Keeping Geese E-Book

Chris Ashton

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Keeping Geese is a complete guide to the domesticated goose. It shows how this intelligent bird has been absorbed into different cultures throughout history, from the taming of the Greylag and the Swan goose to the exhibition of the mighty Toulouse. Written from thirty years of first-hand experience of keeping, breeding and exhibiting these birds, Keeping Geese gives an insight into their habits and behaviour. Pure breeds of geese, hand-reared, are tame, responsive and intelligent and reared well, they will give hours of interest and pleasure for life. Illustrated with over 160 photographs and diagrams, this comprehensive study of geese covers the following and much more: domestication of the goose from the wild, and development of the breeds; why keep geese - as garden pets, eggs, exhibition, table birds; getting started with geese; understanding geese - breeds, physiology and behaviour; management of adult stock; breeding, incubation and rearing goslings; recognizing and treating ailments.

Leseprobe

Keeping Geese

BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT

Chris Ashton

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2012 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2015

© Chris Ashton 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 056 0

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

Part I: History and Origins

1.

The Origins of the Domestic Goose

Part II: Setting Up

2.

Why Keep Geese?

3.

How to Start

Part III: Understanding Geese

4.

Goose Anatomy

5.

The Life Cycle and Care of Feathers

6.

Goose Diet and Digestion

Part IV: The Breeds of Geese

7.

Introduction to the Breeds

8.

Asiatic Geese

9.

White Geese

10.

Sebastopol Geese

11.

Auto-Sexing Geese

12.

Pied Geese

13.

Toulouse Geese

14.

Buff Breeds

15.

Fighting Geese

Part V: Keeping Adult Geese

16.

Management of Adult Stock

17.

Goose Behaviour

Part VI: Breeding and Rearing Geese

18.

Eggs and Natural Incubation

19.

Incubators

20.

Rearing Goslings

21.

Commercial Geese – Table Birds

Part VII: Keeping Geese Healthy

22.

Ailments and Diseases

Appendix: Punnet Squares

References

Useful Contacts

Index

Preface

We encountered goose keeping by accident; nothing was planned. The hobby just grew from a present of two small goslings for my daughter’s birthday. Our geese were never considered for the table, yet in general they do have many values and uses. This is what the book is primarily about.

One reputation was quickly dispelled. They are not the farmyard tyrants of myth and memory. We found them to be intelligent, responsive, sociable and highly absorbing, especially if reared from goslings. They offer a real window into the ‘wisdom of birds’: close contact with geese really does open up a new perspective on avian intelligence. This book tries to put the record straight.

From a purely practical point of view, geese are the ideal food converters in a large garden, excellent lawnmowers and fascinating pets. They do well on a diet consisting largely of grass, and are cheaper to keep than other poultry which need a higher proportion of grain in their diet – an important consideration in an overcrowded world.

Acknowledgements

Limited written information was available in the UK about keeping and rearing geese when we first acquired these birds. This book and Domestic Geese (1999) were the result of shared experiences with other goose keepers over the last thirty years. Keeping, breeding and exhibiting these birds has led to an accumulation of information which I hope other keepers will find useful.

Special thanks are due to John Hall for his help and advice on the breeds, and to Tom Bartlett for his expertise and sheer enthusiasm for waterfowl at Folly Farm in the Cotswolds in the late 1900s. When we started with geese, these experts led the way.

Other goose breeders in the UK and abroad have also contributed to the experiences, knowledge and photographs in this book: Peter van den Bunder, Bart Poulmans, Sonja Sauwens and Gerard Lambrighs of the Flemish Waterfowl Association; Andrea Heesters and Peter Jacobs, Hans Ringnalda and Sigrid van Dort, plus Kenneth Broekman of Holland; Michael Peel, Hamish Russell and Dr Harry Cooper (Australia’s favourite vet); Bob Hawes from the USA for his continued support and detailed knowledge of the history and genetics of domestic geese; also Lori Waters, who has a real eye for photography, with her Runners and Sebastopols, and a passion for the birds.

Visiting shows in Germany and judging in France, Holland and Australia has also provided me with an insight into how the goose breeds have travelled the world, and how they continue to fascinate as a hobby bird and subject for photography. I am also grateful to Paul-Erwin Oswald, Mark Hoppe and Helene Towers for helping with translations and queries regarding the long history of geese in Germany.

Last, but most of all, I am grateful for the involvement with the geese over the years from both my daughter, Tig, and husband, Mike Ashton, who also looked over the manuscript. Without family involvement, keeping a multiplicity of birds is almost impossible. These birds have been part of the family for such a long time, and have brought us into contact with so many like-minded friends.

Part I History and Origins

Introduction

The goose was domesticated early and so has an old Indo-European name. Modern names derive from the Indo-European word ‘ghans’: this led to Old English gōs, plural gēs, German Gans and Old Norse gas (as in Skånegås). In Greek the word became khen, and in Latin, anser.

Unlike poultry which derive from the jungle fowl, domesticated geese are recognized in only a few colours and shapes. This is surprising in view of their long history of domestication, spanning hundreds, if not thousands of years in widely separated areas of the globe. This wide distribution is reflected in their exotic names. There is the Sebastopol from Eastern Europe with its white, curled feathers, the proud ‘African’ from the Far East, and the Pilgrim, first standardized in the USA. Yet despite this wide geographic distribution, all breeds and varieties of domestic geese probably originate from just two wild species: the Greylag goose (Anser anser) and the Asiatic Swan goose (Anser cygnoides).

Human selection has meant that the birds have gradually changed in form and colour from their wild ancestors, and there are now many different standardized breeds and commercial strains around the world. These are now identified in the database pertaining to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation Animal Genetic Resources (FAO ANGR, seeChapter 7).

