When I tried to buy a goose for Christmas--$54!!!!

[babalubird]

Holy cow! I couldn't believe it. I'd never had goose before and thought it might be a nice diversion from the turkey we had for Thanksgiving. The price at Albertson's was $54 for a young, as in, not so big, goose!

May I ask if any of you raise your geese for sale to the public for the holidays and what the going rate is off the farm? Are they more profitable than chickens as a result?

Are they easy and quick to market? Do you do your own butchering or how do you handle that?

Thanks.

 

[Goose and Fig]

I thought about finding someone to butcher my extra males- and I have a kinda mean one- but they are just too cute. My toulouse bonded to me and follow me around like puppies, so I don't think I'd ever be able to do it. They did grow out really fast though. If you have good pasture land you could probably make your money back and then some, but if you have to spend a lot on feed they aren't worth it.

 

[Olive Hill]

$54 is inexpensive. Frozen, small-farm raised geese can go for much, MUCH more. If you check the local harvest store you'll find frozen goose in the 20 pound range going for around $200.

Geese can be quite profitable but as with any venture profitability will largely depend on your set-up -- both production and marketing-wise. If you don't process on-farm processing for waterfowl, especially large waterfowl like a goose can be pricey. If you don't have adequate grazing space geese can be extremely expensive to rear and the meat quality may suffer. If there is no demand or you're not good at marketing you may or may not be able to sell your stock. And so on and so forth. It's just like any other business.

 

[BirdBrain]

I was at the grocery store about 2 weeks ago and saw the price of a goose at $77 and went home and made an order to Holdlerreads for geese in the spring. I want Christmas goose next year and don't want to pay that. But $200 ?

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
I consider them easy but not quick to market. Hatch late winter, Harvest the end of September or later. Usually they are pretty good about finding their own feed if they have decent pasture. I usually feed them starter feed if winter conditions hang around into the spring. Some customers like the idea of selecting their bird on-the-hoof so to speak. I always get stuck with the job of catching and killing, so I include that in the 'base price' of the bird. Some customers will take it from there after I have explained how much I will charge to butcher and dress a bird/ Of course some want the bird like they will find in a food store. I charge $20 for all that labor. I will never get rich from selling dead geese but in most cases I can't afford to carry a big flock of hungry geese over the winter. Life is tough!

 

[shelleyd2008]

I saw one at Wal-mart at Thanksgiving, I believe it was $14 a pound? I really wish my live geese would sell for that, I'm lucky to get $20 for one