Chickens are a common entry into keeping backyard birds, but there is also a lot to be said for geese.
Though they are generally less productive egg layers than chickens, they produce grease and meat, can sometimes be raised on grass and are effective guards to keep flying predators, including hawks, away from chickens and ducks. When hand-raised and well-socialized, geese can be friendly and protective.
Farm geese are descended from wild European and Asian geese, but three domestic breeds developed by American farmers for small operations and local conditions can still be found at specialty breeders today. If you’re adding birds to your homestead this spring, you might want to consider a goose.
All three American breeds are medium-sized and generally friendly; they forage for food, reducing feed costs, and have even been used to weed gardens. They’re also considered breeds in need of conservation to keep them from disappearing.
Cotton Patch
These geese are named for the jobs they once held eating the weeds and grass from Southern cotton and corn fields, according to breeders and historians. They nearly went extinct and are still considered very rare.
Friendly and good at foraging, the small-to-medium-sized geese are also can fly, which is unusual for domestic geese. This allows the birds to escape predators. They’re good parents and more productive egg layers than many other goose breeds, which typically produce between 20 and 40 eggs each year.
Cotton Patch and American Pilgrim geese are unusual among geese, and poultry in general, because the difference between males and females is visible from birth.
American Pilgrim
These geese have murky origins, but it is possible they came to America from England with early colonists. They also may have been developed by a Missouri breeder in the 1930s, when they were first documented by the Pilgrim name, according to the Livestock Conservancy.
Wherever they came from, they’re considered great homestead birds because they’re calm, friendly and quiet (for a goose). They’re hardy, fast-growing and forage well, meaning you save on feed costs, and American Pilgrims also take to parenting naturally.
The goose is considered rare, and females in particular can be hard to find from mail-order hatcheries. Ordering sites say they sell out quickly, so keep watch in March and April when ordering opens.
American Buff
These apricot-colored geese are the easiest American breed to find; the livestock conservancy has them on a watch list, rather than considering them threatened. They were developed in the 1940s as commercial meat birds, and their feathers are supposedly easier to remove.
American Buffs are also a less aggressive, generally calm breed that can bond to people; dedicated parents, they tend to be broody and can raise young from other breeds. They are among the largest of the medium-weight meat birds. They’re also curious, according to the Livestock Conservancy, and need good fencing.
More information about raising geese in Maine is available from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. Local poultry breeders may be able to answer questions too.”
