[Creagan]

In the last month or so my four goslings seem to have lost their appetites. I suspect the goodness has gone out of the grass. They will nibble on some wheat but aren't taking as much as I would have wanted. I tried cutting it with some layers pellets as they used to go crazy for those, when they were younger they would break into the henhouse for them and I had to separate the geese and hens!

My local agri supplier have kind of let me down, kept me waiting a fortnight for some finishing feed and eventually I gave up and got a friend to pick some up from the next nearest place, only to find that I'd got chick crumb instead!! Not having much luck am I? Running a serious risk now of missing the moult cycle and having to kill the birds before they've put any weight on.

Any tips?

[devonlady]

Rolled barley! That'll fatten them up., Boiled spuds chopped up with it. And milk if you have it to spare.

[F.CUTHBERT]

Let us know how you get on they will likely turn out fine. I have just had our 14 killed and plucked. They have averaged 3.88kg each dressed out with a range from 3.14 to 4.83kg.I am quite pleased with them, they seemed plenty fat enough but not tasted one yet. They only had whole barley and grass since they went outside.
 2 years ago when i last tried rearing geese i put them inside about this time of year to try and fatten them. They were in for about 2 months on rolled and whole barley and i don't think they were any better at the end of the 2 months than at the start. i was a little disapointed with them.

[Burmieston]

We are trying to fatten ours as well. We thought they would be at least 5kg deadweight but are only just that live! So we have upped their feeding to twice a day. We get a bag of mixed grain feed from Gloagburn and the geese devour it. Have seen other websites suggesting more protein to put weight on but not keen on feeding the 25 of them milk. Penning them in isn't really an option for us as their 'sleeping quarters' are in the orchard and at the moment it's got too much goose poo in it!

[PetiteGalette]

What breed of geese do you keep? Some just don't fatten up.


We have the Legarth strain and this year's youngsters (cobs) have oven-ready weight of 5.5kilos. We found that Embden and Gris de Landes/Toulouse just didn't bulk up well in the first year.


We run them on grass all year round and feed a mix of crushed wheat/maize which sometimes has field beans included.

[Creagan]

Ours were an Embden type white goose, I don't think they were purebred though.
They were on grass and then bruised barley, finished at 3.2-4.5kg
There is one in the oven right now so I will see if it was all worth it

[PetiteGalette]

I h0pe so!
You just can't beat a tasty goose at Christmas!

[Creagan]

Well, pleased to report that I do in fact like the taste of goose! Phew!
Texture not far from chicken, but a much darker meat, similar strength of taste to, say, beef. We didn't hang the birds but might do next time to develop a richer flavour.