Before Beebalm hatched (the gosling with the obvious spot) I could only assume that perhaps there were spots. The previous goslings had spots sort of but they had gray hairs mixed with their yellow hairs making it hard to determine whether they were truly spotted or not. One other gosling in the batch with Beebalm may have had a solid hairs for his spot maybe at least in certain areas of his spot. His spot was smaller and not as obvious. Solid hair spot trait - Beebalm & one other Mixed hair spot trait - Previous goslings I hope to learn what Beebalm's spot will look like when he matures. Believed to be the offspring of Gray African Gander (all of my geese have Chinese in them) x White Chinese Goose
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Traits Crescent Trait (Gosling Trait) - a marking that looks like a crescent. It is a marking that I think is always present in a gosling. It is around each of the gosling's eyes. It typically is bolder in color around one eye than the other on the same, individual gosling. I believe it is present on all goslings because depending on the shade of gray and where the gray is located I think it may blend in sometimes giving the gosling the appearance of not having it at all. But when you look closely for it you will likely find it! Artist's Touch (Goose Trait) - this refers to the orange spotting on the feet of goslings that are descended from a White Chinese goose or a banded goose. It usually a trait that goes alongside orange spotting on the lower beak and a white band. I believe that adult geese that had this as goslings likely retain orange on their feet. Full Band and Half Band (Goose Trait) - A full band and half band both start from the chest and go up the sides. The full band will go along the top as well while the half band stops. The band is located after the wings and before the neck. This traits is also common with Artist's Touch and the spotting on the beak. Adults so far have a band although my banded goose after her last molt barely has one. Spotting on the Beak (Goose Trait) - This is orange spotting is present on the lower part of the beak. It varies greatly how the spotting is and therefore makes the goose unique especially when they also have the Artist's Touch and either the Full Band or Half Band. When the goose grows up the orange may appear in other areas of the beak and also the knob. I have never kept a gosling like this so I am not completely certain. Knobs - Knobs vary greatly. Some can be big and make the goose look like it will fall over head first while others are barely present at all! Some are very round while others are kind of square-like. Typically ganders will have a more pronounced knob but females can sometimes too! There is a lot of variation in this. Ash Eye-Color (Goose Trait) - A while back I was trying to name the eye-colors in a way that was not confusing and inconsistent. I decided that there should only be two eye-colors one which is Ash while the other is Brown. Ash is a very, very light brown. I named it after one of my geese who was a very good example of the ash-eye color but also after the trunk of an ash tree because that tree's trunk is a lighter color than most of the trees I know of. Brown Eye-Color (Goose Trait) - Brown is a group of varying shades of brown. There is a light brown but it is not like the Ash eye-color at all. Somehow it seems to be redder in color. Also in the brown group as well is.. brown! There is an even darker shade that makes geese look like they have black eyes. If the sun is shining you can see their pupils, however. I originally grouped the black eyes as a separate color but because they are actually brown and at times the goose looks like it has brown eyes instead I decided it was rather inconsistent and removed that eye-color. Blue Eye-Color (Goose Trait) - The White Chinese have blue eyes. I have noticed that their blues are not all the same shade of blue but that would be far too complicated to separate as different colors. The Stripes (Goose Trait) - Stripes vary greatly. Because of all that variation I cannot really classify them. There are light stripes, gray stripes, brown stripes, reddish-brown stripes, and all kinds of shades! The shape of the stripe varies to! Some geese have a thin stripe on their head while others have a thick one. How it curves from the neck to the head varies as well! The Headshapes (Goose Trait) - This is also hard to decide. Some geese have rather square heads while others have rather round ones. But there are in betweens and some that are impossible to describe! I typically dislike a square head in a female because it tends to make them look far too masculine. Tongue Spots (Goose Trait) - Not all geese have a completely pink tongue! This is a thing I notice when they are hissing at me or moving a piece of corn to swallow it. I have noticed that a few have a gray spot on their tongue. I do not know what that suggests or if it even does! Claw Color (Goose Trait) - Gray African/Chinese geese will have black claws. As goslings they are gray with a bit of pink showing at the end. I assume their claws as goslings are not as thick as they will be! White Chinese geese have white claws. The white claws show up in goslings with Artist's Touch. I do not know if the first banded goslings who also had Artist's Touch had white claws. It makes me wonder if all of the Artist's Touch goslings have to have white claws or if some of them can have gray claws like their gray gosling friends. Beak Color (Goose Trait) - Gray African/Chinese geese have a black beak while White Chinese geese have an orange beak with pinkish shades. Foot Color (Goose Trait) - Both the Gray African/Chinese and White Chinese geese have orange feet. As goslings the Gray Aftican/Chinese have black, gray, or even slate feet. The White Chinese goslings have pink feet. Size (Goose Trait) - Size varies greatly when you have an African/Chinese flock! Some are very probably about 10 pounds while others are 20 pounds. The Neck (Goose Trait) - If a goose picked up the Chinese side of traits than they will have a slender neck that may even be longer than the other geese' neck. If he picked up the African side than his neck will likely be shorter and thicker. As I keep researching (mainly traits of goslings) I may have traits to add to this list. I had posted about Rowan when he was called Dandelion and about his gray marking on each side of his head that made him look like he had eyebrows. I was wondering if this would affect his stripe when he was older. I believe the eyebrow markings were an indication of how his stripe would run from his beak to under his eye then to the top of his head and then down along the back of his neck.
I have been raising Gray African/Chinese geese for two years now and I have heard about the white geese. People often have them alongside a gray goose in pairs. I had been speculating on changing to Roman geese until I found out that they are very likely to have defects but white Chinese geese would make up for that. I believe they are supposed to have blue eyes like all the other white geese but I am not sure. White Chinese geese are supposed to have a colorless gene instead of a white gene. Making everything regarding breeding totally different.
My slow and adorable goose named Tupelo was quite a marvel when she first feathered out. Typically a young goose when he or she first feathers out will have a bunch of speckled feathers on their chest and the chest will look brownish. But Tupelo was an exception. Her chest feathers were cream. Apart from the chest feathers there are the tail feathers. Most geese will have sloppy coloring on their tail feathers. Each tail feather has a gray spot in the middle outlined by a thick white border. Sometimes that spot is not all that perfect and has a mixture of white on it. Other times the top half of the tail feather can be white while the bottom half is gray with some of both color mixed in. So it is rather crazy when first feathering out and can stay crazy even past that.
I had originally decided on four types of eye-colors: Sassafras, Cherry, Ash, and Wide Eyes. This proved incredibly complicated because the Sassafras and Cherry eye-colors proved to be very similar except for one gander with the Cherry eye-color. But that was one goose. I decided to merge Sassafras and Cherry and simply go with Brown. Sassafras was named after one of my geese who passed this eye-color on to three of her offspring. I used Cherry because this color I considered to have a reddish look to it. I kept Ash and Wide Eyes although they may prove to be complicated sometimes as well.
Dandelion has grown to have a fascinating trait. He has a big gray spot above each eye that makes him look like he has eyebrows. I cannot call by name any previous gosling from the past who may have had this same trait. It is quite possible none of them ever had it as Dandelion is from a different bloodline. I will be watching to see if this will completely disappear or if it will make his coloring slightly or obviously different from the other geese when he is fully feathered out.
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my name is EmilyI have twenty-eight geese. I hatch a bunch of goslings because I want a lot of people to have geese. I do not see them everywhere but I want to! The goslings are the sweetest baby birds I know! The adult males are proud and can be cranky but have their sweet moments while the females are shy and sweet all at the same time. Categories
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July 2021
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