in her hock joint are so "lax" that they wont hold the joint properly. the closest thing that i can find is perosis but instead of the ligament being too short, they are not short enough. her tibia is also laterally rotated, however very functional. she eats the starter crumble for goslings with added nutritional yeast and probiotics. she gets frozen peas or any other fruit and veggie that she will eat for a treat. she doesnt seem to like many things outside of her crumble and peas. when we let the ducklings forage in the grass she is with them in the yard, but all she cares about doing is being held. i know the farm where she came from uses a local mill for grain (that doesnt formulate for each breed) and all the birds are free range. One of my ducklings has a crooked tail and now the goose has this leg issue. Everything that i have been able to find on the internet points to nutritional imbalances. I have mazuri waterfowl starter on order to pick up this week.

Thanks for the input! I havent been able to find a nutritional sheet (human food or edible plants to keep) specifically for pilgrims. it would be awesome if one was posted on this thread =) ANY advice with her would be greatly appreciated. FYI I am not opposed to taking her to a vet, however with previous experience of my rehabbed muscovy, i have found that the avian vets in this area dont really like waterfowl.

I believe she imprinted on a human as well. I have absolutely no experience with geese at all but none of my ducks act the way she does. Farmer told me that they kept her with the chicks in their bators because she couldnt free range with her leg. they also said that she was handled a lot and that she was a boy. they were too busy at the market for me to get any other info from them.
I have very little experience with waterfowls prior to the last 4 months. I am a massage therapist with a vet tech work history of 6 years so I know the proper way to support tape a hock joint.

any advice is appreciated =) here are some pics of her legs the first day we got her.

 

[livininbrazil]

We have had her one week. Her? ligaments in her hock joint are so "lax" that they wont hold the joint properly. the closest thing that i can find is perosis but instead of the ligament being too short, they are not short enough. her tibia is also laterally rotated, however very functional. she eats the starter crumble for goslings with added nutritional yeast and probiotics. she gets frozen peas or any other fruit and veggie that she will eat for a treat. she doesnt seem to like many things outside of her crumble and peas. when we let the ducklings forage in the grass she is with them in the yard, but all she cares about doing is being held. i know the farm where she came from uses a local mill for grain (that doesnt formulate for each breed) and all the birds are free range. One of my ducklings has a crooked tail and now the goose has this leg issue. Everything that i have been able to find on the internet points to nutritional imbalances. I have mazuri waterfowl starter on order to pick up this week.

Thanks for the input! I havent been able to find a nutritional sheet (human food or edible plants to keep) specifically for pilgrims. it would be awesome if one was posted on this thread =) ANY advice with her would be greatly appreciated. FYI I am not opposed to taking her to a vet, however with previous experience of my rehabbed muscovy, i have found that the avian vets in this area dont really like waterfowl.

I believe she imprinted on a human as well. I have absolutely no experience with geese at all but none of my ducks act the way she does. Farmer told me that they kept her with the chicks in their bators because she couldnt free range with her leg. they also said that she was handled a lot and that she was a boy. they were too busy at the market for me to get any other info from them.
I have very little experience with waterfowls prior to the last 4 months. I am a massage therapist with a vet tech work history of 6 years so I know the proper way to support tape a hock joint.

any advice is appreciated =) here are some pics of her legs the first day we got her.

That´s all very interesting, sound like you´ve done a good bit of research. Poor little love. sounds more as if it´s a birth defector damage done after hatching. if they kept it in with the chicks in a bator because of it. usually a diet imbalance will develop as time goes on.
In these pics it looks buff-coloured, but to be honest, looking at the face it looks like a boy, and the white with grey feathers is a bit confusing. Maybe their ganders have a lot of dark grey on them..
Does s/he like Romaine lettuce? It´s very good for them. They love it if you rip it up and float it in their bath water.
Here´s a pic of results of diet deficiency:Looking forward to more pics as s/he progresses. How nice of you to choose to care for it.