SELLING WILD GEESE ??

[marsh man]

Looking at the photos of people posing with several geese and reading reports of 10 or a dozen been shot I often wonder what do they do with them. I have shot them in the past this time of the year and how hot it is now they start to smell and flys are hanging around them after a couple of days hanging up . I can give half a dozen away though out the season then I begin to struggle finding someone who want one ,well then you might say why don't you eat them yourself, ( A ) I am not that keen on them especially Canada Geese as I find them to strong and ( B ) I do a lot of duck shooting and involved in two game shoots where I can have a brace of birds on the shoot days and last year we had just over 30 days , so from next month there isn't many days where the hooks in my shed haven't got something hanging from them .The last two Canadas I shot was around 14yrs ago and I had to lug them back to my motor which was over a mile away in a snow storm , I gave one away and nobody wanted the other one so I cut the breasts off and cooked it in tin foil and it tasted like a poor piece of beef and I vowed then that I wont shoot no more unless somebody want one, which brings me to the title of my post ( why cant we sell wild Geese ) if any member of the public want to try a wild goose and unless they know somebody like ourselves they are out of luck, they can buy duck and all the types of game but they cant buy a Goose . So guys what do you do with your geese and do you think the time has come to change the rules about the sale of Wild Geese ?

[Penelope]

I either use them my self or give them away (breasted a Canada and a Greylag last night (and 23 pigeons) - Canada is going to a former chef at work along with 15 pigeon crowns today, the Grey I will use).

 

No, I don't think that geese should be sold, too easy to slaughter sometimes over decoys.

[Kalahari]

It is illegal. I do think that as a matter of principle that you shouldn't shoot more than you can consume. We are giving ammunition to the antis if we do shoot more than is consumed. Why don't you try one of the food banks/soup kitchens/salvation army in your are. They might be pleased to use them if you prepared them. I think this is a use it or lose it situation. Use the game or we will all lose the righ to shoot!

 

David.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Kalahari

[Richie10]

Personally I don't see any point in going shooting unless you are going to use what you get.

 

I could sell the pigeons I shoot, but I keep them all. Why sell them onto someone for pittence when you can use them all year yourself.

Ducks don't go anywhere, we eat through the season until we are sick of them and save the rest for the summer.

 

Why sell on the meat and then go to the supermarket to buy more? If you don't like goose, mince it, put some spices, and pork fat and egg into it and make burgers. Stew it with veg for a few hours, so much you can do with it.

 

Get yourself a chest freezer or don't shoot as much.

[Morningflight]

It is illegal to sell wild geese and I hope it stays that way, the reason this law was brought in after the war was to stop the mass slaughter of geese which in turn will reduce the numbers . I know of people who do it and the police have been informed along with trading standards that investigate the meat processors who buy and sell on as other meat in sausages etc.

[JDog]

Marshman,

 

We have only had the benefit of your knowledge and experience for a few months on Pigeon Watch. Had you been on longer you would have read posts where forty or fifty geese had been shot in a single session. I have queried what happens to all of those geese and I am sceptical indeed when told they they are all used in the food chain.

[anser2]

I have a friend who is a retired butcher and and worked out a trade with him. I give him all my geese and he returns half of them prepared for the table. Not that I shoot that many geese these days. But I guess that I should take a few more greylags than i do. Indeed we all should,to reduce the numbers or they will go on the pest list next year for sure.

 

In the past I have strongly supported the ban on the sale of dead wild geese , but with the pressure to reduce numbers there may be a case for it in certain areas for feral greylag and canadas. In the Broads the Broads Authority are pushing hard for a massive cull right across East Norfolk. If this happens the population will drop sharply , then greylag will no longer be a major sporting quarry for most fowlers in the area. So in my opinion it would be better for wildfowlers to take a few more and try to take the heat out of the problem now.

