Hatching, Raising and Breeding
Hatching
If supplemented with egg laying pellets in addition to grass, a Pilgrim goose is able to lay anywhere from 30-45 eggs in a season, starting around mid-February and dwindling off by May. The exact times your geese start and stop laying depends on the weather.
If you have problems hatching goose eggs then you're not alone. These eggs are extremely difficult to hatch artificially. For a good hatch either let the geese set the eggs themselves, or put the eggs under a Muscovy. The goose can cover up to 12-14 eggs at a time, while a Muscovy hen is typically more comfortable with 8-10 eggs. These eggs will hatch in 30-35 days. If you collect the eggs to put in an incubator, under a different goose or under a Muscovy, the Pilgrim will keep laying throughout the season. Once a goose has laid enough eggs in a nest to satisfy her she will not start another nest until after the goslings hatch and after she has raised them.
Allowing the goose to both hatch and raise her own offspring means you will get one full clutch of goslings per year. During particularly good weather, you may be able to get two clutches. If you take the goslings away once they are born she will begin working on another nest, allowing you to get a second clutch of babies in before the season is over. For maximum egg production (either for goslings or to eat the eggs), collecting her eggs once or twice a day will keep her laying all season.
Geese are notoriously good at hiding their nesting sites and if they are allowed to free range then finding and gathering the eggs in time is virtually impossible. Confining the geese to a large pen will make it easier for your and for the goose, since it will keep the eggs or the setting goose from being discovered by a predator before she is finished sitting.
After the eggs hatch, you can opt to let the Muscovy raise them, let a goose adopt them, or hand rear them. By hand rearing them, the goslings will be much more relaxed and friendly around people, which is oftentimes worth the extra work.
Raising
Once you have your goslings, make sure they stay warm and dry: easier said than done. Like ducklings, goslings love to play in their water. While they aren't as bad as "yucklings," they can still make a mess.
Keep the temperature at around 95 F for the first week and lower it 5-10 degrees for each week thereafter. Goslings are very hardy and their down grows quickly, meaning they need to spend less time in the brooder. After two or three weeks your goslings will be ready to move outside into a grassy pen.
When feeding, make sure you use a non-medicated formula. Medicated formulas have not been tested for waterfowl and can be deadly. Also buy food with a 20%+ protein to keep up with their rapid growth. Gamebird or a broiler/fryer feed works the best if you cannot find feed specifically formulated for waterfowl.
You may also want to supplement the feed with cut grass from the yard or 1-2" tall grass grown in cups (by the way, this supplemental feed is free and helps cut costs while making your goslings happy). When goslings can't pull at grass, are too confined, or are simply bored, they will begin pulling the fuzz off of the backs of their companions. The assaulted gosling will cry out in pain/for help and try to get away from the onslaught, but never actually snaps at the attacker, which means he never stops attacking.
Vitamin supplements, sugar and/or honey can be provided in the water to give goslings an extra boost of energy. This is particularly important during the first few days after hatching, and is good to do for the first week or so. A tablespoon of sugar or the equivalent honey is mixed per gallon of water. If you are using vitamin supplements, take the recommended dose for poultry per gallon and HALVE it. Goslings drink far more water than chicks and can overdose on vitamins and medication placed in the water.
Water must be kept in front of goslings at all times. As obvious as this may seem, since they like to splash around a quart or gallon of water won't last as long as it should. Be prepared to check them more often than chickens. As a general rule of thumb, assume they have been given half of what they actually received: so a gallon waterer becomes a half gallon.
If the goslings run out of water keep a VERY careful eye on them when water is put back in. They can suffer from "drunken" syndrome, where they over-drink and drown themselves. When this happens, the gosling will stagger around and act intoxicated. Immediately remove him from any water and wait for his body to catch up to the water intake. More often than not this is fatal, but success stories come around often enough to make it worth trying to revive the little guy.
If the goslings are making too much of a mess out of their water then try swapping to a water bottle. 32oz water bottles made for rabbits are perfect for goslings (though as day-olds you may want to use a smaller 16oz bottle to keep too much water from gushing out at once). Place the water bottle inside the pen with a bowl underneath. Any extra water that drips down into the bowl can be dabbled at while the goslings eat. If they still make too much of a mess out of the extra water then put a screen top over the dish.
Breeding
American Buffs and Pilgrims can be kept in pairs and trios. I have heard of success with keeping one gander to every three to five females, but strongly recommend against doing so. Fertility in both breeds tends to average on the low side so an even male:female ratio may be better in the long run, or at least two males to every three females. Possibly due to a smaller gene pool (or the autosexing gene, itself), many Pilgrim strains have a somewhat lower fertility than normal.
Geese do not need water to breed in, but they definitely appreciate having one available. A wading pool, or even a tub almost large enough for two geese to be in at once will be used by the pair and will help increase your fertility.
Some geese will become protective during breeding season, which begins in mid February and ends in May-June. Normally docile geese may hiss at you on occasion, which shouldn't be considered a problem. Any Pilgrims or Buffs that display actual aggressive behavior probably shouldn't be kept for breeding. These can be culled out and either butchered or sold. Explain to the new owner why they are being sold to make sure they don't keep that line going. The best thing to do is to sell them to someone who wants meat or weeder geese and doesn't plan on keeping a pure pair. Crossing either breed with an Embden or Toulouse creates excellent meat offspring. Crossing them with Chinese makes a more delicate looking weeder goose with a meatier body.
Goose Nestboxes
One of the cheapest and easiest ways to make a nest box is to take an old tire, throw it on the ground and provide straw. If you can place the tire under a tight-fitting shelter it will help immensely. Geese don't want to hatch out goslings in the open, and become protective of "their" hatching grounds (as small as that may be per pair). Potted weeds (really, really long to discourage too much eating) and/or having a cheap old dog house over the tire will keep the rain, sun, and snow off of the goose while making her feel more secure about the nesting site.
Don't be surprised if you make the perfect nesting area and the geese decide to lay in a really boring, wide-open spot six feet away (or right on the outside). They'll choose a spot that looks good to them. If you want to encourage them to use a particular nest then place a goose egg inside the nest and pen them up inside (give room to roam outside the nest). They'll get the hint.
The goose knows how many eggs she can comfortably sit on. For some geese it's only 5-6, for others it's a dozen eggs. Unless you're concerned about the weather or plan on incubating the eggs under a different goose (or muscovy) or artificially in an incubator then don't bother disturbing the nest. Your geese will be much happier knowing that they've cleverly picked out a nesting site that no one knows about.