1 The Origins of the Domestic Goose

Early Domestication

Charles Darwin considered there was archaeological evidence for the domestication of geese in Egypt more than 4,000 years ago, since Egyptian frescoes depict cranes, ducks and geese, recording their fattening and slaughter. The fresco of the six geese at Meidum shows Greylags, White-fronted and Red-breasted geese: now at the Cairo Museum, the painted plaster is dated as the Fourth Dynasty, 2575– 2355BC. The emphasis on geese is not surprising. The sacred animals of Amun, Lord of Creation, were the ram and the goose, kept at temples throughout Egypt, and although it cannot be certain that the Greylags were tame because paintings do depict the trapping of birds in the marshes, domestication would soon follow from the natural behaviour of the birds. They are thought to have been fully domesticated by the time of the Egyptian New Kingdom (1552–1151BC): for example, a flock of geese are counted and caught in Nebamun’s Geese at Thebes, painted in about 1350BC (British Museum).

There are other species of wild geese which could have been domesticated: the Bar-headed goose (Anser indicus) from India and Central Asia, the Bean goose, White-fronted and Pink-footed goose from Europe, and the Canada (Branta canadansis) from North America. In some of these, smaller size was a limiting factor, and perhaps also behavioural characteristics; Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiacus), for example, tend to be aggressive.

In China, the wild Swan goose was the foundation species for the domesticated Asiatic breeds, which include the ‘Hong Kong goose’ (African) and the Chinese. The breeding range of the wild bird was formerly much more extensive than it is today, stretching from Japan and Korea into the interior of China, Mongolia and Russia. The wide range of the bird means that it could have been domesticated almost anywhere in East Asia, but the origin of the Chinese and ‘Africans’ is generally taken to be China. Delacour states that the goose was raised for many centuries in China, beginning over 3,000 years ago. Pottery models of ducks and geese dating back to about 2500BC suggest early domestication (Clayton, 1984).

Bean geese: it has been suggested that the domestication of the goose in China might have involved the Bean goose, in addition to the Greylag and Swan goose. Analysis of the karyotype of Chinese and African geese suggests otherwise (see Chapter 8).

The Swan goose, ancestor of the domestic Chinese goose and African goose.

European Geese

Ancient domesticated breeds, such as the Roman, are acknowledged to have been selected and developed from the Greylag. The species was once common throughout Europe and Asia, overwintering in North Africa, Greece and Turkey, as well as India, Burma and China (Owen 1977). There are two ‘races’, which are slightly different: the Western race is more orange in the bill, whereas Eastern birds are bigger, have slightly paler plumage and an attractive pink bill. Todd (1979) attributes this colour difference to natural selection in two once-distinct populations that were divided by the Pleistocene ice sheet. But as the ice retreated, the populations merged again so that today there are gradations of feather and bill colour across Europe.

The Greylag has several points favouring its selection for domestication. First, it did not always migrate, but ‘lagged’ behind, often failing to follow the truly migratory Pink-footed and White-fronted geese north to their breeding grounds. Second, its range is extensive, which offers numerous geographical possibilities for its domestication. It also has a particularly amenable temperament: it is more tolerant of disturbance by man than many others, it is the most adaptable of European geese in food requirements, and will nest closer to man than other species. One population breeds in Iceland and overwinters in Britain, whilst another group breeds in Scandinavia and central Europe and overwinters in southern Europe and North Africa.

Pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus). This species breeds in Greenland, Iceland and Spitzbergen, and overwinters in Britain and mainland Europe. It is not as large as the Greylag, and is more wary in the wild.

It also used to breed in the East Anglian Fens and the Netherlands before the destruction of the marshes. Weir (1902), for example, quotes Pennant from 1776:

The Eastern Greylag is a slightly larger and paler grey bird than the Western Greylag, with a slightly longer, pink bill – Sauwens-Lambrighs.

This species resides in the fens the whole of the year: breeds there, and hatches about eight or nine young, which are often taken, easily made tame, and esteemed most excellent meat, superior to the domestic goose.

As a gosling, the Greylag readily imprints on humans, and for this reason became the subject of research on goose behaviour by Konrad Lorenz. As a child he had been fascinated by geese and returned to them for material for his studies. Those who have kept and reared both wild and domestic geese will find it easy to understand why early subsistence people in Europe would have learned to domesticate these amenable birds and to develop their size on the farm.

More details of domestication emerge with written records, such as Homer’s reference in the Iliad to Penelope’s tame geese at Ithaca during the Trojan War (regarded as the twelfth century BC): ‘I have twenty geese at home, that eat wheat out of water, and I am delighted to look at them.’ At that time, according to Harrison Weir, Homer did not mention the hen.

By the fourth century BC the Romans kept a white goose developed from the Greylag. Lucretius wrote: ‘The white goose, the preserver of the citadel of Romulus, perceives at a great distance the odour of the human race’, and Virgil also ascribed the preservation of the Capitol to the ‘silver goose’: this is because in 390BC these sacred white geese saved the Capitol by their cackling warning about invaders:

The Gauls … climbed to the summit in such silence that they not only escaped the notice of the guards, but did not even alarm the dogs, animals particularly watchful with regard to any noise at night. They were not unperceived however, by some geese, which being sacred to Juno, the people had spared, even in the present great scarcity of food; a circumstance to which they owed their preservation, for the cackling of these creatures, and the clapping of their wings, Marcus Manlius was roused from sleep … and snatching up his arms, and at the same time calling to the rest to do the same, he hastened to the spot, where, while some ran about in confusion, … he tumbled down a Gaul who had already got a footing on the summit.

(Translation from Livy, AD59–17)

In Roman Farm Management by Marcus Porcius Cato (ed. F. H. Belvoir, 1918), writers from the second and third centuries BC gave accounts of goose keeping in Italy. The slave was recommended to select geese of good size and white plumage, because those with variegated plumage, which are called ‘wild’, were only domesticated with difficulty. Furthermore rearing goslings came with advice that would be equally appropriate to smallholders today:

… it is not expedient to assign more that twenty goslings to each goose pen; nor on the other hand must they be shut up at all with such as are older than themselves, because the stronger kills the weaker. The cells wherein they lie must be exceedingly dry.

