Honk goose at gate!
All of ours our on the loose.
They clip around the pond.
They honk at the hawk.
A few eggs in the spring.
Amusing they are.
What purpose a goose?
Thus far they’ve not told me.
Jeffries Family Farm
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.Oven, Spit & Pit Roaster Pigs!
Enjoy Our Pork!
Enjoy pork butchered in our family’s Vermont state inspected on-farm butcher shop here on Sugar Mountain Farm. Affordable quality pork from our family farm to your family’s table. One time purchases or weekly, biweekly and monthly CSA boxes available from $40 each. Save buying in bulk as a whole, half or quarter pig. See the Pork Page for details.
I am Nebraska born and raised. Alot of folks here look upon geese as watchdogs. They can make alot of noise when someone drives into your yard.
They do that – make a lot of noise. :) Yesterday I saw them fly. No way they should be able to stay up in the air. Rather like the Galaxy over our heads.
We have geese and they really are the best early morning alarm clocks ever!
Interesting, ours aren’t particularly noisy in the morning. But the roosters. Hoo-boy! 4 am. I work at training them to crow later. Stewey! The last rooster to crow lives another day.
If I raise geese could I just put them on grass and and eat them at about Christmas time?
Yes. We don’t feed our geese much in the way of anything during the warm seasons. Like the ducks and chickens they forage for their food. They are most excellent at mowing, leaving neatly manicured lawns, and poop piles. Late in the fall as the forage vanishes you will want to provide them with something to make up for the lost pastures.
I have Toulouse Geese on my farm. I sell their eggs to artist. I average $1.00 to $5.00 per egg. If you advertise you have goose eggs people will respond and this will help you utilize the geese for a purpose. I also sell their feathers to arts and crafts people.
Hi Walter,
I have been trying to find a post that outlines what you feed the ducks, geese and chickens in the winter. I understand you do not keep as many as in summer, but our climates are very similar, with a whole lot of snow and nothing available for the animals to eat except what they are given.
Thank you.
Eileen
Chickens get meat, specifically pastured pork. All the poultry has access to hay, which is somewhat of a replacement for pasture but not nearly as good, as well as whey, apple pomace, spent barley from beer brewing, vegetables & fruit and occasionally bread. They also catch mice.
If you feed meat to your chickens, do you also feed that to the geese? I suppose there is enough vegetable matter for geese to survive on during the winter with the variety of foods you have access to. I wish it was so easy here. No stores are allowed to dole out their vegetables or fruits or breads to farmers. They go to the garbage bin, by law. Do the chickens then get wormed with garlic if they are eating raw meat? I am switching my chicken breeds to Ameraucana and Chantecler due to our very cold winters. The other breeds just do not do well and require heat in the coop so the rooster’s combs do not freeze. The ducks and geese seem to fare well enough with a simple shelter as long as they are protected from the wind. Other than the barley from the brewery, then you do not purchase grains for the birds, it seems. Thank you.
Eileen
What an unfortunate wasteful law. Pre-consumer food wastes should go to livestock. Perhaps with the growing awareness of environmental issues the law will change in our local. Work it.
There have been some years when we have purchased layer pellets but it’s been a while. I’m not sure how many years. You might try growing earthworms, slugs or insects for the ducks and geese. I’ve done that before. It is doable with a few.
Hello:) I’ve been searching all over for a place to order organic goose for our thankgiving table this year and am having no luck…you have any advise??
We have organic geese but we don’t process them for sale. I don’t know of any farms with them who sell them although I’m sure there must be some. I would suggest checking LocalHarvest for listings.
Organic Turkeys can be found in many groceries now — Plainville & Misty Knoll (VT) are two. You can go to their websites, or search the internet for lots more. The only meat we eat is organic poultry since we get serious reactions to the additives, hormones, antibiotics in regular poultry products.
Geese were domesticated by the ancient Egyptians many thousands of years ago. Their foremost utilization was as weeders and their eggs were invaluable as well. What they would become most valuable for was their biological control of the intermediate hosts of liver fluke. The geese consume mollusks while grazing and in doing so prevent sheep from contracting parasitic infection and thus, everywhere sheep went so did geese.
With advent of anti-parasite remedies and medicines for liver fluke, geese were no longer an essential component of shepherding.
Interesting. Another piece of the puzzle.
Muscovy Ducks have been shown to clear liver flukes from pasture. I imagine that would apply to other types of duck as well. At least, that is what I tell myself as my Peking ducks drive me insane and live another day.