Anyone use their geese for meat (or at least sometimes)?

[zooweemama]

I'm just curious who does this. What breed you raise. How long it takes to process one? (no we do not want to eat Chuck and Sarah lol) How much do you think a 14lb goose dress out to? Do you think that geese vs turkey for meat are a better choice (since they are such hearty foragers)? About what age do you like to process them ideally?

Thanks!!

 

[jdywntr]

I plan to but haven't yet as mine are young and I'm waiting to see what sexes I've got. I think you still process geese pretty young (10-12 weeks) and from what I've read most breeds are good for the table. As with any other bird, the white feathered dress out better and the larger give more meat. I know the Embden is popular in the UK. I'm sure someone else will be able to answer better. I'm looking forward to reading it though.

 

[zooweemama]

I plan to but haven't yet as mine are young and I'm waiting to see what sexes I've got. I think you still process geese pretty young (10-12 weeks) and from what I've read most breeds are good for the table. As with any other bird, the white feathered dress out better and the larger give more meat. I know the Embden is popular in the UK. I'm sure someone else will be able to answer better. I'm looking forward to reading it though.

Thanks! I don't know but I almost felt bad making the post. LOL Geese are raised so often as pets. Eat a chicken or a duck...but say geese and it feels like you are saying dog or something. hehe I've never had goose actually. But I like the flavor of duck.

Turkeys look like fun BUT honest to goodness, the fact that I have had SO many issues with chickens in the 4 months we've been raising them that I can not, NOT NOT NOT imagine doing that again for something that I am just going to eat anyway. Chickens- I love them but it has been issue after issue with them. Ducks have proven so far to be quite easy for the most part. I imagine geese would be good for meat instead of turkey for these reasons: a lot of meat on 1 bird, they forage a great deal of their diet, like ducks are quite disease resistant, take care of themselves....but I know plucking is a huge chore with geese.

 

[Cottage Rose]

We've had a few home grown goslings and a couple older ganders butchered for the table.
The men in our family really like them.
I've tasted goose but really can't bring myself to eat a whole serving of them.
I could however eat a restaurant served goose I didn't raise.
Properly prepared (rare) they remind me of veal.
I decided to stop raising them for meat because geese are so personable which makes it difficult
at slaughter time so I got some turkeys this year. Now those dang things have become pet like.
I can't win! ;o)
I have an easier time eating homegrown chickens.
I think you could process geese at 4 - 6 months old when they are as big as an adult.
Quite economical to raise geese on grass for the table.
I like raising some of our own meat.
That way I know they have had a good life and were rasied on good feed and grass.

 

[zooweemama]

We've had a few home grown goslings and a couple older ganders butchered for the table.
The men in our family really like them.
I've tasted goose but really can't bring myself to eat a whole serving of them.
I could however eat a restaurant served goose I didn't raise.
Properly prepared (rare) they remind me of veal.
I decided to stop raising them for meat because geese are so personable which makes it difficult
at slaughter time so I got some turkeys this year. Now those dang things have become pet like.
I can't win! ;o)
I have an easier time eating homegrown chickens.
I think you could process geese at 4 - 6 months old when they are as big as an adult.
Quite economical to raise geese on grass for the table.
I like raising some of our own meat.
That way I know they have had a good life and were rasied on good feed and grass.

Thanks! I TOTALLY get what you mean. It's why - at this time- I am unable to eat our own ducks. My biggest mistake was naming them and letting the kids help. We have not repeated that mistake with the chickens. Well mostly- we have 26 chickens and 6 have names. The rest are just 'chickens'. The 2 geese we currently have - will not be eaten. They were bought as pets.

I am looking at Pilgrim geese because of the auto-sexing. I imagine any surplus could also be sold locally as well. (the goslings I mean, even juveniles) While I like American Buffs (so lovely)- the auto-sex appeal is really too strong to pass up. It would make life SO much easier knowing what gender a gosling was. My Brown African pair- will remain pets and paired and likely live separate from other geese should we go that route.

Since you HAVE done geese and turkey- I would be very interested on your thoughts over cost.

