Sebastopols. A cash crop?

[banter]

Mrs. Turbo :

I grew out 13 of my goslings last year and I only had took 2 I would take to a show with me...... It is a very slow process to build a nice flock. They take up a lot of room and eat a lot of feed in the fall and winter. This year I hatched 6 goslings so far out of my breeders.....6 hens and 3 ganders. they are not the easiest to hatch especially with the strange weather we had this winter and spring.
Do you ever think people have to sell some of their birds or eggs to pay for the feed and maintaining the flocks?
Heck.....isn't the price of a regular gosling $10-$15 in some places?

I was not going to post again, but feel I need to. I also threw out a lot of eggs-could have sold them in a minute! From experience I now know that many early in the year laid eggs (from my climate) are going to be weak gosling, and I only send out later laid eggs to a few people, after I test fertility, and I add extras. These eggs I try to send south so they have a better chance of not being frozen in shipment. I pack them EXTREMELY well, and send priority. I only sell a few eggs and gosling to offset the feed bills. In my case it's also fresh fruit and veggies in the long Maine winter. Most of the Seb owners I keep contact with (CR is one, don't know her to sell eggs) do the same just to feed the flock. I am always in the hole! Right now I don't have any decent underwear! Used to be able to afford Victoria Secrets before I had geese!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Mrs. Turbo :

Heck.....isn't the price of a regular gosling $10-$15 in some places?

Yep, I paid $10 a head for day old Toulouse. And when I had purchased my Pilgrim Goslings, they were $25 a pair - as day olds.​

 

[Cottage Rose]

Quote:
X2!

Thanks Redhen !

And OH my GOSH ...your avatar pic is TOOOO cute!

 

[Hillside]

Quote:
I was not going to post again, but feel I need to. I also threw out a lot of eggs-could have sold them in a minute! From experience I now know that many early in the year laid eggs (from my climate) are going to be weak gosling, and I only send out later laid eggs to a few people, after I test fertility, and I add extras. These eggs I try to send south so they have a better chance of not being frozen in shipment. I pack them EXTREMELY well, and send priority. I only sell a few eggs and gosling to offset the feed bills. In my case it's also fresh fruit and veggies in the long Maine winter. Most of the Seb owners I keep contact with (CR is one, don't know her to sell eggs) do the same just to feed the flock. I am always in the hole! Right now I don't have any decent underwear! Used to be able to afford Victoria Secrets before I had geese!

Banter, LOL about the underwear. What do you wear now? Old fashioned burlap feed sacks? Itchy. Reminds me of Seinfeld saying that men never worry about throwing ratty old underwear away. They just wear it until it dissolves and disappears one thread at a time.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

Heck, regardless of how much money we bring in from sales it is never enough. We are always dipping into "our" money to pay for feed.

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

I don't know about everyone else, but even though the geese free-range on the pasture they still eat a ton of food. We also buy wheat and sunflower seed to mix in along with a couple handfulls of cat food with fish meal......isn't cheap.

 

[ultasol]

I just buy straight up fish meal, use less of it to get same benefits and it is 60% protein.

Geese do eat a lot, but boy, are they worth it.

BTW, I concur on the comments regarding the *general* quality of Holderread sebbies- if you want a good one you need to buy it as an adult.

How do I know? Well, I have a couple flat headed Holderread goslings in growout right now.

 

[Cottage Rose]

Nobody, even well known breeders can get all or large numbers all show quality.
In any give hatch of goslings, litter of puppies, or whatever if you get 1 or 2 show quality results
you're lucky. The vast majority of anything is pet quality and that's what most people
want. How many people do you know that show? Serious breeders grow some
of their babies up to see what they are getting from any given breeding and select
the best to retain for breeding stock.
This is pretty typical and I've never known it to be considered an unethical practice.

 

[redhen]

Whats with the fish meal? Is it good for them or something?

What kind do i buy..how much do i give to them? Can ducks have it too?

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

we give it because it seems to help with the feathering on our show birds....same with the sunflower seeds and oats.
I will have to look into buying plain "fish meal", but they love the cat food...... We also sprinkle the feed with some dried kelp. Really helps the ducklings and goslings get off to a good start too.