Western Greylags at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Slimbridge, Gloucestershire.

Columella, writing in the first century AD, also stressed that white birds were desirable. He described the fattening of the birds on crushed barley and wheat flour over a period of about two months, in much the same way as reported by Cato. Similarly Pliny Secundus (c. AD40, quoted in Harrison Weir) pointed out that, in Italy, white plume and down were preferred to the grey:

A second commoditee that geese yield (especially those that be white) is their plume and down … the finest and the best is that which is brought out of Germanie. The geese there be all white and truly a pound of such feathers is 5 deniers [3 shillings and 1 penny] … many complaints are made of officers over companies of auxiliary soldiers … they license many times whole bands to straggle abroad, to hunt and chase geese for their feathers and down [the wild goose chase, Weir suggests].

Even in Pliny’s time, the North European plain was producing the forerunners of the white Embden geese of today. Flocks of the birds travelled on foot from the north of France to Rome: ‘Those which are tired are carried to the front, so that the rest push them on by natural crowding.… In some places they are plucked twice a year.’

Pliny also remarked that ‘our people are aware of the goodness of their liver. In those that are crammed it increases to a great size …’ thus indicating that the practice of producing pâté de foie gras is an ancient mistreatment.

Despite the relative wealth of evidence of the goose in Roman culture, Italy is not noted for goose production today – indeed nor may it have been then. The goose is a central and north European bird, and references to the birds from Germany and France indicate that they were probably more numerous there, and better developed from the wild Greylag stock that was captured from the wild breeding population. It is just that the early written records were – and still are – available from Rome.

Goose Culture in Britain

It is quite likely that the goose was domesticated in Celtic cultures even earlier than in Rome. The bones of Greylag geese have been found in archaeological digs in the UK, but were they wild or semi-wild? Robinson (1924) records that when the Romans first invaded Britain in the first century BC they found tame geese, for Caesar reported that they were kept only for ‘sport’. Greylags are thought to have been part of the stock at Iron Age dwelling sites. There is a suggestion that the natives appeared to treat geese as sacred, but this situation cannot have continued; with domestication, the farmyard goose became part of the rural economy.

Whatever the geese were kept for, there is a great gap in the records between Roman and medieval times, due to the lack of documentation. Robinson suggests that both the Anglo-Saxon invaders and the Normans could have introduced geese – or the custom of keeping geese – to Britain, since these invading groups came from goose-rearing lands.

Harrison Weir researched manuscripts from religious establishments and leases and discovered the ubiquitous goose in everyday life after the Norman Conquest. The goose was involved in paying for the tenure of land; for example, Weir cites a reference to William of Aylesbury, who held land under William the Conqueror: apart from straw for the bed, both eels in winter and green geese in summer had to be provided for a king’s visit. Weir maintains that until the reign of Edward III that tenure was usually paid in kind, and in the list of requirements, Michaelmas goose was often specified.

In the section ‘Fairs, Qualities, Usefulness and Value’ Bishop Greathead’s [Grosseteste] Tratyse on Husbandry from the thirteenth century records that: ‘Ghees and hennes shall be at the deliverance of your baylyfe for lete, so ferme a goose for XIId. in a yere’ and that ‘evry goos shall answere you of VI ghoslynges’. In 1377 the market price of a goose in the city of London was 6d, whilst the wild mallard was 3d (‘d’ being old pence – 240 to the pound Sterling).

How good were geese to eat? There were varying reports: Weir quotes Andrew Borde (1542) as not praising the flesh of duck or goose ‘except in a young grene goose’, and also says ‘the tame gese be hevy in fleinge [flying], gredi at their mete, and diligent to theyr rest – and they crye the houres of ye night – gose fleeshe is very grose of nature in degestion.’

Green geese were customarily young geese around ten weeks old, perhaps fattened for a short time on ‘Skeg-Oats boyled’ according to Gervase Markham (1613). Older geese of five to six months, which had gleaned the stubble and eaten the fallen grain, were later also fattened with oats, beans and barley.

Geese at that time did not generally seem to be very productive: the number of goslings they produced was limited – perhaps because the goose was allowed to sit, restricting her to one clutch a year – and geese were plucked for their down, which would also have limited their production. Perhaps their greatest value was in being a simple sideline to the farm: with a bit of care they would feed and look after themselves for most of the year, and more importantly, would also provide goose fat, feathers and down. In 1417 Edward V is said to have ordered that six wing feathers were plucked from every goose for arrows, and paid to the king. The quills were also used for writing. In both cases (arrow and pen) it was the outer flight feathers that were needed.

Did anyone pay much attention to the type and colour of their goose? Probably not: a goose is a goose, if it is to be eaten. Some of the geese may have been white, as mentioned by Markham in the 1600s, but many were grey:

The large grey Goose that is bred in the Fen Countries is preferable to any other Kind, both for Flesh and Feather, and it grows to the biggest Size of any. We have besides this a smaller grey Goose, and a small dark colour’d [if which kind thre are some almost black]. Neither of these are nearly so advantageous as the grey; and among the large Kind that are so call’d, those are much better which are all of a Colour, than such as pyed or mottled.

(Thomas Hale, 1756)

As well as on smallholdings and farms, geese were also produced by the cottager or commoner who had rights to graze on the moor or common – this was thought to be the origin of the name ‘common goose’. It was better that the geese were not fed on greens and grain in a poultry yard because they would soon cost more to keep than they would fetch. So when the goslings were old enough, they were trained to go out in flocks with the goose and gander to forage over moor, meadow and common. Where many people kept geese and the grazing birds mingled during the day, various means were used to distinguish ownership, such as marks on the webs, coloured ribbon tied to the wings, or leg rings. But usually it was the tightly knit groups of the parent birds and their offspring which sorted out themselves in the evening. Where the birds were sufficiently well trained to move out to graze and return by themselves at the end of the day, it spared the expense of the ‘gozzard’ to drive and look after them.

