Sebastopol Geese

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. The flight feathers are slightly fluted, and the tail feathers are also affected. This type (not illustrated) is known as the smooth- breasted. A pair of these smooth-breasted birds birds will breed curly, smooth-breasted and also plain geese with no feather curl. 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 (in the curly type) 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.