Ducks and Geese

by Harry M. Lamon; Rob R. Slocum

Methods Used on Fattening Farms

As previously mentioned, a few farmers make a specialty of buying the geese in their section of the country in the fall when it is too late for serious trouble to develop from hemorrhagic septicemia, a disease similar to fowl cholera, and to fatten or finish them in large flocks for the Thanksgiving and Christmas markets. Methods are employed in different sections which differ quite widely.

On a farm in the Middle West the geese are collected from the general farms where they are produced in small flocks and brought to the farm where they are kept in flocks as large as 1,000 or even more, and are allowed to run in a cornfield or orchard. They are fattened for about a month. Corn on the cob and plenty of water is kept before the geese all the time and if they are running in a cornfield they eat the leaves off the corn stalks for roughage. Roughage is supplied if not available otherwise and straw, hay or vegetables are utilized for this purpose.

No shelter is provided during mild weather, the geese getting such protection as they can from the trees or corn stalks. If the weather turns unusually severe, the geese are generally driven into sheds or barns. When fattened the geese are usually shipped to some large market alive. Several farms in the neighborhood of Boston make a specialty of finishing geese each fall, and the methods used are quite different from those described above. No geese are raised on these farms, the operation being confined to the fattening or finishing of the geese and to killing and dressing them for the market. Some of these goose fatteners also have stalls or stands in the Boston markets where they are enabled to dispose of their fattened geese to the best advantage.

Fatteners. In previous years these fatteners depended largely upon the geese produced on the Rhode Island farms for their supply. In the past few years, however, the supply from this source has dwindled greatly and the bulk of the geese for fattening are now shipped from Prince Edward Island, Canada, in carload lots. Such summer geese as are now fattened still come from Rhode Island and are brought in by truck. The fattening season begins in September and lasts until Christmas. Some early goslings are bought in June but there is not as good a profit from the summer geese, the demand and prices being adversely affected by the supply of spring ducklings available at that time.

Experience and good judgment will benefit the goose fattener greatly when purchasing his supply of geese for fattening. What he wants are goslings, not older geese, which have made a good growth and which have a large frame but which are in poor flesh rather than fat. Such geese will make more rapid and more profitable gains. When geese are bought for shipment by the carload from Prince Edward Island, they should be penned and fed at the point of shipment for 3 or 4 days before they are loaded in the cars, so as to put them in shape to stand the journey well. On the farms from which they come, the goslings are not fed much and in consequence are not in shape to stand shipment.

The Goslings which are secured from the farms for fattening are mainly common geese of no particular breed. Some pure bred geese are also obtained as are some first crosses between the pure breeds. A class of geese which is obtained in some numbers from Prince Edward Island and which is much desired is the so-called "Mongrel" goose. These are obtained by breeding a Wild or Canadian gander to geese of dark plumage similar to the Toulouse or African. The mongrel geese much resemble the wild gander in type and color and are in demand on the market because of their wild or gamy flavor. They bring about 10 cents per pound more than common geese. The market, however, is somewhat limited. These geese will not breed although the females will lay eggs. Where the wild gander is mated with light colored or white geese the offspring will have more or less light colored feathers and will not as closely resemble the wild parent and for this reason are not as desirable.

Shipping. The geese are loaded into stock cars into which three separate decks are built to accommodate them. From 1200 to 1400 geese can be loaded into a car thus arranged. The journey usually takes about 5 or 6 days and some fatteners send a man along with the car to feed and water the geese 2 or 3 times during the trip. If a man does not accompany the car, buckets of corn should be placed in the car for feed and some potatoes should also be supplied as these will serve in place of drinking water. If the car is not subjected to unusual delay, the geese should come through in good shape, but if much delayed there may be 25 to 100 geese dead when the car arrives at its destination.

When the car arrives at the end of its journey, the geese are unloaded and driven to the farm where they are turned into the fields together in a large flock. The fields in which they are thus kept should have a supply of growing green feed or grass and a good supply of fresh drinking water. They are kept here until they are wanted for the fattening pens which may be from a week to 20 days after their arrival at the farm. While in this large supply flock they are fed on corn and grass which they can get for themselves.