As England’s human population grew, the demand for food in town and city began to affect methods of food production and transport from the countryside. The development of the Aylesbury duck industry and the supply of ducklings to the London market are both well documented, but a goose-rearing system from the 1700s that is akin to the duck-rearing industry, is quoted from Pennant:

A single person will keep a thousand old geese, each of which will rear seven …. During the breeding season these birds are lodged in the same houses as the inhabitants, even in the very bed chambers; in every apartment there are three rows of coarse wicker pens, placed one above the other; each bird has its separate lodge, divided from the others, which it keeps possession of during the time of sitting. A person called a gozzard i.e. a goose herd, attends the stock, and twice a day drives the whole to water; then brings them back to their habitations, helping those that live in the upper storeys to their nests without even misplacing a single bird. Vast numbers are driven annually to London.

Geese had long been caught and reared in the Fens, and by the late 1700s droves of domestic geese, often in flocks 1,000–2,000 strong, wended their way on foot to the capital. In Harrison Weir’s account, these birds could cover more that eight miles (13km) a day, starting at three or four in the morning and walking until eight or nine at night. These large flocks were controlled by boys, each with a long hazel stick with a red rag at the end, and the gozzard who carried a crook to catch and select the geese when needed. Some birds might be sold on the way, others might need the ‘hospital cart’ when lame.

To protect their feet on these long marches they were driven through tar, which stuck to the feet, and then sand: this acted as a ‘shoe’ for the duration of the journey.

Most of the flocks are the largest about harvest time when they travel from county to county in the south of England, being bought by the farmers to turn into the wheat, oat, rye or barley stubble after the corn is carried, when in a few weeks they are sufficiently fat for the poulter or higgler.

In addition to their meat, goose grease was good for chapped lips, and the internal fat made good pastry and was eaten on toast. The locks of guns were greased with it, as well as the wheelbox on the farm cart; also the scythe, and the steel knives and forks before being put away from daily use. This fat was considered of more value that hog’s lard or any other farm product, grease or fat.

The Twentieth Century and Today

During the twentieth century, agriculture changed immensely. Geese used to be found on every smallholding, but those smallholdings have now mostly gone. Few farms keep geese, and goose enterprises rearing a thousand birds or more are a rarity in Britain, although they do exist in Europe and China. Reports of Russian and Chinese goose production document traditional breeds and also commercial crosses for industrial scale production (seeChapter 7).

In Britain, goose numbers declined with urbanization, and the bird does not adapt easily to mass production. Yet it seems that over the last thirty-five years, the numbers of ‘backyard’ geese have increased, and interest in smallholdings, organic farming, food security and appropriate small animals for a mixed farm economy has grown. The goose fits the bill, mixing well with sheep and providing a good income at Christmas if marketing is well organized.

Yet for many, Christmas eating is not the main purpose of keeping geese. As with rare breeds of poultry, pigs and sheep, the birds are kept primarily out of interest. Despite Charles Darwin’s comment that ‘no one makes a pet of a goose’, they are now pets, which mow the lawn, guard the house, go to the shows and amuse visitors. And for the pure breed enthusiast there is the pleasure of keeping perhaps a rare breed, and hatching and rearing each year’s new set of goslings.

A grey-and-white goose with a white gander exhibited in 1854. The early waterfowl exhibitions had a category for the ‘common goose’ which was, of course, the goose kept on common land. In parts of Europe, including Britain and France, a preference seems to have evolved for a gander that was invariably white ‘… even if the geese are grey’. It is not known when the habit started, but such selection resulted in auto-sexing breeds.

Part II Setting Up

Introduction

Of all domesticated animals and birds, geese are probably the most diverse in the products and services they can provide. That is why they were on many subsistence smallholdings in the past: they are economical to feed, and are very hardy as long as they are protected from predators; they can help manage the land, provide useful products for the table, and are worth their weight in gold in sheer entertainment value.

If you want to keep geese, do find out about their intrinsic behaviour first, because their natural habits make them a very special bird. People keep them because they love them – and that applies to commercial keepers in Britain, too. Raised well, they are sociable companions, quite unlike the reported image of the Roman goose.

People are often quite unaware of the variety in size, shape, colour, temperament and habits of geese. So whilst running through the reasons for keeping these birds, it’s also worth reading about the characteristics of the individual breeds before making a choice.

2 Why Keep Geese?

Geese as Pets

Our own geese are kept for exhibition purposes and breeding, and are all regarded as pets. Well reared, geese stay tame for life; they are easier to handle than nervous birds, and are what people want to buy. Tame birds which come to you are simply easier to look after, and far more enjoyable to keep, than birds which run away. Geese are individuals, have more brains than chickens and ducks, and are great characters – and each bird does have its own personality.

Temperament to a certain extent goes with a breed. Africans are usually the calmest and tamest of all, but can be imposing because of their size and voice. Brecons should have a calm disposition too, but there are strains that disprove the rule. Whatever the generalization about the breed, it is the strain and the bird’s upbringing which counts the most.

However, exhibition pure breeds and commercial eese are very different from each other. Commercial geese are usually white, and there are many varieties which have been developed for the table. They are often described as ‘Embden’, which they are not. The larger commercial strains are crossed with Embdens, but do not grow to the size and stature of the exhibition birds.

Some breeds are difficult to get hold of, for example if they are rare, or only recently standardized – as these blue Franconian geese from Germany, belonging to Kenneth Broekman. Peter Jacobs

White geese are generally preferred as table birds, and their eggs do hatch more easily than those of pure breeds such as the Brecon and Toulouse – but the advantages end there. In our experience, and with others we have talked to, commercial strains tend to be independent, self-sufficient birds. They have to be: they are reared in large flocks and have limited human contact. The ganders are often not suitable as pets, especially with children, since even hand-reared goslings change their characteristics quite markedly as they mature. Also, they are of no interest as a pure breed or show bird.

