Who knew how great geese are?!

[snowydiamonds]

I only got mine (Pilgrim pair) in February and they are seriously sitting on 7 eggs in a chicken coop which was only meant to be a very temporary thing. We keep getting more and more snow so I haven't been able to move their barn home but cannot interrupt the laying process now.

All they do is hiss at me if I stay too long in the coop, watering and checking the feed (they aren't eating hardly at all) and making sure they have clean bedding.

She took one of my fingers in her bill a week ago when I moved some romaine lettuce leaves at the edge of the nest but only to "hold" without pressure, as a warning.

I'm hoping they trust me enough when and a big IF they hatch any goslings because I am determined to be picking up those cutie pies and keeping them tame since their parents don't know me hardly at all...

 

[greyfields]

I have one special goose, Olive, who loves to be handled. She'll come up to me an peck around my trousers until I pick her up and put her on my lap. Invariably, she ruinds the precious moment by crapping all over my lap. So, I have learned her tricks and now only hold Olive after I'm done with teh chores for the day and am already muddy and filthy. Just to be safe, I try to hold her rear end just a bit off to the side just in case. It's a lovely thing, goose love.

 

[DuckyBoys]

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That's pretty romantic!

 

[greyfields]

Very similar to how I met my wife.







Ok. Not at all really.

 

[Cara]

I hope the sofa is comfy.

 

[snowydiamonds]

Its pretty late at night for me to be laughing so loud! I was hold Grazie before she laid her eggs but standing up and the hind end never let loose anything while I held her. Snowflake wiggled and let me know every time he's not a touchy feeley kinda guy along with honking that he wanted Grazie's attention and closeness, not mine (and he never cut loose either) I think you just make that girl feel ALL relaxed

 

[Omniskies]

Even with six goslings crying in my ear behind me right now, I'm absolutely smitten with geese. Out of everything we've raised (peacocks, guineas, ducks, chickens, and turkeys), the goslings seem a lot less fearful and more welcoming than other young birds. They love to talk to you and are less likely to run away.

We're diving into Pilgrim geese full time and hope to have a large, high quality flock within two years to hep encourage everyone else in the area to try a couple in their backyard.

I've only seen one mention of Pilgrims having a lower fertility than other geese, and that's from McMurray's catalog. For these reasons, we're not adding any of McMurray's Pilgrims to our stock.

Pilgrims also are extremely hard to come by, but are well worth it in my opinion. Being able to auto-sex both the babies and the adults with a quick glance is incredibly handy, and makes the backyard flock more colorful.

With how rare Pilgrims are, I actually wish more people would raise them for meat. Geese that can be raised for meat seem to be more popular than the others and it may give the breed (and geese in general) the boost they need. Plus being able to immediately sort out your males from your females makes it much easier to choose who gets to be fattened up and who gets to be sold. Even if Pilgrims are a smaller goose, they grow quickly, take up less space, and are nice and quiet. All traits I adore.

Alright, so maybe I'm a little smitten...

Good luck and enjoy your babies

 

[Run-A-Muck Ranch]

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Our geese hatched out there own babies last year, and this year again we have one girls sitting on about 15 eggs and I just found the second girls nest with about 7 eggs in it.
They didn't seem to bad towards me. I was able to pick the babies up the first day with no problems. But then again I feed them. They did how ever for the first 2 or 3 weeks -after the babies hatched- want to chase our girls when they would get off the school bus. But after that they were fine. I was able to pick the babies up the first day with no problems.

Our male though he doesn't like anyone going near his girls right now. He is very protective with. But I just tell him with a FIRM "NO" and a shake of the finger and he stops.

 

[greyfields]

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I think I sold 20 or so Christmas geese last year. It's something I am trying to develop as well and I'm proud that demand outstripped supply. Selling for meat gives you a nice outlet for the extra males which are born, or the subpar females. You can't just breed forever or you'd be overrun by geese!

It was also a nice outlet for the mixbreeds. My Roman Tufted female is in love with my Pilgrim male and my Pilgrim female fancies an Embden. So, their offspring are actually very fast growing and healthy birds. I don't retain them of course.

The advantages of goose over turkey:

a) Our ancestors ate goose. They were right about a lot of things and they're right about goose.

b) They are much easier on the land than turkeys, since they have webbed feet. They do not compact soil.

c) You need to only feed them grass. Your operating costs are far lower than turkeys where you must bring in 100% of feed.

d) They are 100x more interesting culinarily. Goose meat is rich. A 20 lb goose is like a 50 lb turkey. The meat has taste, whereas turkey only tastes like the gravy you put on it. With goose you can do confits, stuffed goose neck, render the fat for potatoes, roast the carcass, etc. It's way more fun.

Drawbacks of geese:

e) Since they hatch only in winter, you have to raise them through to the following Thanksgiving (at least). That means they're around up to 10 months, which is why they're more expensive than turkeys which have short lives.

 

[greyfields]

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I make my hand into a cone and 'peck' at them. They hate it. If they get too close, I grab their necks and pick them up. I then parade around with them for as long as I can (up to 10 minutes) just holding them on my hip. All the others see it and realize they don't want the humiliation and generally lay off.

Our greyhounds, however, are dominated by the geese. They're terrified of them and they've gotten some good nips.