Edited September 4, 2014 by anser2

[aister]

I have a lot of friends and family that take goose from me so when I shoot big bags of home bred geese before the migrants come in I have no trouble getting goose meat used up. Plus, my wife and three boys love goose, 4 breasts are cleaned up with no trouble and we could easily eat goose once a fortnight without getting fed up with it. I hope that the sale of goose meat never becomes legal because there are plenty of people who would abuse it. However, I am delighted that in Orkney they are able to sell the goose meat that comes from the cull, better that than it being dumped. Thankfully the number of geese up here in shetland is nowhere near as high as in orkney and IMO we are long way off needing a out of season cull.

[birdsallpl]

Marshman,

We have only had the benefit of your knowledge and experience for a few months on Pigeon Watch. Had you been on longer you would have read posts where forty or fifty geese had been shot in a single session. I have queried what happens to all of those geese and I am sceptical indeed when told they they are all used in the food chain.

If all special licences allowed them to be sold as apparently in the Orkneys then it wouldn't be so bad, but like you I have my doubts as well. I have heard horror stories of hundreds of geese being left to rot in the Orkneys. But I have no personal experience of the fact so can only be hearsay. Let's hope the stories are wrong.

[marsh man]

Personally I don't see any point in going shooting unless you are going to use what you get.

 

I could sell the pigeons I shoot, but I keep them all. Why sell them onto someone for pittence when you can use them all year yourself.

Ducks don't go anywhere, we eat through the season until we are sick of them and save the rest for the summer.

 

Why sell on the meat and then go to the supermarket to buy more? If you don't like goose, mince it, put some spices, and pork fat and egg into it and make burgers. Stew it with veg for a few hours, so much you can do with it.

 

Get yourself a chest freezer or don't shoot as much.

Richie10.....I don't know the numbers of pigeons you shoot but well done to you and your family for consumeing your bags , in my case I don't shoot as many as some of P W members on this forum but I do normally end up in four figures and as much as I like them there is no way I could get through that amount and yes I have got a chest freezer and 99% of them end up at the game dealers, alright you don't get much but the money is not the main reason I take them its having the satisfaction that they are not being wasted .Same with duck , I enjoy wild fowling the traditional way on the saltings or on the fresh marshes and if I do end up with more than I want at the last resort I can sell them so once again nothing is wasted .And like you say I don't like some geese so why try and alter the taste with all the different spices ect when I have got access to game and duck I do enjoy. That is why the last Canada Goose I shot was 14yrs ago and I can honestly say nothing I shoot is wasted even the odd crow I shoot is hung up to try and keep other crows off ending up with the same fate.

[kent]

Learn to treat the Canada properly in the kitchen might be a good place to start, just wrapping it in tinfoil and putting it in the oven aint going to produce a nice meal indeed I should feel the dog hard done to if I did that. Slice it up going crosswise on the grain with the kin fat removed and use it for mince substitute, it makes great Meat and pot pies, curries , pasta dishes and a lot better for you than beef.

 

I am totally 100% against allowing the sale of geese or any part of them, I do side with the thought that in areas of high numbers we should formally work with those calling for GL and mass culling to take a bigger bag in season. Many times when faced with too much of one thing I will cook it and freeze it down for dogfood and only throw away that which is contaminated or unsafe to eat. If I don't like it I either don't shoot it or only shoot it if I have someone who wants it. In the case of a big cull of something that couldn't go to the table or be sold I should phone the likes of the Hunt kennels in advance.

[Richie10]

Richie10.....I don't know the numbers of pigeons you shoot but well done to you and your family for consumeing your bags , in my case I don't shoot as many as some of P W members on this forum but I do normally end up in four figures and as much as I like them there is no way I could get through that amount and yes I have got a chest freezer and 99% of them end up at the game dealers, alright you don't get much but the money is not the main reason I take them its having the satisfaction that they are not being wasted .Same with duck , I enjoy wild fowling the traditional way on the saltings or on the fresh marshes and if I do end up with more than I want at the last resort I can sell them so once again nothing is wasted .And like you say I don't like some geese so why try and alter the taste with all the different spices ect when I have got access to game and duck I do enjoy. That is why the last Canada Goose I shot was 14yrs ago and I can honestly say nothing I shoot is wasted even the odd crow I shoot is hung up to try and keep other crows off ending up with the same fate.