These hand-reared Chinese goslings will happily approach people, and will stay tame for life.

By contrast, pure breeds are reared in smaller numbers and the birds have generally had closer contact with humans, who probably, quite unwittingly, select the most amenable birds to keep. Breeding pure breeds rather than commercial geese may give lower production rates, but it gives added interest in many different ways. However, the most important factor regarding behaviour is the way the birds are brought up and handled. Sociable birds that you can enjoy come from a breeder who has spent time with them. Early familiarity with people determines their behaviour for life. If goslings are handled frequently, and are brought up by tame parents (goose or human), they will stay tame. By contrast, goslings with wary, aggressive parents, and badly handled by people, will also be aggressive, and it can be difficult to persuade them otherwise.

The World’s Best Lawnmowers

Geese are light-footed, useful grazing animals, and less likely to cause damage to land, fencing and greenhouses than goats and sheep which are so much heavier. They can live in the house and garden area, and are easily controlled with light fencing.

All geese graze copious amounts of grass, and if people realized just how much grass they ate, then the lawn-mower companies would have a huge drop in sales. Pilgrims are the best breed of all: they have not forgotten they are farmyard geese, whereas Toulouse geese still like their pellets. Goslings eat huge amounts of grass in order to meet their rapid growth rate, and will considerably reduce the need to mow, depending on the rate of stocking.

Geese will therefore save a lot of work on grass maintenance, especially in difficult corners and on steep slopes. They are excellent for grazing orchards, and in one particular case an owner chose them to maintain his Christmas tree plantation.

Grass grazed regularly by geese improves in quality – unlike the probing beaks of ducks which leave bare earth, thereby encouraging the growth of weeds. Geese will seek out all the dandelions, and a few young birds will even eat plantain. If there is a large infestation of these weeds, young goslings are best, and dense stocking of the birds for a short time is most effective. Chinese geese have slightly different habits from the Greylag-derived geese: they particularly like to root up creeping stems. Nettles and docks will remain and the birds will not touch thistles, but if the young plants are broken at the base, the geese will eat down into the root and kill them.

Weeder Geese

Geese are selective as regards what plants they eat, preferring grasses to broad-leaved plants, and they can be used to weed grasses from a variety of crops. Goslings over six weeks of age are best, because of their voracious appetite. They will, of course, need protection from predators (such as dogs and foxes), to be watered well, and to be given supplementary food at the end of the day before being safely shut up overnight. Their great advantage is that they can be integrated into an organic system where there are no hazards from toxic substances – seed dressings, sprays and fertilizer granules. Young birds must be confined by light fencing to the area they are dealing with in order to supervise them more closely, but adult geese can be allowed to wander further away.

Chinese and ‘Cotton Patch’ breeds (seeChapter 11) were commonly employed as weeder geese in the USA: they are lightweight, active and relatively cheap to buy, and weed out perennial grasses. They have been used in vineyards, orchards and citrus groves, and also in crops such as coffee, cotton, mint, tobacco, hops and corn (after harvesting). Geese might be useful too, for weeding strawberries – they will, however, also eat the fruit, so this task would have to be early in the season and after the crop has been harvested. Always do a pilot study first to see how they behave before investing on a large scale.

In a garden, geese sometimes chew your best flowers, vegetables and saplings. Certain plants are toxic for them, and they can also be quite destructive – Brecons and Embdens in particular will chew twigs and ringbark saplings, so these need protecting with a tube of wire netting (plastic spiral may not be strong enough) wrapped around the trunk until the trees are mature. Greens such as lettuces, brassicas and even leeks will also be snapped up, so if the vegetable garden is important the weeding must be kept until after the crop is harvested.

If the main purpose for keeping geese is as pets to add interest to the garden and to weed the crazy paving and surrounding banks, lanes and yards, then Chinas are probably the best. They rarely chew bushes but may dig up patches on the lawn to dunk mud and roots into their bucket of water.

Guard Geese

Geese are watchful and inquisitive birds: they notice new people and unusual behaviour, and make a good deal of noise about it. Perhaps because of this reputation, and especially as a flock, they can deter people from entering premises – although this does not apply if the intruders have come to steal the geese! For example, white Chinese are employed as guard geese at a certain distillery warehouse in Scotland, where they patrol the fox-proof grounds at night. The idea is that the geese alert the watchman if there are any intruders – though ironically the geese were apparently once stolen. Known as the ‘Scotch Watch’, the flock now includes Romans, also famous in their own right in the history of the Capitol (seeChapter 1).

The noisiest birds are the best alarm, and this would be the Chinese and the African. But the most effective physical deterrent is perhaps a flock of white commercial geese.

Geese for Goose Eggs

Eggs for Eating

If large quantities of eggs are required, a utility strain of the Roman or Chinese breed is best, although the eggs of these small breeds are also smaller.

The yolk colour of the eggs from geese that graze is always a rich orange, and it is quite unnecessary to give a colour enhancer (seeChapter 16) in the diet. This is because the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin are obtained primarily from dark green, leafy vegetables, and these are responsible for making the yolk a deep orange colour. These substances are also thought to help prevent age-related vision loss. In addition, contrary to the fear that cholesterol in eggs was bad for human health, carotenoids also appear to inhibit the development of atherosclerosis by lowering the rate of arterial thickening. Furthermore the more natural the goose diet, the better the food quality of the egg. Thus poultry fed mostly grain produce egg yolks rich in saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids, whereas birds which feed on vegetation produce eggs with higher levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Just two goose eggs fill this 30cm (12in) plate. The yolk is naturally orange from grass in the bird’s diet, and the eggs are much healthier to eat than those from corn-fed birds. The albumen and yolk stand up well in fresh eggs. Note the small, pale germinal disc from which an embryo would grow in a fertile egg.

Coffee cake made from a goose egg and wholemeal flour. (For recipes, see Useful Addresses.)

