Breeding Sebastopol Geese

Pairing

Geese pair strongly and a settled pair produces better than a rearranged one, so set your pens before the season rather than during it. Buy unrelated birds if you intend to breed: it is the single easiest thing to get right at purchase and the hardest to fix afterwards. Our adult birds are sold as matched unrelated pairs for that reason.

Water helps. Geese mate more successfully with access to water deep enough to float in, and fertility in a pen without it is noticeably worse. This is one of the few areas where a pool earns its cost.

Season and laying

Laying starts in spring as day length increases and tapers through early summer. A first-year goose is usually less productive and less reliable than the same bird a year later, so judge a pen on its second season rather than its first.

If you are collecting for incubation, the incubation guide covers storage, turning and how long an egg stays viable before setting. Eggs we sell are on the hatching eggs page.

Colour and feather type

Colour and feather type are inherited separately, which is the thing most new breeders miss. A pen that consistently throws good lavender tells you nothing about whether it throws curly or smooth breasted birds. Track them as two separate questions.

On colour, the family relationships in the colours guide are the practical map: grey is ancestral, buff is its warm dilution, lavender its cool one, lilac a dilution of buff, and saddleback and splash are patterns laid over whichever base colour a bird carries.

On feather type, be sceptical of anyone quoting a confident percentage of curly to smooth from a given cross without knowing their own birds. The honest answer is that it depends on what the parents carry. Keep records over a couple of seasons and you will know your own pens better than any rule of thumb.

The standard

The American Poultry Association standard recognises white only, and calls for the smooth breasted type. If showing is the goal, that narrows things considerably. If it is not, the coloured birds are just as much Sebastopols and a good deal more interesting to breed.

Whatever you are selecting for, judge type before colour: a broad body carried level, a full smooth breast, and long well-curled feathers over back and wings. Colour is the easy part to fix in a programme. Type is not.

Common Questions

When is Sebastopol geese breeding season?

Laying generally begins in spring as day length increases and tapers through early summer. First-year geese usually lay less reliably than established ones.

How do you breed Sebastopol geese?

Pair unrelated birds, set the pen before the season starts, and give them water deep enough to float in, which materially improves fertility. Colour and feather type are inherited separately and should be tracked as two questions.

See the sexing guide before you pair anything, the colours guide for what your pen may throw, and incubation for what happens after the eggs are collected.