 

Well it seems you do make the most of what you get. i don't get huge amounts of pigeon but we do get through it quick.

Used to go ferreting alot but the wife went off rabbits so i don't bother with them anymore.

 

 

I say we don't waste anything but I have a teenage son and feeding him is like emptying food into a bottomless pit and it basically could be anything.

 

All the best

 

Rich

[Terry P]

In wildfowling can there be such a think as getting too much, surely you just stop shooting when you've had enough for your or your friends needs. If you have so many that you can sell the excess to the butcher, your shooting to many to start with.

Selling wild geese should never be allowed, with Canada and probably soon greylag being on the GL it will lead to wholesale slaughter under the guise of pest control with the added bonus of getting paid for it.

[marsh man]

Learn to treat the Canada properly in the kitchen might be a good place to start, just wrapping it in tinfoil and putting it in the oven aint going to produce a nice meal indeed I should feel the dog hard done to if I did that. Slice it up going crosswise on the grain with the kin fat removed and use it for mince substitute, it makes great Meat and pot pies, curries , pasta dishes and a lot better for you than beef.

 

I am totally 100% against allowing the sale of geese or any part of them, I do side with the thought that in areas of high numbers we should formally work with those calling for GL and mass culling to take a bigger bag in season. Many times when faced with too much of one thing I will cook it and freeze it down for dogfood and only throw away that which is contaminated or unsafe to eat. If I don't like it I either don't shoot it or only shoot it if I have someone who wants it. In the case of a big cull of something that couldn't go to the table or be sold I should phone the likes of the Hunt kennels in advance.

Kent.....Me and my wifes cooking skills with game is about as good as my writing and spelling , and as my old teacher used to say there is room for improvement. I normally prepare the game the night before , put it in a casserole dish, put a tin of white or red wine sauce over it and all my wife have to do the next day is to put it in the oven and job done . As for selling Geese what I was trying to put over was how can a member of the public try a wild goose if they cant buy one where as they can buy every thing else we shoot.

[grahamch]

The only places geese can be sold are the Orkneys under special licence and I think also in the Outer Hebrides but I may be wrong on the latter

[islandgun]

I understand that licences are available to people in the Uist's Outer Hebrides. there is a proliication of greylag numbers and crofters are calling for a cull, indeed my local primary school in Harris have stopped access to the playing field because of goose excrement

I find it easier to accept that geese are shot in season by experienced people with the meat going on for human consumption than a general licence with geese shot out of season and dumped, a spokesperson for SNH said it might reduce the numbers of other species shot in season !

[kent]

Kent.....Me and my wifes cooking skills with game is about as good as my writing and spelling , and as my old teacher used to say there is room for improvement. I normally prepare the game the night before , put it in a casserole dish, put a tin of white or red wine sauce over it and all my wife have to do the next day is to put it in the oven and job done . As for selling Geese what I was trying to put over was how can a member of the public try a wild goose if they cant buy one where as they can buy every thing else we shoot.

When you "give" them one? I haven't "sold" any game or venison for years, personally I now think it morally wrong but once over I felt very, very differently and it made a good proportion of my income- something I cant say I am particularly proud of.

[motty]

In wildfowling can there be such a think as getting too much, surely you just stop shooting when you've had enough for your or your friends needs. If you have so many that you can sell the excess to the butcher, your shooting to many to start with.

Selling wild geese should never be allowed, with Canada and probably soon greylag being on the GL it will lead to wholesale slaughter under the guise of pest control with the added bonus of getting paid for it.

Further to that, imagine how many pinks the Scottish goose guides would then allow to be killed, knowing they could all be easily sold on.

[Tenboreauto]

Personally I believe that wild geese should be aloowed to be sold, especially now with Canada Geese on the GL and now with the prospect of Greylag following them. Otherwise vast numbers will be shot and dumped as they cannot be disposed of.