Waterfowl eggs contain less water than chicken eggs and the protein content is higher, so when cracked on to a plate, the yolk sits up prominently and the albumen forms a neat disc instead of running away. It is this property which makes the eggs so successful for baking – better than chicken eggs; they also make the best custards and omelettes, though chicken eggs make better meringue.

Eggs for Painting and Decorating

If egg size is important, then keep the larger goose breeds.

Eggs required for painting must first be blown – that is, emptied of their contents. This is done by piercing a larger hole in the rounded end and a smaller one at the pointed end; the contents are then broken up with a knitting needle, and blown out by air pressure. This can be done orally, or with a bicycle pump (using the attachment that blows up a football); pumps are also available for this specific purpose from egg decoration suppliers. However, the largest double-yolked eggs are not very good for ‘blowing’ as the shell is often thin and breaks into radial cracks when it is punctured

An egg which has simply been sawn in half and then decorated; design by Jackie Jarvis.

After removing the contents, the eggs should be thoroughly washed out with bleach and then dried.

The advantage of the strong shell of the goose egg is that it can also be carved into intricate designs. Special cutting equipment is needed, and advice on equipment could be sought from the Egg Crafters Guild of Great Britain. This is definitely not a young child’s activity.

Intricately carved and decorated egg, designed by Jackie Jarvis.

To keep things simple, the eggs can be painted, or transfers (from egg decoration suppliers) used. Découpage – the art of sticking paper cut-out shapes to cover the egg shell – is also an effective way of decorating eggs, and the end result can be varnished to preserve the design.

If eggs are required for both hatching and painting, then ‘incubator clears’ can be used for painting: after five days in the incubator, and with the use of a candling lamp, the fertile eggs can be distinguished from the infertile ones. The latter will not be smelly, and will look little different in content from a non-incubated egg.

Eggs can be exhibited in the painted or decorated egg section at shows. Painted eggs simply have paint applied to the surface, whereas decorated eggs have various embellishments stuck to them as well. There are generally adult and children’s sections.

Eggs are also exhibited fresh and judged for quality of both shell and content. The laying season for the goose is quite short as compared with the duck or hen, so it is often not possible to exhibit goose eggs. If the show does coincide with the laying season, waterfowl eggs invariably do well where the egg is judged for content because the yolk looks so rich and the albumen stands high.

Geese for Exhibition

According to Ambrose (1981), the idea of exhibiting poultry first occurred in the early nineteenth century when village poultry shows became popular. However, as far as Edward Brown (1930) was able to trace, the first purely poultry show was held at the Zoological Gardens in London in 1845, with goose classes for ‘Common Geese’, ‘Asiatic or Knobbed Geese’ and ‘Any Other Variety’.

An amenable African gander at a show during a photography session.

The first Birmingham Poultry Show was held in 1848, just a year before cock fighting was banned (1849). The inclusion of poultry in the Great Exhibition of 1851, and Queen Victoria’s personal interest in exhibition poultry, also helped to increase its status, and further impetus was given to its popularity when the two most prominent agricultural societies in England – the Royal Agricultural Society and the Bath and West of England Society – each included a poultry section in their annual shows in 1853. This encouraged poultry shows to be held all over England, and led to their becoming a familiar part of agricultural life.

According to Harrison Weir, no geese were exhibited live for prizes before 1845. Ducks, chickens and geese were often shown dressed for the table, and even as late as 1954, a description of dressed poultry was included in the British Standards. However, the Victorian view of the exhibit had to change, since exotic poultry – imported at great expense and therefore valuable as breeding stock – were more interesting alive than dead. Historically, as long as contact between the different regions of the world had been limited by slow transport, exotic specimens had always been rare, usually arriving back in Britain skinned, stuffed or preserved. But the Victorian transport revolution had made it more likely that livestock would survive the long journey back from the Far East, and the expansion of the British Empire, together with faster transport, led to the export of British livestock to Australia and North America, and the import of plant and animal specimens to Kew Gardens and London Zoo.

As a result, where traders had been mostly limited to the English white Aylesbury duck and the common goose, they were now able to introduce the Toulouse, Sebastopol and Hong Kong goose, and this led to a tremendous increase in interest in these imported breeds. They were painted, exhibited and publicized in the press – but as they were increasingly judged alive, there was a need to establish a standard, describing the feathers, size and shape of each breed of bird.

The first Standard of Excellence in Exhibition Poultry was published in 1865 and included the Aylesbury, Rouen, Black East Indian and Decoy (Call) duck, together with Embden and Toulouse geese. Over the years, more breeds have been added as they have been imported or have become more numerous.

Until 1982, the indigenous geese of Britain (the ‘common goose’ of 1845) were neglected in favour of imported breeds – and even in 1982 it was the American standard for the Pilgrim which was used, since the Pilgrim was recognized as a breed in the USA whilst it was ignored in Europe. The British Waterfowl Standards now gives recognition to our ‘farmyard breeds’, and is a very useful guide to the breeds; furthermore the 2008 edition has extensive colour photographs. Before buying or exhibiting any pure breed of goose, it is essential to be familiar with the standard.

Shows require a good deal of planning, so an entry form is provided for exhibitors to book and pay for the birds’ pens in advance. The show provides a penning slip, which allocates pen numbers to exhibitors, either posted in advance, or given out on the day. The larger events produce a catalogue and have catering facilities and trade stands of interest to livestock owners. Some also have exhibits of other small animals, and all in all such shows make a very good family day out.

However, goose exhibits tend to be low in the UK: it is difficult to take many geese to a show in the usual family vehicle. Exhibitions on the continent are very much larger, and German shows have good lineups of their speciality breeds such as the Embden, Steinbacher, Pomeranian and Elsässer (Alsace).

Geese for the Table

Geese can, of course, be kept for their original utility purposes. On a well organized farm with appropriate facilities they are easy to look after because they are such an intelligent flock bird. Birds brought up together will stay as a flock. They are also creatures of habit and will follow a routine of dispersing to graze during the day, and returning home at night to protected areas where food is provided.