What do you feed your turkeys? When do you process them? Ease of processing? Do you find goose meat or turkey meat to be more cost effective? Disease resistance/vaccine/worming/illness and medical treatments...which needed LESS intervention.

My chickens need to be wormed. They picked some sort of mites. Gah! So there is that. Then they had Cocci...that was fun. Impacted crop...we had to cut the crop open and clean it out. Then one pullet was super ill from cocci and I literally hand nursed her back to health- which took days. The medications for all this is insane. With my ducks? NOTHING. Not a thing. So that's a factor for me. (cost and time and effort)

Thanks so much for your candidness!

 

[flockman]

I am planning to do this. We have Boris and Natasha to use as breeders to raise goslings each year for the table. While Boris and Natasha are pets their young will not be. We also bought an Embden at the same time as the other two geese. It is 17 weeks and is going to be processed. We have not had goose before but we liked duck and wanted something that we could raise with little supplementation. We like the idea of an animal that eats grass and produces meat well. Thus we have geese. Now I really just love the two we are keeping. We learned with animals that we raise for the table to not name them or if we do we name them with a food name. Hence the embden has been given the name Dinner. I agree that ducks are much easier to raise compared to chickens. We thought about turkeys but decided to try geese first.

 

[psue]

we have our keepers and those that are or have been on butcher row. We have geese, ducks and turkeys as well as chickens. Geese need to be processed about 12 weeks or let them molt and process them later. Turkeys after reaching about 4 months are hardy as well.
The only thing that will take a breeder off the keep list fast is turning mean. I refuse to have ANY animal my children or Mother are afraid of.

Enjoy the food, knowing that you gave them a great life!

 

[jdywntr]

zooweemama- Thanks! I don't know but I almost felt bad making the post. LOL Geese are raised so often as pets. Eat a chicken or a duck...but say geese and it feels like you are saying dog or something. hehe I've never had goose actually. But I like the flavor of duck.
I know what you mean. I'm new to the goose forum but I know on the duck forum, it can get a little iffy when talking about processing. I usually skinned my ducks easier than plucking by hand.

we have our keepers and those that are or have been on butcher row. We have geese, ducks and turkeys as well as chickens. Geese need to be processed about 12 weeks or let them molt and process them later. Turkeys after reaching about 4 months are hardy as well.
The only thing that will take a breeder off the keep list fast is turning mean. I refuse to have ANY animal my children or Mother are afraid of.

Enjoy the food, knowing that you gave them a great life

X 2

I like knowing first, what my meat was eating before I was eating it and second, that I know that my animals had a good life. I have processed ducks before and once my Muscovy started producing, they will be processed. Same with the chickens but they to need to start producing. I will do the same with the geese. My plan is to keep the best overall of all of the birds and use them to breed. I need to get some leg bands or colored zip ties to tell them (especially the chickens) apart. I have a chicken hen that basically bit me (though I know they don't bite) and took a bit of flesh with her! If that attitude continues, she will not be a keeper.

 

[psue]

zooweemama- Thanks! I don't know but I almost felt bad making the post. LOL Geese are raised so often as pets. Eat a chicken or a duck...but say geese and it feels like you are saying dog or something. hehe I've never had goose actually. But I like the flavor of duck.
I know what you mean. I'm new to the goose forum but I know on the duck forum, it can get a little iffy when talking about processing. I usually skinned my ducks easier than plucking by hand.

Mom and I decided to pluck then skin IF the pin feathers are really bad. We cook over an open flame often so skinned isn't what we want all the time. We did figure out that you have to move the ducks in the water some and wait for the bubbles to come up ( water getting in the undercoat) and keep ahold of a couple of wing feathers... when you can pull them the rest of the feathers come out pretty easy!

Wing trick works on anything your plucking.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

OregonBlues has an older post on here about preparing goose. They raise Pomeranians, which is the breed that was traditionally raised for meat in the past and gave some good cooking tips. However, I am sure that any goose can be processed for food. Most people focus on the larger breeds like the Embden, but if you have a small family, a large goose breed may not be right for you.

