Anyone Raise Geese For Meat?

[machoman]

I'm very curious about this. What do you raise, when do you cull? How do you cull? How much meat do you get? How does it taste?

Right now we've got meat chickens, we'll be adding turkeys to the mix next spring, and maybe some ducks and geese.

 

[Avalon1984]

My parents would love you

Germans love geese for Christmas. I have never tried it. Bets of luck to you though!

 

[mikki717]

I love goose. We choose not to have goose for the Christmas meal anymore however.

My family has experiened "The Curse of the Christmas Goose." It did not become apparent immediately, but some of the Christmas catastophies were:


1. A broken sewer main in my parent's front yard.

2. Frozen pipes at my house.

3. Dog with a broken tail and an emergency vet fee.

4. Bomb scare at the post Office 2 blocks from house. (closed roads and evcuations.)

5. Mother with a gall bladder attack, then surgery.


The year of the gall bladder issue was the last one, we have not eaten goose since, and have had no further catastrophies.

 

[bwmichaud]

We raised 4 geese this year, 2 Embden and 2 Toulouse. We got them at the end of May and slaughtered them this past week. They pretty much roamed around and ate grass and dandelions and would grab some feed out of the other birds feeders but not too much. three of the geese dressed out around 8.5 pounds and the last one, a male Embden dressed out at around 10 ponds. We chose not to carry them through the winter an breed them since they would not have access to the grass that they usually eat due to snow cover.

I score the skin on the breast and roast them on a rack for about an hour or so. After an hour, I scoop all of the rendered fat (save this for cooking potatoes) out of the bottom of the pan and cut the skin that holds the legs close to the carcass and pull the legs outward so that the heat from the oven can get into this area and cook the legs without overcooking the breast. I then throw it back into the oven and cook for another 40-50 minutes or so for medium rare. A larger goose will take a little longer. A goose this size will feed 4 people generous portions or up to 6 people who eat less.

They are simply delicious and you can season them to your liking. Be careful of the recipes you'll find out there. Most of them will leave you with an overcooked goose.

Raising geese is quite easy but keep in mind that they have a lot of personality. From the 1st day we got them as goslings, they would follow us everywhere. We would take them for walks in the woods and even up the road a few times. We name the Embden Fred and Ethel and the Toulouse were named Ricky and Lucy. They really were a lot of fun. Just make sure that you will be able to do the deed when it comes time because they can be quite charming for a noisy bird.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I am raising geese for the table, but this is my first year and I've never eaten goose before. There is going to be a goose on my Thanksgiving table, so I'll know after then.

The geese I am butchering this weekend are half American and half Pomeranian. I am working my way towards purebred Pomeranian. Pomeranian is the high priced luxury Christmas goose in Europe. They have a larger breast than is typical for geese.

The difficulty is that the breeding stock is difficult to come by and it is quite expensive.

The hatcheries sell "Pomeranians" fairly inexpensive but I don't know what the heck they are. They sure aren't Pomeranians.

Embdens are the commercially raised goose in this country. It's the white plumage and perhaps they have been selectively bred for good feed conversion rate and desirable market size.

 

[feathersnuggles]

What the typical age for slaughtering geese? Is it like heritage chickens, or do you raise them longer?

 

[peterlund]

I raised a batch of Muscovy ducks.... What a delicious bird.

 

[donrae]

Isn't the eight and ten pounds awfully small for a goose? We let some of our cornish x go a little long and they were that big. I'd think a goods would dress out bigger? Anyone?

 

[almostalwayshome]

I'll be processing one of my geese this weekend, but I'm a newbie. does anyone know of a "how to" site with good step by step directions?

 

[Oregon Blues]

Geese: butcher at 9-11 weeks; 15-17 weeks; 22-26 weeks, for fewer pin feathers. If you feel under the breast feathers, you can feel the pin feathers if they are there.

Scald 145-155 degrees for 3 minutes.

My 2 year old geese are still growing, so I would consider anything under 1 year to be a young bird and would expect it to be tender.

My guys will be 5 1/2 months on B-day. They grew really fast and then the growth slowed down. I wanted as big a bird as possible, but the last 2 months probably weren't economical. They didn't really grow enough to justify the extra food they ate. But I don't care. I want an impressive show piece for my holiday table and I plan to give geese as Christmas presents to a few lucky relatives.

If someone had pasture for them so that they didn't cost anything to feed, it would be worth it to grow them longer for the few extra pounds. Buying all the feed, not so much.