However, the production and marketing of table geese, and by-products such as feathers, down and goose fat, are both highly seasonal and specialized. It is essential to get good advice on all aspects of production and marketing before embarking on a commercial venture. Pure breeds are generally not suitable for commercial production: they do not reproduce in sufficiently large numbers, and advice will be needed on food conversion and the best strain. The British Goose Producers website gives information on commercial geese, and is an excellent organization to join for advice.

Goose meat, once thought to be rather fatty, does have a higher total fat content than chicken or turkey, but less than beef or lamb. There is also a relatively low proportion of saturated fat, and a higher proportion of mono-unsaturated and essential fatty acids. It is therefore healthy food.

The same cannot be said of pâté de foie gras, produced by the forced feeding of confined ducks and geese (known as ‘gavage’) so that the liver becomes enlarged by up to ten times its normal size – becoming, in fact, diseased. When extracts of such a liver have been fed experimentally to mice, they too have developed diseased organs (seeUseful Contacts). Foie gras is not produced in the UK, and production is also outlawed in most of Europe – that forced feeding exists at all is a constant issue in animal welfare, and it is a disgrace that it still occurs in EU countries but against EU welfare regulations.

Feathers and Down

Goose quills and down were an essential part of everyday life before the twentieth century. These natural products are still used today and are far more sophisticated than the synthetic materials now available: goose down as light as air, quills for calligraphy and feather vanes for fletching all out-perform their modern substitutes.

When the longbow was an essential part of warfare at the time of Crécy (1346) and Agincourt (1415), the goose played a crucial role in that archers would select goose flight feathers to ‘fletch’ their arrows. These flights could have come from the farmyard goose, though it is more likely they were taken from the Greylag. The vane of the goose flight feather is very tough and resilient, and even today, experienced archers find that goose feathers work far better than substitute plastic.

Quill Pens

In the past, records were kept by inscribing on wax or soft clay tablets, and reed pens were used for writing on papyrus in ancient Egypt. However, some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are said to be written in quill pen, and the technique was introduced to Europe by around 700AD. By medieval times the goose quill was the preferred method for writing on more durable parchment. The best quality feathers were pulled from living birds, since the feathers and quills are not as strong once they are moulted, after a year’s wear and tear.

‘A goose quill gentleman’: this appellation was given to lawyers who often carried their pen stuck behind their ear when at their office. The saying ‘A goose quill is more dangerous than a lion’s claw’ came about because of the legal connotations. The quill was used in 1787 to write and sign the Constitution of the United States of America, and other great documents such as Magna Carta.

The word ‘pen’ comes from the Latin word ‘penna’, meaning feather. The favoured feathers for writing are the outer flights, which are more asymmetrical and also larger than the inner flights. For the best pens only the outer two or three feathers are used. The shaft of the feather acts as a reservoir for the ink. The quill was probably the instrument of choice for over a thousand years before it was supplanted by the metal dip pen, fountain pen and ball-point biro.

Goose quills can, of course, be collected each year from geese when they ‘drop their flights’ on moulting. Children love to use them in history projects at school; however, an adult should cut them into shape as the quills are amazingly tough.

Goose Down

The harvesting of feather and down was a necessity in the past. Geese were plucked of their breast down mainly in April when the feathers are supposed to be loose: this is when the broody goose plucks her own breast down for the nest, and even the gander’s breast feathers start to fall. Harrison Weir (1902) quotes Pennant thus:

It is for the sake of their quills and feathers that they are bred, being stripped while they are alive once a year for the quills and four or five times for their feathers. From this operation they do not in general suffer much, unless cold weather sets in, when great numbers perish in consequence.

The live plucking of geese (up to four times annually, for their down and feathers) is not permitted in the UK and most of Europe: it is a welfare issue because of the stress and physical damage it causes to the birds. An EU consultation document was produced on this issue in 2010 after the exposure of, and outrage at, such a practice. In agreement with European welfare regulations, the live plucking of geese should stop.

Goose feathers and down can be ethically produced from the dry plucking of dead table geese. This down is very clean, and just smells a bit ‘goosey’, like fresh grass. However, commercial goose feather and down products are advertised as ‘steam cleaned’.

Unwashed down is very resistant to moulds and bacteria, and does not seem to be attacked by insects such as moths and beetles. Down in old duvets behaves as well as ever after even thirty years of use.

Downy feathers have an almost non-existent stem. The long barbs have barbules, but they lack hooklets (barbicels) to lock the feather together. Down has the ability to expand from a compressed, stored state and to trap large amounts of insulating air.

For the home preserving of down, gentle baking in the oven has been recommended, perhaps similar to the method described by Weir:

The plan most generally pursued by farmers’ wives … is to lay the feathers on paper on the floor of a spare room to dry, and then beat them lightly to get out the dust or dirt, after which the quill parts are carefully cut off, and then they are put into bags and placed in the oven after the baking, while it is yet slightly warm, and left there, when, after a few weeks, the bags are hung in rows on beams in an airy room so as to get thoroughly free from all moisture, and when that is so, are put into bed, pillow or cushion ‘ticks’ for use.

(Weir, 1902)

Where sufficient quantity of feather and down is produced in the UK, goose producers market their own ethically produced feather and down products; alternatively the product can be processed by specialists located in East Anglia (seeUseful Addresses).

3 How to Start

Welfare of both farm animals and pets comes first, so think twice about geese if space is limited, if neighbours are likely to complain about noise, or if your children are too young to cope with them. Geese are also a tie: they cannot just be left when you go on holiday – someone must look after them when you are away, and fox-proof fencing should be in place to keep them safe. Before making a decision on how many birds to keep, refer to the sections on understanding geese (seeChapters 4–6) and their requirements (Chapter 16). Also, it might be advisable to start off in a small way to see how you get on with them, and how the land responds.

