High Desert Counseling

Goslings- $50

    (We currently have a waiting list.  We have both solids and saddlebacks.  Please specify.)

~Breeding pair of Cotton Patch Geese for sale!

  This type of goose is extremely rare and hard to find.  Our geese are wonderful!  I love these guys.  They follow you around everywhere, they climb into your lap to take a nap and best of all they AREN'T AGGRESSIVE!!  Our geese don't bite or even hiss.  Geese that show ANY aggression are culled from the flock.  We breed our geese for friendliness, meat production and weeding abilities (they were originally used to weed the cotton fields of the south until chemicals were brought in and made them "useless").  No more locking your geese up and never interacting with them.  No more running from a flock of honking terrorists.  No more bruises or broken skin.  Help preserve this endangered goose and enjoy doing it!!

Here's some information about Cotton Patch geese based on my experience and correspondence with Tom Walker and Justin Pitts, the Cotton Patch gurus.

Egg Laying:

These geese breed every spring and have a limited amount of eggs.  They usually lay three clutches of an average of seven eggs each (I've had up to 10 in a clutch), so they don't lay huge quantities of eggs.  Normally, a breeder will take the first 2 clutches, incubate them and then let the goose hatch the third clutch herself.  It's very easy to collect the eggs as they aren't aggressive.  I've never had one attack me even when I'm ransacking her nest.  They do bury their eggs in their nest, so you have to search for it.  I let one egg always be in the nest, which means that you have to mark the first egg so you know which egg is the oldest.  After the second egg is laid, you take out the older one and mark the next one (I usually write the date it was laid).  

Regarding the number of eggs.  The number varies greatly from goose to goose.  Some lines seem to lay very few while other lines lay more.  I have some geese that consistently lay clutches of as few as five while others lay clutches of twelve to fourteen.  One goose layed three clutches of five each this past spring.

 

Most of my geese normally begin laying about Valentine's Day.  If I take the eggs from them and hatch them in the incubator the goose will usually lay another clutch.  Some will lay three clutches.  Often the last clutch is not fertile or at least some of the eggs are not fertile.  If the last clutch comes after the weather is quite hot, the eggs are usually not fertile.

 

Goose eggs are not easy to incubate successfully in an incubator.  One gets the best hatch when the goose is allowed to incubate her own eggs.  Usually it takes 30 days for the eggs to hatch.  I like to gather her eggs daily, clean them if they are muddy, keep them in a place where the temperature is not too hot or too cold, turn the eggs at least twice daily, and then put them back under the goose when she starts setting.  Of course I keep fooler eggs in her nest while she is laying.  I sometimes incubate her first clutch in the incubator and let her set on her second clutch.

If I plan to incubate the eggs in an incubator, I usually leave the first egg in the nest until she lays the next.  Then take the first.  When I continue that, none of the eggs remain to get old. I keep the eggs in a cool place and turn them at least twice a day.  If hatching in an incubator, I try to keep the eggs not more than a week.

 

If you want her to set on the eggs, you can just leave the eggs in the nest.

Incubating eggs:

If your incubator is not a self turner you will need to turn the eggs at least two times a day.  One of the times, spray them with  warm (not hot) water--especially the last two weeks

On incubating goose eggs with chicken eggs:

Goose eggs do best if on their side in the incubator.  Also, they need quite a bit more humidity than chicken eggs. Further, they incubate at slightly less temperature than chicken eggs--about a half degree less temperature than chicken.

 

Since chicken eggs usually take more "abuse" during incubation than other eggs, I would favor the goose eggs.

Candling eggs:

For chicken eggs wait at least 10 days to candle.  Wait at least 14 days to
candle turkey and goose eggs.  Even at 14 days I am not always sure with
goose eggs because of the thick shells.

