Anyone ever release Geese?

Vegeta

Hey folks,

For the last few years there has been a nice population of greylag geese in the locality. Like with the majority of places in Ireland they can only be shot from September 1st until October 15th. We take a few a year but want to keep the population at least steady if not slightly increase it.

So we are thinking of buying a few geese (probably adult birds). Thing is no one in the club has experience with releasing them so I'm wondering if anyone has done it with any success and how to treat them.

There are zero arable farmers in the area

How hardy are reared geese, will we need feeders for them or will they fend for themselves. Will they mix well with the existing gaggle. skein, flock of geese etc etc

Any tips, experience and input is greatly appreciated.

mallards

Eddie B is the lad you want there Vegeta. I was talking to him a while back on it. Their shoot hatched and released greylags if I remember correctly.

Mallards.

Vegeta

Cheers mallards

I know they only have a month season but jesus nothing gets the heart racing while out duck shooting and hearing them calling and on their way.

The paradox of trying to stay calm and still while frantically searching the pocket for the magnum cartridges.

They've given great memories from the last few seasons and I'd like to make sure they're around for much more

Vegeta

So anyone got some words of wisdom for me

Grizzly 45

Have a chat with a certain chap who lives on the bottom of the Mill road in Limerick Veg;).[PM me for addy].He breeds geese here on the shannon,and the feckers come over every year to our place,eat and make merry until Sept 1st,and then like magic if they know the season starts,they all sod off back into the sanctuary in Corbally,and not a webbed toe is placed outside until the season is over.:rolleyes:
By and large they are tough and very self reliant birds.Once they have flight capability they are fine.They integrate pretty well with the established flocks,I've seen a few escaped"whiteys" domestics hanging out in the greylag flock. A good sized field with grass is fine,along with some corn or wheat thrown out to them by hand.
Tip.on shooting ,never shoot the lead bird of the skein.It can be somtimes an old tough gander,whose chest muscles are like kevlar.you might hit him a full load directly,but if they survie the ambush and power out and up,so will the entire flock.

ghostmantra

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

Tip.on shooting ,never shoot the lead bird of the skein.It can be somtimes an old tough gander,whose chest muscles are like kevlar.you might hit him a full load directly,but if they survie the ambush and power out and up,so will the entire flock.

i thought they swapped the lead every now and then.just thinking back to primary school:p

Grizzly 45

ghostmantra wrote: »

i thought they swapped the lead every now and then.just thinking back to primary school:p

They do.But it could be any type of age bird then.Sods law is it will be the oldest bird coming into your sights:D

landkeeper

i wouldn't worry about wether you can kill the lead bird cos it's as old as ahab but rather that you want to eat the b***er when hes on the deck
an old gander will need the old boot method to render it edible

Vegeta

Hey guys,

Wow it's nearly a year to the day since I've asked about this and I'm still on about it.

My brother made some investigations into buying birds this year and was told it would be illegal to release them. He was told this by the local ranger and the guy who supplies our pheasants.

So a new question comes to mind. Why can gun clubs release pheasants and duck but not geese? If someone knows the wildlife act better than me (wouldn't be hard) and can point this out I'd greatly appreciate it.

Tackleberrywho

Vegeta wrote: »

Hey guys,
So a new question comes to mind. Why can gun clubs release pheasants and duck but not geese? If someone knows the wildlife act better than me (wouldn't be hard) and can point this out I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'd love to know that too, as it would go for foxes and other mammals as well.

And why only male pheasants shot when males and females are released. and in some parts do not breed in the wild so are closer to feral than wild.

session savage

I never released geese but I just released gas... does that count?

J.R.

Vegeta wrote: »

Hey guys,

Wow it's nearly a year to the day since I've asked about this and I'm still on about it.

My brother made some investigations into buying birds this year and was told it would be illegal to release them. He was told this by the local ranger and the guy who supplies our pheasants.

So a new question comes to mind. Why can gun clubs release pheasants and duck but not geese? If someone knows the wildlife act better than me (wouldn't be hard) and can point this out I'd greatly appreciate it.

If they can't release geese - a native species - then where does that leave the lads who release wild turkeys?

Tackleberrywho

J.R. wrote: »

If they can't release geese - a native species - then where does that leave the lads who release wild turkeys?

+1 Or non "Native" pheasants outside of ring neck which could be considered native.........