Which breed?

❍ Try to buy native. The Brecon Buff, a good meat bird, hardy, medium-sized and with attractive buff colouring and pink legs and beak, is one of few breeds to originate in Britain. It was developed in the 1930s by Rhys Llewellyn of Swansea, who spotted a buff-coloured goose when motoring in the Brecon Beacons

❍ Another native, the small, hardy grey-pied Shetland

goose is critically endangered and needs support. It was bred by crofters for meat and for reducing liver fluke in cattle —it’s a good forager of diseasecarrying grubs and seaweed ❍ Geese are notoriously hard to sex, but another good reason for novice poultry keepers to choose native breeds such as the grey-and-white West of England (far left) and the Pilgrim (left, male), which is perhaps the most tame and docile, is that they’re auto-sexing

❍ The ubiquitous white Embden is from northern Germany and the chubby white Roman from Germany and Poland—it’s believed they descend from the Italian geese that famously warned of the sacking of Rome. The African, which can stand at more than 3ft, actually comes from south-east China and the Chinese, by far the noisiest breed, but a prolific layer, was developed in Europe

❍ The exotic Sebastopol (right)—or Danubian—which was imported from around the Black Sea, looks like a giant feather duster, with its curly white feathers and bright-blue eyes. It can’t fly and doesn’t like mud, but it does lay and sit

For advice on keeping geese, visit www.rbst. org.uk, www. waterfowl.org.uk or www.poultry keeper.com