Cleaning up the feathers in the yard?

[lecobb]

I have 11 geese, and it seems that everyone is moulting. My yard looks like there's been a massacre with all the goose feathers. Anyone know of any quicker ways to clean them up than doing it individually by hand?

 

[Denninmi]

If you have a riding mower with a bagger or a lawn vac unit you can just suck them up, and then compost them.

A leaf blower might help to get them into piles in a corner if you do it right. Even raking may work to some extent.

Another option might be to not to remove them, but to go over them several times with a lawn mover and cut them into little pieces that will compost into the turf.

 

[aineheartsyou]

I let the local birds clean up feathers and animal fur/hair

watch birds pickin up the feathers around my place this morning

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Really? What kind of bird picks up the big flight feathers from geese?

BTW I have used the muching lawn mower, it tends to chop fine and the feathers are high in nitrogen but break down slowly. I hand select the prime goose flight feathers. Guy at hobby shop pays $0.50/each he wholesales them, they usually retail at a buck each. MUST BE DOMESTIC GEESE ONLY. IT IS ILLEGAL TO SELL WILD BIRD FEATHERS!

 

[pete55]

I have to use the leaf sucker machine as its such a mess with feathers all over the place

 

[aineheartsyou]

Quote:
Really? What kind of bird picks up the big flight feathers from geese?

BTW I have used the muching lawn mower, it tends to chop fine and the feathers are high in nitrogen but break down slowly. I hand select the prime goose flight feathers. Guy at hobby shop pays $0.50/each he wholesales them, they usually retail at a buck each. MUST BE DOMESTIC GEESE ONLY. IT IS ILLEGAL TO SELL WILD BIRD FEATHERS!

dont think they have lost their flight feathers yet, just lots of little body feathers blowing around our place. my son enjoys the feathers so he will probably collect the flight feathers

 

[Sore Thumb Suburbanite]

Quote:
I am watching that happen right now, I have about 50 little brown sparrows grooming my yard and bushes for feathers and-unfortunately-duck food.

I just got rid of my geese-but they kept shedding a ton of feathers from their first moult, I can't imagine what 11 geese could do... If they are white-it must look like snow. A leaf blower sounds really handy about now. When I did gather the feathers I used a flat board and blew them to one side of the yard and picked them up... it helped somewhat, but quite a few feathers got stuck in my bean bushes and haven't come out again... I'm thankful for the little birds building nests...