Please help me understand

[Cottage Rose]

Good logical advise from goosedragon!
I've raised chickens for over 30 years.
I finally got ducks and geese in 2005 and only wish I had done it much sooner in life.
Geese are highly intelligent and much more personable than a chicken could ever be.
I would describe ducks as being cat like and geese dog like.
My ducks come running when they see me with the food bucket.
My geese come running when they see me even if I don't have any food.
They talk to you starting as soon as they hatch out, they look at you and interact with you.
If you have the right set up they are a joy to own.

As a beginner you might want to consider getting
Sebastopols, Americans or Pilgrims since they are generally less noisy and aggressive

I have some info on my website on raising geese you might want to check out.
Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Does anyone here have what is called Cotton Patch Geese? I was looking on the greenfirefarms site and wouldn't mind having some of them, they don't give you a price though but they sound really neat.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Cotton Patch geese are what are called a landrace which is just a breed that developed over time in isolated locations. They probably started as Ebdem ganders bred to Toulose geese which was common practice the ebdem for size and the toulouse for greater egg production. Each generation got a little smaller because geese revert to the mean without a good breeding program. (big geese get smaller while small or midget geese get larger until they reach a natural size. They were produced in numbers in the south to eat weeds out of cotton fields before safe herbicides were developed. The vast majority lived and worked one season as the goslings would start at about 2 weeks oid with their parents showing them the ropes. at the end of the season the next's years breeders would be selected with the rest ending up guest of honor on a holiday dinner table. When the real need for them went down so did the flock sizes. the few that remained were like old friends to the ones that kept them alive. To be blunt the story is the greatest asset to these birds. Otherwise they are very inbred with all the problems that is caused. About 15 years ago someone got interested and tracked down the few existing flocks and started breaking the inbreeding trend by using different flocks for his breeding program. The birds are comming back nicely but haven't really caught fire with goose keepers. The prices asked and the fact that they are not very distinctive are probable cause.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks goosedragon, when I was looking at the pictures I thiught they looked alot like my Emden in the face. I like them the fact they are small and quiet is a good trait.

 

[Ellie]

The last few posts bring up a good point. I will check out your website Cottage Rose.

I see greenfirefarms listed as somewhere to buy geese. What other sites are there? Perhaps I may start looking. I'm tellin ya, I don't want any of you to go shopping with me...I'd buy out the farm.

 

[Miss Lydia]

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Quote:
Sorry, I don't get to this BB often and just saw the question.

As far as the oil, I just roasted the goose in a deep pan and pulled it out every half hour or so and used a turkey basted to pull off the oil and put it into a clean jar. They do have a LOT of fat under the skin so you need to pierce the skin in many places to let the fat drain out. It all came out clean in my case and I didn't need to do anything else to it except put on a lid and refrigerate it. It should easily keep for a few months that way. I'm using it for cooking. It produces a very fine quality of oil ... Quite a lot too. I believe it was a 14 pound bird and I got over a quart of oil.

It does chill to a solid, like lard.

Hope that answers your question!

 

[Ellie]

Ah, that makes sense. The way it was written, and the way I read it: I couldn't for the life of me figure out how you got oil out of a live Goose...and how the goose might feel about that.

 

[Miss Lydia]

 

[Silver Spring Waterfowl]

Good ones, Olive Hill and Cottage Rose! We keep some geese for meat (which is a hard, hard thing), and for pleasure, exhibition, and breeding. The final answer is because they're intelligent enough to be excellent companions, live long enough to be lifelong friends, and enrich our lives daily. Geese build character.