Geese are usually sold in pairs, and are best kept in pairs unless high production is wanted. A gander often favours just one goose; females can pick on one another, and for peace and harmony, especially if the goose is sitting, a pair is easier to manage. Never shut up together birds that do not get on, because the stronger one can inflict serious damage on the other. For that reason it is not advisable to introduce a new female to an established pair, because she will be disliked by the resident female. Geese do pair in the wild, and domestic geese tend to keep their natural habits.

Breeds of Geese in the UK Standards

A breed is a group that has been selected by humans to possess a set of inherited characteristics that distinguishes it from other geese. A ‘breed’ must be recognized by a governing body. Breeders select individual birds from within the same gene pool to maintain the characteristics of the breed: that is, they choose individuals that will pass on desirable characteristics to their progeny. Breeders are generally familiar with standards and waterfowl exhibitions, and keep stock records.

Heavy geese

Weight in lb (kg)

Estimate of eggs per annum *

African

18–28 (8–13)

Up to 30

American Buff

20–28 (9–13)

25–30

Embden

24–34 (11–15)

Up to 30

Toulouse

20–30 (9–14)

30–40

Medium geese

Brecon Buff

14–20 (6–9)

Up to 30

Buff Back and Grey Back

16–22 (7–10)

30

Pomeranian

16–24 (7–11)

30–40

West of England

14–20 (6–9)

20–30

Light geese

Chinese

8–12 (3–5)

Up to 40, or more **

Bohemian [Czech]

9–12 (4–5)

40–60**

Pilgrim

12–18 (5–8)

25–35

Roman

10–14 (4–6)

40–65**

Sebastopol

10–16 (4–7)

25–40

Steinbacher

11–15 (5–7)

5–40

These breeds make good sitters – they are likely to go broody, and are not too heavy

* Estimate only. The number laid depends on the strain, the age of the bird, and how they are fed. Numbers quoted are for young birds, without artificial lighting

**The number very much depends on the strain. Geese mostly lay in spring only. A laying strain of commercial Chinese will lay up to eighty eggs, some of those in autumn

Popular breeds of geese standardized in Europe.

It is important that the breed is fit for purpose. Pure breeds are no use for commercial table production because they don’t hatch out in large enough numbers. Commercial producers have their own strains of white geese which have been selected to lay large numbers of easy-to-hatch eggs.

Check breed characteristics for size and behaviour. The heavier breeds require more space, larger housing and more washing water; they will also lay fewer eggs. The egg-laying strains are generally lighter in weight but can be noisy. They are, however, often more widely available because they are easier to produce.

Although the breeds do behave somewhat differently from each other (especially the African and the Chinese), strain and upbringing are the most important factors in goose behaviour – meet geese with their owners before you decide to buy. On the whole, well managed pure breeds make better pets, and are more interesting birds, than white commercial geese (seeChapter 21). Also, quite often an amenable white ‘table’ gosling can turn into the archetypal farmyard tyrant in the breeding season, and this situation is best avoided by good management and a sensible choice of bird.

Getting to Know the Breeds

If the main aim is to produce a pure breed for exhibition, or for sale as a pure breed, the parent stock should conform to the published standard. It is advisable to check birds against the standards, and birds in breed classes at the larger shows.

The main waterfowl shows are in winter when the birds are in full feather, and when they travel better in the lower temperatures. To look at a specific breed, visit one of these where there is a class for every breed, and there may be several examples to see at first hand. Although the most accessible events are the summer County shows, these are frequently not well attended. Summer is the wrong time: it is often too hot for stock to travel, the birds are in moult, and breeders are too busy rearing youngstock.

It is also useful to visit an established breeder. Breeders are generally not open to the public because their geese are usually hobby birds. However, many of those who advertise are willing to show their birds to anyone with a genuine interest – though it is advisable to make an appointment first.

Birds unfortunately do not have pedigrees. In the absence of written records, the best insurance for a ‘pedigree’ bird is the closed breeder ring issued by each country in Europe (seeChapter 20). Specialist breeders of long standing will keep their own stock records and find closed ringing useful for this purpose. Such breeders are also likely to find new stock from abroad. This is important because closely related birds ultimately fail to breed. Geese suffer from a more limited gene pool than ducks because fewer birds are kept and it is much more difficult to keep the pure breeds going.

Waterfowl show: Normandy geese at Tours, in France, in November 2010. Colin Brierley

Obtaining Stock

Eggs and Goslings

Eggs of ‘pure breed’ geese are now commonly offered for sale. However, breeders with quality stock rarely sell eggs. Geese lay few eggs compared with ducks and poultry, often only between fifteen and forty. Fertility in goose eggs is also more random than in ducks, so these two factors mean that a hatch of eight goslings from one female is good for one season. Breeders who value their stock therefore need the eggs themselves, and where fertility is erratic, it is also difficult to arrive at a fair price.

Hatching eggs advertised in the paper, on sale at markets or on the internet, are unlikely to produce good examples of pure breeds. Vendors may or may not know the breeds, but you will not know how old the eggs are, how they have been stored, or even if they have already been incubated and are ‘incubator clears’ (seeChapter 19). Goose eggs also get very badly shaken up in travelling through the post because of their size, so fertility and hatchability tend to be poor.

Pure breed goslings are rarely sold by breeders unless the quality can be assessed early – as in the colour of Buff Backs and Pilgrims. Breeders aim to grow birds to see which are best, mainly because it is often impossible to tell at first glance which of the goslings will make the best birds: out of the same hatch there can be exhibition birds, some good quality breeders, and birds that are only pet quality. As a result they will vary in price. Breeders generally sell only well grown birds from August onwards. By contrast, commercial birds are hatched in higher numbers and should be available as goslings in the spring (seeChapter 21).

Adult Birds

Adult birds are those which are in their second feathers and are at least sixteen weeks old. However, they are not sexually mature and they will continue to grow, especially the larger breeds.

Older birds, past their prime, are sometimes available as pet and garden stock, but guard against buying a female with a broken down, distended abdomen. Such birds often lay double-yolked eggs and are also prone to infertility.