When the goose finishes her first clutch:

If you had left an egg or a fooler egg in the nest, she likely would have started setting on the nest.  If she is setting on the nest, you will have to fill the nest so she can not get on it in order for her to start a new clutch.  If so, leave the material used to fill the nest in the nest about three days and then remove it.  She should start back laying within about a week--give or take a day or so.

 

Breeding Considerations:

An important note for breeding is that these geese need water to breed in (I learned this the hard way when I had my first clutch completely infertile).  I use a water trough that is 4x2x1 ft (1 ft deep).  

I have my best success when I have them paired.  Some ganders will mate with more than one goose; however, the arrangement is not always successful.  I am not sure whether the problem is the gander or whether it is jealousy among the geese.  I suspect that it may be the latter.

Flying:

These geese do fly, though I've never had one fly before and I don't trim their wings.  Birds either need to be pinioned, have their flight feathers trimmed often or be in a covered area so they can't get out.  I don't do any of this, but I may one day regret it.

Cotton Patch Standards:

Solids will often be "pied" slightly.  This is normal.  Good breeding birds will have pink feet and bill and boys will have blue eyes.  "All ganders should have blue eyes.  If one does not have blue eyes, he should be deepfreeze bound"-Tom Walker

Some more information from the ALBC:

Once commonplace on farms in the southeastern U.S., the Cotton Patch is a breed of goose that gets its name from the job it performed. These geese were used to weed cotton and corn fields up until the 1950s. Cotton Patch geese are remembered in the rural south for helping many farmers and their families survive the Great Depression by providing a regular source of meat, eggs, and grease.

The breed’s beginnings are not clear but it is thought to have derived from European stock brought to the U.S. during the colonial period. Cotton Patch geese posses many qualities that are common in sex-linked European breeds such as the West of England, Shetland, and Normandy geese. However, these breeds are recent importations to North America, and have not played a role in the development of the Cotton Patch goose. The Cotton Patch goose is the remaining relic of a little known American breed of goose with parent stock that probably shares common ancestors with the above mentioned sex-linked geese breeds. Cotton Patch are sexually dimorphic as other sex-linked goose breeds, but differ by having pink or orange-pink bills, light weight bodies, and the ability to fly.

The Cotton Patch is a “sleek” goose that resembles Greylag geese. The breed is a light- to medium-sized goose. Because of their smaller size, the breed has the ability to adjust to hot weather better than most of the heavier breeds of geese. The Cotton Patch is an “upright” goose with tail in line with back and wings, giving it a clean wedge shape without a “prick” tail. The Cotton Patch’s body is more elongated and is not rounded like that of the Shetland or Pilgrim goose. Lobe development – the fat flaps between the legs of a goose – is minimal and a single lobe, if any, becomes present with supplemental feeding. Without supplemental feed, a lobe is not present.

The Cotton Patch’s head is rounded and the beak is dished. There is one strain that more closely resembles the Pilgrim and has a beak that is slightly “roman”. The ganders in this strain tend to have as many gray feathers as Pilgrim ganders, but these feathers are all dove gray – unlike the Pilgrim in which they can be slate gray.

Cotton Patch geese have the ability to fly well beyond their first year, easily clearing 5-6 foot fences without a running start. Although this may seem like a fault to some, this ability often allows the birds to escape predators unlike the heavier geese.

This is a now rare native American sex-linked breed. They got the name Cotton Patch Goose in the Deep South, where they were historically used to weed cotton fields. In other parts of the country they were sometimes found under other names.

Although similar to Pilgrims in their dimorphism, Cotton Patch Geese are much sleeker in body type, resembling more closely the Graylag Goose. Unlike most domestic geese they can fly fairly well, though not for long distances. They also deal with hot weather better than most geese.

Males are white with some dove gray feathers on the rump. Females are found in two color phases -- Pied or Saddleback and solid, which is much like the Pilgrim Goose but dove gray where Pilgrims are normally a darker gray. These phases may be found in the same flock. They are sexable at hatching, the females being dark with a pink and gray bicolored bill and the males being yellow.