which breed of geese are your favourites?

I have been thinking of getting pilgrims for a while now. I was just curious about what kind of geese other people raise and why they like them or prefer them to another breed.

I have pilgrims and love them!! I find them very personable!! Great to have around!! I am also trying to get some sebastopols as I think they are beautiful.

I have Toulouse and I love them.

I Have Embdens and hate them
But like the Toulouse and Buffs

Only have a pilgrim pair and a Buff girl and my pilgrim girl is my favourite She's so curious and sweet she decided to sit on her 6 eggs yesterday so I just came in from bringing her some broccoli and having a pet. My Buff girl is nice too but not as interested in us. I haven't made friends with pilgrim boy I like him to be a bit wary of us. He's protective of his girls but even with girls laying and getting broody we've had no issues of rotten behaviour however my kids have been warned to stay away from nest area for now so he won't feel it necessary to protect.

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What beautiful birds. I love sebastapols best though.

Super Africans, haven't had them in a long time but have eggs in the mail as we speak. Very excited about it.

Love my Shetlands and my Toulouse! Quite different characters but both tough as nails...

I like the Africans as well. I have a Grey that I like too, but I'm not sure he is the norm for the breed having only 1.

the shetlands are great. very hardy and need very little care, easily tamed and good mothers

Lovely birds Tara.

My favorite breed is the Canada goose. Very beautiful and extremely low maintenance.

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HigginsRAT wrote:Heel low:

And ANd AND...the female Shetlands look like our Buff Pieds in a grey pattern, not buff! Gender linked colourations. Don't forget that kewlest of parts about that breed of geese!

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Like a few other goose breeds, including the Pilgrim and Cotton Patch, Shetlands are sexually dimorphic (called auto-sexing in poultry nomenclature), and can be differentiated on appearance alone. Ganders have entirely white plumage, while geese have a head, neck, and upper body with gray highlights and a white underbody.

Flicker Chick wrote:Lovely birds Tara. ...

My favorite breed is the Canada goose. Very beautiful and extremely low maintenance.

Thank you but what a brat FC!

Now if THAT was the case...the Trumpeter Swans that fly over in spring and fall here...THOSE are my all time favourite waterfowl (sorry, not a goose, swanny). Takes my breath right away to see the magnificent wild wonderments and I don't have to lift a finger to maintain them. Best ever kinda eye candy.

Tara

Haha, I couldn’t resist.

I've tried my hand at waterfowl over the years and discovered I’m a landfowl gal through in through. It’s not that I don’t like them, because I do, but the mess…the wet stinky MESS. Lol
Now I enjoy other people’s ducks and geese from afar ( are the bestest) and the wild ones that fly by. I'm hopeful some wilds will choose to nest in our pond. More than good enough for me.

I have Pilgrims as well.
Very easy to work around. Both girls are nesting and the male allows me to walk up and give his girls treats. I get the odd hiss but he knows no harm is coming.

They are also very friendly with the other pond mates and their babies.

I have production Africans, they are nice, have had some real funny / sweet charactors amongst them.

Had Chineese... horrible hateful things, nasty hissing NOISY beasts. Gave you the EEEEEEEvil eye a alot, very self rightious.

Have two Buffs. I think they are very pretty, quite self sufficient and hardy. They just hatched two babies! They are not particularly friendly though. I dont think it is the bred, I think it is just these two.

Arcticsun wrote:

Had Chineese... horrible hateful things, nasty hissing NOISY beasts. Gave you the EEEEEEEvil eye a alot, very self rightious.

These were the geese I had briefly...I actually really liked them, but they HATED everyone and everything BUT me. Which didn't go over so well with the family. I can still see DH running for his life with four Chinese geese hot on his heels.

Years ago we had super africans and loved them.
So a few years ago I bought a trio of africans.
Well they were horrible they attached anyone
that came in the field. When hubby came out
to fix something in the barn for me I had to
walk him in or look out that gander was bad.
So I sold them off.
Thinking about it now maybe I was to hasty
I know the llamas watch out for four legged
danger but the two legged ones could walk in
and help themselves. If I still had those
africans no one would get in to take anything.
He even came at me a few times had to give
him a lesson on who was boss.

Karona, I bet they were crossed with chinese for larger egg yields. This is where the term "super" came from. Africans are supposed to have dewlaps. Africans without them are most likely crossed with a chinese at some point to increase laying.

Didn't finish before I hit send...
Some of the hatcheries started calling the dewlaps Super to distinguish them from the crosses.

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Here is a picture of the trio they do have dewlaps

I wondered if you had a cross with a chinese and maybe that aggression was from the chinese side. I got Africans because of their calm temperment. Maybe yours are just cranky. Here's a pair I have. They appear a bit beefier.
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the one on the far right in your picture looks more like the chinese body type than the african to me. Small dewlap as well, but maybe just young?

I really wanted pilgrims but hmmm, buffs sound nice and so do shetlands. The africans sound great but are a little strange looking to me. I heard shetlands fly. Is this a problem? There is a small hatchery called little red hen in vancouver . they have pilgrims. What do I need to know about the parent stock? If the parents are aggressive will the offspring be aggressive or is it an individual thing or based on life experiences. I have also heard they live a long time so I am willing to wait for the right ones. What the heck is a dewlap and what is it for?

I have had Chinese, Embden and Toulouse.

Really love the chinese and toulouse.. I found the embden just aggressive.