Anyone raise geese for down?

With temperatures the way they are right now my geese may thank me for ridding them of some of that down. I still can't figure out how they can take 90F+ weather while wearing two winter coats. It boggles the mind.
 
I look forward to owning some geeses in the coming years... I am certainly going to give this a try as I just LOVE down pillows..... even if I have to save it up for a couple of years or so, I'd like to give it a try
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I'm sure they'll let me know right away if it hurts or not
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LOL If you're doing it during a natural moulting cycle... I don't see how it could hurt them.
 
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Temps here get to be over 110F during the summer(usually 115) so if I did get geese, they would definetly be thankful to have some feathers removed.
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The article I read about the Mennonites showed them making comforters out of them. Wish I could find that magazine again! The woman who wrote the article went and helped them do this for a day and it was fascinating. The geese weren't flapping or restless at all, just lying there on their backs while these little women pulled out handfuls of fluff. They stuff each row of blocks on the comforter, sow it shut, stuff another row of blocks, etc. The material was all white. They then washed it and hung it on a line to dry.

Most of the down blankets one can buy have a cheaper grade down that is mixed with feathers....they are horrible! The feathers are continually sticking you. The comforters I have have little-to-no feather percentage and they are pure heaven to sleep under.

Can you imagine the luxury and beauty of down throws for the living room that are handmade? I know you can buy them in the store but they don't last and are cheaply made. What wonderful Christmas gifts!
 
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That is a wonderful idea! I want to make a comforter. I'm probably getting geese within a year for weeders and guard dogs, but pillows and comforters would be nice too. Can't wait.....
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I'm very interested in doing this and can't find much on the subject in my local library and nothing online either.

If you do, what breed seems best? How often can you pick their down and what time of year? Do geese get broody and produce offspring as easily as chickens, or has that been bred out of them, as well? How much down would a pair of geese produce in a year?

Hey BK...whilst I never followed any of our gaggles around with a bag collecting moultings...I just harvested a gander. Six goslings, FIVE males - kept best male and the only female.


Buff Tufted gosling

Too many males so I did what I do. Happy meat harvest...this one gander was so nasty, he was house alone next to his fellow three bros. No female about, he was just a nasty on a stick fella...sure he will taste good though!
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We have American geese (Buff, Buff Pied, and Tufted Buff).



I have not WEIGHED the down but I can say I harvested a good amount, half a small garbage bag...sans feathers...this is straight down. Got three more to do and I expect to get enough for a good sized pillow.

Now not live plucking...I am harvesting so took 100% of the down--duh!
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I keep looking at the hair sheep and passing them up. Sooner or later I'll have to break down and buy a pair. My only problem is that they don't look like the traditional sheep I've built up in my head. If I have sheep I want them to look all big and round.

Then again, I keep looking at the Jacobs Sheep and plotting. Who wouldn't want a sheep with four horns?

Four! They'd be my radioactive sheep.



My flock...herd...mixture of ruminants

I have Jacobs...since 2003. Canada's first Grand Champion Jacob ewe, ram and 1st placing ram lamb in 2003. Now a closed flock and slowly, ever so slowly, me Jacob flocks passes on due to old age.


First ever of my lambs on left from 2003 & second year of lambs from 2005...twins Regina & Rex
My mowers...mowing up one of me turkey runs

Am older now, so switched to Dorpers...hair sheep. Thought I could skip shearing...but traded clipping for shearing...same sorta thing (less effort, I clip the top, bellies on most shed off...not so on all Jacobs...) and had to buy a clipper since I have a shearer...sigh.



Misguided COW bird amongst the SHEEP


Jacobs have a gene that splits the horn core...so horns like a cow has, but gene that splits that horn core into multiple "horns." I have two horns, four, five and six horned (Regina!)...what can also happen (so be forewarned) is the gene that splits can become so severe...it splits the eye socket...in the skull. You get what is deemed "split eye". Full twin ram to Regina, Rex had type 3 (worst kind) V shaped notched eye lids...in terms we can understand, his eye lids could not function to blink and clean his eye balls because the top half notch was missing! I kept him intact as a ram lamb and at six months of age, my vet sedated (way hard on ruminants...some jest die on the table), and fixed his notched eyelids. He is alive and well, born 2005...so that boy is over 11 years old now.
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Rex - putting my red ACD to sleep...counting jest ONE sheep!


I wethered him AFTER the operation and kept him for his cloud soft fleece I harvest annually from him. Dreamy boy...totally delish!
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Love my dotty spotty ploycerate piebald sheeps!



Jacobs trimming grassy areas for us
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You also mention that you figure hair sheep are not "big & round" like reg sheep...well my Dorpers are...



Fire prevention...mowing our ditch


Sheep TV - a day at the beach (umbrellas?), eh

This be registered Dorper Melissa...she be BIG and most certainly ROUND...and gettin' rounder as the grazing goes along!
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Melissa and daughter D'Arcy


Duro...she l00ks all SHEEP to me...
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And the HAIR I left unclipped...must be comfy...for they be using each other to rest heads upon. So BK...clip away and use that to stuff beds and whatnots...hee hee...
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So what I want to know...how do I CLEAN this down now that I have some?
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I dry pluck (don't get me started on scalding...wet sopping smells like a dog scalding ain't MY cuppa tea!). I have nice dry down...am told to throw it in the freezer for a few days in case, jest in case there are any creepies (never noted any but what the hay, do what they say, eh).

So Beekissed...you run across any methods to CLEAN that down you were suppose to collect (and did you get any geese...how about them hair sheeps?).
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Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
 
I hope I'm not doing anything against the guidelines by bumping this thread. I would more than love to know how to clean goose down. :)
 
Some cruel people raise the geese, and then (in the spring i think) hold the geese down and pull the down out of the goose. I think it is so cruel.
Live plucking is done during molt. It is not ripped out of your goose, but a light pluck, same as what they do themselves for lining the nest or plucking the molting from themselves. You only collect what comes out easily. The geese themselves are quite fine with it, if used to being handled.
 

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