Chickens are a common entry into keeping backyard birds, but there is also a lot to be said for geese.

Though they are generally less productive egg layers than chickens, they produce grease and meat, can sometimes be raised on grass and are effective guards to keep flying predators, including hawks, away from chickens and ducks. When hand-raised and well-socialized, geese can be friendly and protective. 

Farm geese are descended from wild European and Asian geese, but three domestic breeds developed by American farmers for small operations and local conditions can still be found at specialty breeders today. If you’re adding birds to your homestead this spring, you might want to consider a goose.

All three American breeds are medium-sized and generally friendly; they forage for food, reducing feed costs, and have even been used to weed gardens. They’re also considered breeds in need of conservation to keep them from disappearing. 

Cotton Patch

These geese are named for the jobs they once held eating the weeds and grass from Southern cotton and corn fields, according to breeders and historians. They nearly went extinct and are still considered very rare.

Friendly and good at foraging, the small-to-medium-sized geese are also can fly, which is unusual for domestic geese. This allows the birds to escape predators. They’re good parents and more productive egg layers than many other goose breeds, which typically produce between 20 and 40 eggs each year.

Cotton Patch and American Pilgrim geese are unusual among geese, and poultry in general, because the difference between males and females is visible from birth. 

American Pilgrim

These geese have murky origins, but it is possible they came to America from England with early colonists. They also may have been developed by a Missouri breeder in the 1930s, when they were first documented by the Pilgrim name, according to the Livestock Conservancy.

Wherever they came from, they’re considered great homestead birds because they’re calm, friendly and quiet (for a goose). They’re hardy, fast-growing and forage well, meaning you save on feed costs, and American Pilgrims also take to parenting naturally. 

The goose is considered rare, and females in particular can be hard to find from mail-order hatcheries. Ordering sites say they sell out quickly, so keep watch in March and April when ordering opens.

American Buff

These apricot-colored geese are the easiest American breed to find; the livestock conservancy has them on a watch list, rather than considering them threatened. They were developed in the 1940s as commercial meat birds, and their feathers are supposedly easier to remove. 

American Buffs are also a less aggressive, generally calm breed that can bond to people; dedicated parents, they tend to be broody and can raise young from other breeds. They are among the largest of the medium-weight meat birds. They’re also curious, according to the Livestock Conservancy, and need good fencing.

More information about raising geese in Maine is available from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. Local poultry breeders may be able to answer questions too.”

A police lieutenant in Maine and two others suffered serious injuries when another driver crashed head-on into his police cruiser in Turner while the lieutenant was on his way home from work on Monday, authorities said Tuesday.

Monmouth Police Lt. Dana Wessling, 52, of Turner, was extricated from his cruiser and flown to Maine Medical Center in Portland with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The other driver, Sean McNeil, 41, of Minot, and his passenger, a 47-year-old woman from Turner, were both taken by ambulance to Central Maine Medical Center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

The conditions of Wessling, McNeil and the unidentified woman were not known on Tuesday.

On Monday, at 4:49 p.m., the Androscoggin County Regional Communications Center received a report of a two-vehicle, head-on crash at the intersection of Turner Center Road and Bradford Road in Turner.

Deputies along with Turner Fire-Rescue were immediately dispatched to the scene, the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office said.

A preliminary investigation found that Wessling was traveling west on Turner Center Road in his take-home cruiser, a black 2022 Ford Interceptor that is owned by the Town of Monmouth.

McNeil, driving his silver 2013 Ford F150 pickup truck, was traveling east on Turner Center Road when McNeil came around a curve, crossed the center line and was in Wessling’s lane when the two vehicles collided, authorities said.

Both vehicles had extensive front-end damage and were totaled, authorities said.

Wessling, who was on his way home at the end of his shift, had just picked up his 7-year-old son at daycare, the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office said. His son was taken by private vehicle to a local hospital to be examined for precautionary reasons.

Investigators from the sheriff’s office and the Lewiston Police Department were on scene to reconstruct the crash.

The crash investigation remains under investigation.

Turner is a small town in Maine, just north of Lewiston. The town’s population was 5,817 at the 2020 census.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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The first bill sponsored in Maine’s 132nd Legislature is a measure to help the state prepare for and respond to major storms.

Gov. Janet Mills, with support from both Democrats and Republicans, introduced resources and tools that can help support businesses and communities react to potential damage from inclement weather.

The bill is sponsored by Democratic Senate President Mattie Daughtry, Democratic House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, Senate Republican leader Trey Stewart and Republican House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham.

The bill would establish the Home Resiliency Program, which would provide grants up to $15,000 for homeowners to make improvements that would help mitigate storm impacts. The Maine Bureau of Insurance would oversee the $15 million program.

Mills also seeks to invest in Maine Emergency Management Agency resources, using special revenue funds from the Bureau of Insurance. The investments would fund communication technology upgrades, as well as providing financial support for ongoing disaster investigations.

“Last year, my Administration and the Legislature made the largest investment in storm recovery and resilience in Maine history,” Mills said in a Tuesday statement.

“That funding was significant, but it’s clear that it was only a down payment on the critical recovery and resilience work Maine must do to prepare our people and communities for the storms we know will become more frequent and intense in the years ahead.”

In the past two years, Maine communities have suffered devastation from storms that battered the state with high winds, unseasonable rainfall and intense flooding. Some pier owners are still rebuilding from storms that struck in December 2023.

The legislation would also establish a State Resilience Office, funded through a five-year grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that would focus on strategies to reduce flood and storm damages to public and private infrastructure.

Financial support for the projects would be taken from federal funding and already existing fees processed by the Bureau of Insurance, rather that from the general state budget.