Maine
Rare American goose breeds may be a good fit for Maine homesteads
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.”
Larry Mahoney has covered legendary Maine sports figures for more than 50 years at the Bangor Daily News. And now he is set to join those legends in the Maine Sports Hall of Fame.
Mahoney is one of 10 honorees being inducted into the hall this year, the organization announced on Monday. He was also inducted into the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame last year and has been named Maine sports writer of the year six times.
He and the other inductees, will officially become Maine Sports Hall of Fame members during a Sept. 21 ceremony in Bangor.
Former BDN sports editor and writer Pete Warner worked with the veteran reporter for years, and highlighted the humanity and knowledge that shines through Mahoney’s continued work.
“No one cares more about the people he is writing about,” Warner said about Mahoney. “He is very invested in the little details that make people special, regardless of their particular role in sports.”
Warner said Mahoney has an unparalleled historical perspective of Maine sports.
“He’s been paying attention to things for so long and he’s been so invested in his work that he can tie items together that may on the surface seem unconnected,” Warner continued. “But because of his experience and his depth of knowledge, he can connect the dots on things that people may not ever have realized.”
In the announcement from the hall of fame, Mahoney is credited for “earning a stellar reputation while writing on every sports topic imaginable.” That prolific and knowledgeable coverage continues today, and Mahoney would surely rather be writing about those topics than talking about himself.
“It’s humbling to be going into such a prestigious hall of fame with people who are giants in their areas of expertise,” Mahoney said on Monday, characteristically deflecting the attention from himself and stressing that each of the nine other inductees “have done remarkable things and so deserve to be going into the hall.”
The nine other honorees are former Falmouth High School soccer and basketball player Bryant Barr, who went on to play basketball at Davidson with Steph Curry; paracyclist Clara Brown of Cumberland who has won 11 world championship medals and competed in two Paralympic games, including a Bronze medal showing in Paris; Husson University men’s basketball coach Warren Caruso, who is nearing his 600th win; mulit-sport standout Jamie Cook of Kennebunk who went on to be a three-time All-American in the Decathlon at Penn State; Maine Celtics President Dajuan Eubanks who has been with the team in various capacities since its start in 2009; basketball player and coach Kelly Bowman Flagg, who was a key player on the only University of Maine women’s or men’s team to win an NCAA tournament game (and who is also the mother of Cooper and Ace Flagg); Smith College women’s basketball coach Lynn Hersey who played for Dexter High School and Plymouth State; Messalonskee High School track star Jesse Labreck who went on to earn the nickname “Flex” as a champion on the TV show “America Ninja Warrior”; and Portland High School and Northeastern runner Danny Paul who went on to be a prolific road race winner and coach.
Tickets for the induction ceremony, which will be held at Husson University, will go on sale on June 1.
United Way of Mid Coast Maine is extending an invitation to the community to join them at their 2025 annual meeting. The event will take place on Tuesday, June 10 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Bowdoin College. The event’s theme “United We Thrive” will be an opportunity to come together as a community, for the community.
“We are honored to have Topsham resident, John Dorrer, labor economist and workforce analyst, joining us as our guest speaker to highlight our community’s greatest asset, volunteers,” said Nicole Evans, Executive Director of United Way of Mid Coast Maine.
Additional details about the event are available upon registering at www.uwmcm.org/annualmeeting. To register by email or phone, please contact info@uwmcm.org or 207-443-9752. Request a registration link by texting UWMEET to 41444. Thank you Bowdoin College for hosting and co-sponsoring the event.
Standing for re-election and election to the United Way of Mid Coast Maine Board of Directors include: Sean Martin (chair), Catherine Showalter (first vice chair), Christopher Bowe (second vice chair), Bob McCue (treasurer), Coleen Farrell, Carol Dexter, John Dorrer, and Matt Orlando. For a complete board list, please visit uwmcm.org/board.
For more information, visit www.uwmcm.org.
PALERMO, Maine (WABI) – Maine State Police shared some good news on social media this weekend.
Their 10-month-old bloodhound Millie, and her handler, Corporal Eric Sucy, alongside Maine Game Warden Julia Horst, found a missing five-year-old girl with autism in a swamp.
State Police said the young girl was found around 5:30 p.m. Friday off Rowe Road in Palermo.
We’re told the girl was waist-deep in the swamp but thankfully unjured.
State Police say Millie is “proving herself time and again with her dedication, sweet disposition, and incredible nose.”
Copyright 2025 WABI. All rights reserved.
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