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Poultry Projects In 2003 we got our first poultry in years. I had raised show chickens years ago but now am more interested in dinner birds. We got geese and chickens to raise for meat. Geese Chickens 2003 Results Geese Our first geese were generic geese from Metzer Farms. We ordered eight hatchery choice geese and got shipped 9 lovely healthy goslings. Our goslings arrived 11 June 2003 and grew rapidly. We were unsure of the breeds but eventually decided we got Brown Chinese, Buff and an unknown white goose. The Goslings 26 June 2003 Eating Grass and Clovers 26 June 2003 The Goslings 6 July 2003 "Christmas" our Dinner Goose to Be 6 July 2003 The Goslings 9 July 2003 One of the Chinese Goslings 6 July 2003 Getting Bigger 29 July 2003 Getting Bigger 29 July 2003 Go To Top Chickens I've always loved Buff Orpington chickens and also liked the looks of Wyandottes. So for our first chickens in years we ordered 13 Buff Orpington and 12 Silver Laced Wyandottes from Murray McMurray hatchery. Buff Orpington Silver Laced Wyandotte We ordered all males as it was late in the season. 26 healthy chickens arrived 22 July 2003. The extra was some type with green or willow colored shanks. The Chickens 29 July 2003 Go To Top Results The chickens and geese all did well. We butchered all of them 28 October 2003. The geese were well grown but the chickens could have used a bit longer to put on a bit more muscle. Of the geese we much prefered the temperament of the buff and the white goose compared to the Chinese. The Chinese were much smaller too. The buff and white geese were nearly 9 pounds dressed weight. The Chinese geese averaged less than 7 pounds each dressed weight. We sold several of the geese to customers at the Farmers' Market and reports are they were tasty but very lean, almost too lean for most people. The buff goose we ate for Christmas was still leaner than a commercial goose but had more fat than the Chinese one we have eaten. The buff and white goose were better foragers and seemed to grow faster than the others. We did not pen or feed the chickens heavily and they are slower growing breeds compared to commercial Rock x Cornish crosses. The chickens were great foragers and we did not lose a single one to predators or illness. We've eaten some of both chicken breeds and they are very tasty. The Wyandottes with their black feathers were much harder to pluck for a nice clean carcass. Our chickens averaged 3 pounds dressed weight. We want to see if we can get a slightly heavier carcass, around 5 pounds, but still keep the good foraging ability. We also need more than 25 chickens just for our own use not to mention selling a few at the Farmers' Market in town. Go To Top