Christmas Geese and Appleyard Ducks

[MissPrissy]

I love the geese. My fav hands down. The ducks would be better if they weren't sooooo messy!

 

[greyfields]

How many ducks do you plan to keep for breeding? In the height of breeding season, I had about 4 ducks get bumblefoot from constantly running from the horny drake gang of "4" which insisted on sequentially breeding them. It was shocking. They're like different creatures when breeding.

I have 30 ducks on the ground now. I think I'll keep 16-20 females and only 4 males.

 

[MissPrissy]

I am keeping 6 females and the biggest drake. More than that and I might go insane from the watery mess. I almost have my DH convinced a small pond would be to our advantage. LOL

Keeping 7 will give me 12 for the freezer.

I have 7 reg appleyard drakes and the 1 solid white one is a drake (seen the noodle - omg

) So, of course they have to go. I am also keeping the largest females. The rest is for eatin'!

 

[greyfields]

I had 2 white ones hatch this year, too. I dispatched them young without checking what sex they were.

In the past I've regretted keeping only 1 male; becuase I lost the roosters and it left me unable to hatch more of a specific breed. I think you should keep 2, just to be safe, since the Appleyards aren't that common to find a replacement.

 

[vfem]

Quote:
Thank you for letting me in on this! I've never had goose (I do love duck though, I get them from the asian market where they are fresh locally raised and cheaper then an average market place!! Just a hint for everyone who doesn't want to process there own, a lot of asian markets will do it.)

Anyways... I don't beef or pork... it messes with my stomach so badly I only eat poultry and fish now. Its been 15 years since I last had a dark meat. I think that goose sounds wonderful for a change in diet for me. It gets old when you have chicken, turkey or fish EVERYday. No real mixture....you eventually run out of recipes!

I may get a goose or 2 in the spring when I get my pekin ducks up to age. I want to get the duck house finished and make sure there is room to add geese. We do have a large pond they all get to share with plenty of room, but the pond property belongs to a number of houses on it including ours. There are also tons of wild duck and geese that stop in on occasion while flying south. Would this be an ok enviroment for a duck or goose we are planning on eating? I doubt I could keep them away from the pond as we free range our chickens already... I know the ducks will be living there.... or should I pen them in?

Oh I can't believe it, I know I'm really going to do this! I'm already craving goose.... I may just call around and try to find one locally to try for Christmas and see if I even like it before getting my own rolling...

Thanks for planting the little thought in my head! LOL

 

[MissPrissy]

I have given thought to keeping 2 but I am still not going to. There are 2 people within 10 miles of me with appleyards. I don't feel the need to keep a spare. With no water ( pond) keeping these through winter is going to be hard on me as it is. I may later regret it but I just am not prepared to keep 2 drakes in this small flock. Besides, if I only get eating eggs I'll still be happy.

 

[greyfields]

That surprises me you have neighbors with Appleyards. I lost my Dark Cornish Roo last year and was never able to get a replacemtn without ordering 25 chicks. :\\

Regardless, that's a healthy looking flock. Our farm is about 4' above the Columbia River in summer, and about 6" above the water table in winter. Everywhere is a pond. :0

 

[MissPrissy]

Geese like water but not as much as ducks do. Geese do like pasture to graze - much like cattle. I lock mine up at night because I don't plan to give free dinner to predators. Geese are herbivores - non-meat eaters.

 

[Jenlyn9483]

MissP,
I cooked a thanksgiving goose last yr for the first time and paid $40 for a 9.5 pounder. It was the biggest hit ever at my Thanksgiving dinner and everyone loved it including me. So this yr I bought 4 goslings, 3 Troulouse and 1 white embeden. They were sweet at first and thought I was there moma, I wondered how i was going to be able to dispatch them. Luckily around 4 months they started being nasty to everyone but me and thought it was fun to try pick on my little boy..So at 5 months I had no problem dispatching them. The Embeden was the nicest sweetest one of them all. Next yr I would not mind having only embedens. We have not eaten the geese yet they have been in the freezer since August. We are saving them for the holidays, cant wait to see how much better home grown geese is then supermarket geese. Alot of people dont realize that after the gosling stage that they live almost primarily off grass and weeds and are really cost effective to keep around. I processed all of mine. The feed store by my house orders goslings every yr so its not hard to get my hands on a few. I only keep them around long as I have to. I dont have a big ol pasture for them to graze in away from the house all day.
I love duck meat and have enjoyed my share of them this yr. I currently have 5 hens and a drake and one juevenile. The ducks lay better than any Chicken I have ever had I SWEAR! I planned on only keeping 4 hens and one drake but now I think i will keep my one mixed breed hen around a little longer so we have plenty of eggs for the holidays since cold weather has brought hens to almost stop.

 

[nursebay]

Wow you have a very nice flock!