[kent]

Personally I believe that wild geese should be aloowed to be sold, especially now with Canada Geese on the GL and now with the prospect of Greylag following them. Otherwise vast numbers will be shot and dumped as they cannot be disposed of.

 

There is of course the obvious response to that is "don't shoot so many" and the reason its not allowed? Because just over 100 years ago we shot out the native breeding greylag and all you see in England now are descended from young birds taken from Scotland and re-introduced by WAGBI. How much quicker might we do the same again if they had value beyond what the shooter could eat or give away now we have Nitro powder, effective fast transport, great decoys, calls etc.

 

Its been said many times but Geese can be controlled very well by scare tactics and killing just a few, they are not Pigeons and only raise but one brood a year and the adult birds take a few years before they can breed. BIG DIFFERENCE

[birdsallpl]

There is of course the obvious response to that is "don't shoot so many" and the reason its not allowed? Because just over 100 years ago we shot out the native breeding greylag and all you see in England now are descended from young birds taken from Scotland and re-introduced by WAGBI. How much quicker might we do the same again if they had value beyond what the shooter could eat or give away now we have Nitro powder, effective fast transport, great decoys, calls etc.

 

Its been said many times but Geese can be controlled very well by scare tactics and killing just a few, they are not Pigeons and only raise but one brood a year and the adult birds take a few years before they can breed. BIG DIFFERENCE

I agree with you Kent. However I think there is a compromise which would be, there are no geese on the general licence. Special licences are issued with the amount that can be culled and the amount that can be sold. The flaw in this would be that NA may start charging extra for administering the specials, but even that I guess could be an advantage.

[marsh man]

Personally I believe that wild geese should be aloowed to be sold, especially now with Canada Geese on the GL and now with the prospect of Greylag following them. Otherwise vast numbers will be shot and dumped as they cannot be disposed of.

I agree up to a point , if they were sold for a small amount of money say £1.00 each there would at least be a outlet for them, there is no disgrace for the lone shooter in selling any surplus game , pigeons or rabbits to a butcher or game dealer , if he is good at what he do you cant blame him for getting some of his expenses back. If say he shot 100 pigeons and used 6 boxes of cartridges that cost £30.00 and got back £30.00 for taking them to the gamedealers he haven't made anything time you take petrol out ect , but hes had a excellent days sport and knowing every thing he shot is being used and they are on the GL , he could have kept them but he had a option of selling them if he wanted to, so what is the difference with Canada Geese now they are on the GL ? You will never make money out of selling game those days are long gone. The Game dealer we used last year wont come after our game if it was less than a 100 as she says it cost more to come after them than what the game would be worth. I wouldn't mind shooting 1 or 2 Canadas but until I know somebody who want one or I can find use of one they will safely stay where they are.

[Tenboreauto]

If geese can be controlled so well then there is no reason fro them to be on the GL, However there is so many people within this sport who will shoot everything to destruction "Because they can" How many "Shooters" were chomping at the bit to get out and shoot a badger? My bet would be many.

 

I know of vast ammounts of Canada Geese being shot when they are flightless and then dumped, all under the "Pest control" banner.

[Reabrook]

 

I know of vast ammounts of Canada Geese being shot when they are flightless and then dumped, all under the "Pest control" banner.

Oh No you don't!! Just ask the BASC it doesn't happen.

 

Apparently lol

Edited September 5, 2014 by Reabrook

[Harnser]

The irony of banning the sale of wild geese was to stop the market gunning . Now there seems to be to many geese and some species now need to go onto the general licence .

I had a look around the farms today and counted 183 grey lags on one of the irrigation ditches . Time for a couple for the pot . Not exactly wild fowling but mrs harnser and myself are partial to roost goose .

I wouldn't want to see the ban on selling wild geese lifted . The meadow next to the the irrigation ditch has been well tramped down and is covered with goose droppings . I can see the concern .

 

Harnser