Pilgrim Geese
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Our Breeding Geese
At Full Soul Farm we have mating groups of geese, with one male and three to five females in each group. The groups are separated during the winter and mating season to ensure their offspring are separate from each other. This allows us to offer unrelated mating pairs/trios to people locally wanting just a few geese.
Gus’s Group (aka G group)
Gus was our first gander and his first female is named Gertie. They came from a local breeder. We then later added two more females from Metzer stock and I very creatively call them G2 and G3. Gus is a wonderful protector of his ladies and babies.
Deuce’s Group (aka D group)
Deuce came from Metzer stock as well as two of his females. His third female came from a local breeding. Deuce has a very big attitude and took a bit more persuasion to mind his manners during breeding season. He has come around to be a good protective gander.
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.