I do remember reading that with geese, the processing is all about timing due to the feathers. Their are certain times they are easier to pluck than others which is important due to the down. Quite a few people collect the down, which can be cleaned, dried and used or sold.

We have been mulling the idea of meat geese over as well. I have a production Toulouse gander and could let him cross with the pet quality Pom females that I will not use as breeders. I imagine this would give us a nice, solid bird that would be mid-sized between the two breeds (the Poms are shorter, but wider). However, my husband, who does all the processing, doesn't think he could kill a goose: He says they have intelligent eyes. I think it would take one of the ganders turning aggressive for him to really want to process one of them, but time will tell.

He wants to process one of our ducks, since we have so many extra drakes. If we like it, I have a Pekin and some Silver Appleyard hens that I can breed with our Appleyard drake for meat. I would just want to let a brood hatch them, since I would be less attached to them than if I incubated them and brooded them. I think I would need that level of detachment from the waterfowl to comfortably eat. No cuddling the fluffy babies and no names for anything I intend to eat.

I am also raising turkeys and thus far, one of the two breeds I got has proven very resilient: Much healthier than the chickens. The chickens are a constant battle sometimes. I can go months without anyone getting sick and then, wham, I'll have two or three that all have different symptoms and end up treating for three different things. No matter how clean their coop, feeders, and waterers are kept, and despite no new birds being brought in, they still manage to find a way to get sick. I plan on getting them down under 70 birds and keeping it there: 100 is too many. I am going through the birds and narrowing down to a couple of breeds to keep outside my laying flock then culling heavily.

As to the turkeys, I think it depends on the breed. I have limited experience since I just got them this year and only got two breeds. I started with 3 Broad Breasted Bronze (BBB) poults and hatched 15 Beltsville Small White (BSW) turkeys. I was torn between the Beltsville and Midget White. I have read that the Midget White tastes better than the Beltsville, but after weighing all the factors, went with the Beltsvilles. At any rate, I have never eaten a turkey that didn't come from the grocery store, so anything home grown is bound to taste better.

Reasons I went with the Beltsville turkeys:

1. Size. I wanted a smaller bird to maximize the number I could keep.

2. Carcass. This breed was developed by the Department of Agriculture as a broad breasted production type bird. However, they don't grow as large, as fast as the Broad Breasted Whites so can breed naturally and are actually considered a heritage turkey.

3. Health. From what I have read, they are one of the healthiest turkey breeds.

4. Rare. They are on the ABLC list as critically endangered. Their are only a couple known flocks in the US that are not in government hands and a couple in Canada, including one held by a university for research. I am a sucker for rare heritage breeds.

5. APA. They are accepted to the APA and therefore can be shown should I choose to do so.

6. Eggs. This breed is said to be amongst the best layers, but worst mothers. Hopefully, that means fewer broody hens so I can take and sell or incubate their eggs.

Out of the 3 BBB poults I started with, only one survived past three months: He is now ready for processing. If my husband does not find the time to do this soon, we are going to need a bigger oven or to split the bird in half to cook him. I feel bad for the guy. He is sweet and docile, but having a harder time walking with each passing week: He now waddles.

Out of the 15 BSW poults to hatch, they are ALL still alive and filling out very well: The first 10 are 4 months old and the other 5 are 3 months old. The only issue I have had is them pecking at the skin on each others necks during tuffles over dominance.

The turkeys are hilarious and sadly friendlier than I would have hoped. However, my husband will have NO issues ending them. They fly really well, especially the hens, and if we don't clip the flight feathers of one of their wings every 2 weeks they get out of their pasture and cause mischief. Mainly, they have been caught on more than one occasion roosting on one of our vehicles or our tractor. Needless to say the scratched up paint jobs was enough to send my husband into the turkey hater camp. I don't think he will mind killing them at all.

I got some of the shrink bags like grocery store turkeys come in to prolong the time we can freeze them (got some chicken sized ones too). I also have a meat grinder attachment for my stand mixer and may try making ground turkey as well. We really like turkey burgers, and are not big red meat eaters so it should work out pretty well for us.

Good luck with your decision and endeavors ZooWee..... Let us know how you make out!