[Julie Taylor]

Hello everyone,

We are thinking of setting up a new flock of geese at Bill Quay Farm, and we're looking at rare breeds.  Currently we're considering two very similar breeds, the Pilgrim and the West of England, I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with either of them?

Cheers,

Julie

[Bodger]

Go for which ever breed you can lay your hands on. I think that you may find them fairly few and far between.

[roddycm]

I've had both. The west of england is larger but they are both beautiful breeds. My pilgrims could really fly, sometimes they'd all take off and truly fly quite some distance! Both make great parents etc, if I had to choose I'd go for WoE because of their larger size. Make sure you get stock from a reputable breeder as there are a lot of xbreds out there that ppl try to pass off as pilgrims or woe! Good luck!

[HesterF]

I've got two pairs of West of England and I love them. But yes to the above - hard to get true stock. I live in Kent and one of my pairs came from the top breeders in the country who are in Wiltshire, the other came from Devon. I can put you in touch with both if you want to find out whether they have any more available (and the Wiltshire breeder is also chair of the British Waterfowl Association who are putting together a list of all reputable breeders of WoE so they should know who else might be closer to you - last I heard there were only about ten breeders on the list). I'm hoping to breed unrelated pairs next year if you can wait that long.....

H

[ScribbleUk]

We have 4 Pilgrims and they are brilliant.  Very easy to tame and work with.  They have no interest in going into their shelter of their own accord, but are very easy to herd in each evening.  Very inquisitive and will follow us around the field to see what we're doing.  Don't always play well with our ducks but don't bother the chickens.

[Victorian Farmer]

I spent a  100 pounds on eggs I got 6 pilgrims and 4 west of England .I lost the 6 in a flash flud the west of England's are ok we also have snow geese and African the pilgrims are worth the effort.They need to be pure and worth the work .A trio is worth 150 all day they lay 40 eggs each march they fetch 4 pound each .So well worth the work .

[HesterF]

You were lucky to get WoE eggs - the breeders I know won't sell hatching eggs because they'd rather hatch them themselves to make sure they maximise the hatch rate. Yep, they're rare! Which is weird given they used to be the farmyard birds of England.

H

[zarzar]

i have a pair of woe's and love them they wont be ready to lay till next year but def prefer them to ebdems the female is already bigger than the ebdems and loves attetion.