About Pilgrim Geese

"Pilgrims are rugged, quiet, docile, good foragers, excellent natural parents and make good medium-sized roasting birds. Because they are sex-linked for color, it is a simple matter - even for the novice - to keep the correct ratio of males to females when selecting young for future breeders. Ganders can be mated with three to five geese" (Holderread, 1981).

And according to the Livestock Conservancy, Pilgrim geese are medium-sized geese, weighing 13 - 14 pounds at maturity. The head is trim, the crown is often slightly flattened and the neck is average in length and thickness. Their bodies are full and plump, with a smooth, keel-less breast. They should have two rounded fatty lobes on the abdomen. Properly managed, they lay 35-45 six to seven ounce white eggs annually.

I just love our geese. The males can have some serious attitude during mating season but they completely win me over with how wonderfully protective they are with their young. Our females lay many eggs in the spring and 2 of our 3 in each group have went broody and hatched a clutch. On top of being wonderful parents, they are great at foraging a good amount of calories from grass which means they require less grain than a similar amount of meat from other grain heavy animals.