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Sebastopols have
been called the 'pantomime goose' because of their fancy feathers. They
have a curled feather mutation which gives the birds a fluffy appearance.
The shaft of the longer feathers splits and the vane is fluted.
So, the flight feathers are soft and trail
to the ground. This would be a lethal mutation in the wild because the
birds cannot fly. The birds illustrated are known as
the curled feather variety.
Birds which are heterozygous for
this mutation have curled feathers trailing only from the scapular
(shoulder) and thigh coverts. The rest of the body feathers appear normal.
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flight feathers are slightly fluted, and the tail feathers are also
affected. This type (not illustrated) is known as the smooth
breasted.
The best breeding combination is a mixture of the two types; such
a pair will breed both types. It may also help counteract the
tendency for angel wing in this breed. However, the weight and length of
the flight feathers often tends to pull the wing joint outwards.
The curled feather and the smooth breasted are both standardized in the
UK. [The curly feather type is no longer called the frizzle because
the gene behaves differently from the poultry frizzle gene].
In Germany it is just the smooth breasted that is standardized.
In the USA, it is the curled feather variety.
Sebastopols are a light weight domestic goose weighing
10-16 lbs. Temperament varies depending on the strain, as does egg-laying
capability. Some strains lay up to 40 eggs per year. Imported from the
port of Sebastopol, they were figured and described in the Illustrated
London News in 1860. Birds like these
were reported from the countries surrounding the Black Sea, and the lower
Danube - hence an alternative name: the Danubian goose.
How to Sex Sebastopols
Like all white European
geese, white Sebastopol goslings are auto sexing. In the picture
(below left) there are two females and one paler male (in the
middle). The females are darker because they only have one
dilution gene (which is sex-linked). The male has two dilution
genes so he is
paler. They also have the 'spot' gene which gives the
'saddleback' appearance in the fluff. In the feathers, dilution
and spot together make geese white.
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The
favoured color for Sebastopols was white: the curly feathers were
probably used in Eastern Europe for bedding, and white would
have been preferred. However, they were produced in Buff in the
UK, and have been standardized in that colour. Crossing birds with
Brecon or American Buffs to obtain the buff gene has also
introduced grey (wild colour [not buff]). This would happen if it was not realized, in
the initial cross, that the buff gene is sex linked and the wrong
breeding combination of male and female were used.
Also, the spot
gene is revealed in cross-breeding if the dilution gene is
bred out. So, Sebastopols are now also in buff back and grey
back (saddleback, pied), and even whole grey. Blues may also have
been bred.
We occasionally have
Sebastopols for sale. In high rainfall areas they should be housed
at night (rather then stay out in a fox-proof pen) because the
back feathers do not give such good protection as normal goose
feathers. Also,to keep birds in good
condition they must have clean paddling water.
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