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  1. #1
    Member Col_M's Avatar
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    Processing goose down!

    Hi all, I've recently made friends with a farmer who has white geese for their meat, currently he has no use for the down and he said I can have all I want for a small price to cover any costs. The great thing is that he's a natural and sustainable farmer so all his geese are outside, healthier and much older when they get slaughtered which is great as the down from older birds is much better than younger ones.

    I'll just need to process and sort the down myself, what I was planning to do is hand sort the down and put it into pillow cases which I can then throw into the washer and drier to clean it without creating any mess. I can also use his farm facilities for this as he has a few spaces that would be suitable for sorting the down (i.e. draught proof with tiled surfaces that will be easy to clean up when I'm finished) and industrial washers and driers for his hotel.

    Does anyone have any experience with processing down and is there anything I should take into consideration, advice etc?
    Any idea how much down the average goose yields?

  2. #2
    Senior Member leepingreenlizards's Avatar
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    The only thing I've ever seen was a documentary about a guy that lives in Ireland (?) and makes his living collecting down on some island there. He collected the down from the nests (and maybe a few other areas where they shed down as the adult plumage came in) of “goslings” due to the fact that it's pretty much 100% ultra-fine down. It was very clean and required little sorting with the exception of a few adult feathers and bits of debris here and there. I thought they said it was the absolute best kind of down you could get, due to the fact that down from “goslings” is very fine, light and fluffy. He simply reached down and picked up huge quantities of the stuff at a time and placed it in plastic bags, then sells it to companies.

    It's been years since I've seen this and I could be mistaken about a few facts, but it sounds like you’re in for a lot of tedious work separating the stuff from adult birds that have been plucked.

    Poor naked birds!

  3. #3
    Member Col_M's Avatar
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    heh thanks, I think collecting loose down will take just as long. Like you say it may well be better but collecting it would be a pain maybe even more so than hand sorting the down myself. However I'm pretty sure that for the very best grades of down it's hand sorted anyway, I'll just dedicate a day to it, no big deal.

  4. #4
    Senior Member leepingreenlizards's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Col_M View Post
    heh thanks, I think collecting loose down will take just as long. Like you say it may well be better but collecting it would be a pain maybe even more so than hand sorting the down myself. However I'm pretty sure that for the very best grades of down it's hand sorted anyway, I'll just dedicate a day to it, no big deal.
    Actually, he just walked along the shore, picked it up and stuffed it in a bag...if I remember correctly.

    I agree though, where ever it comes from, it has to be processed.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Ramblinrev's Avatar
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    I know in the US there are laws governing the use and sale of down. Probably not a problem if you use it only for yourself. But if you are going to be looking at marketing the product you should probably check into the regulations in your country. Down in its raw state can carry diseases, allergens and other nasty stuff. For your own use..sounds doable. But it makes me wonder if the farmer isn't missing a market area. There may be more to it than you are expecting.
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  6. #6
    Senior Member Lonely Raven's Avatar
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    I just saw a web page that had a step by step (well, stage by stage on an industrial level) on how they process the down. There was lots of talk of sterilization of the down...you wouldn't want to get any bugs or illness from said down...

    I'll see if I can find the page again.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Lonely Raven's Avatar
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  8. #8
    Member Col_M's Avatar
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    Cool, thanks guys, I'll check the links out when I get home from work today

    I'm not planning to sell it so no problems there, just for personal use. I'm not too worried about the sterilisation, I'll wash it and the drier will be hot enough to get most nasties, other than that I'm of the opinion that exposure to bad stuff is good for the immune system (within reason of course).

    The farmer has only just started a few years ago and he's not really looking to exploit every market area, he's on the board of a large international company so striving to make lots of money isn't on his priority list.

  9. #9
    Senior Member Theo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by leepingreenlizards View Post
    The only thing I've ever seen was a documentary about a guy that lives in Ireland (?) and makes his living collecting down on some island there. He collected the down from the nests (and maybe a few other areas where they shed down as the adult plumage came in) of “goslings” due to the fact that it's pretty much 100% ultra-fine down. It was very clean and required little sorting with the exception of a few adult feathers and bits of debris here and there. I thought they said it was the absolute best kind of down you could get, due to the fact that down from “goslings” is very fine, light and fluffy. He simply reached down and picked up huge quantities of the stuff at a time and placed it in plastic bags, then sells it to companies.

    It's been years since I've seen this and I could be mistaken about a few facts, but it sounds like you’re in for a lot of tedious work separating the stuff from adult birds that have been plucked.

    Poor naked birds!
    That is Eider down from Eider ducks. Suppose to the best down in the world but expensive.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Lonely Raven's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Col_M View Post
    Cool, thanks guys, I'll check the links out when I get home from work today

    I'm not planning to sell it so no problems there, just for personal use. I'm not too worried about the sterilisation, I'll wash it and the drier will be hot enough to get most nasties, other than that I'm of the opinion that exposure to bad stuff is good for the immune system (within reason of course).

    The farmer has only just started a few years ago and he's not really looking to exploit every market area, he's on the board of a large international company so striving to make lots of money isn't on his priority list.
    If you weren't in CZ (where my family is from), I'd ask for you to send any extra my way!

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