Posted 15 April 2016

We get most of our down from mature Polish birds kept for breeding. Wherever possible the down is taken from the nest of these birds which have naturally moulted and always from the breast of the birds where the down clusters have fully developed with the bird at least four to five years old.

This gives us a very high fill power down (880 Euro / 990 US) and this high fill power is the “assurance of compassion” as we cannot get these high fill powers from the young birds bred for eating. The result is that the birds get a comfortable life and we get great down.

Looking after the birds is not as hard as some people, usually people in chat rooms and not working with Geese, would make it out to be.

The first thought is that birds tend to migrate and because we see large flocks of geese going up and down our coasts it is a hard thought to resist. These are wild Geese that have a horizontal stance and a small stature. In Poland if you talk to the geese farmers they say that Geese are sociable creatures and quite like being around humans! They are domesticated and like living on farms and these domesticated birds have a a more vertical stance, are heavier and do not fly. Consequently the stories of huge nets and wing clipping that some people talk about in those chat rooms are just not in evidence, they are just stories.. Most of our down comes from free range birds kept for breeding and living on farms where there are streams and lakes, their natural habitat.

It is in our interest to keep the birds happy and so that we benefit from their regular flow of down coming each year for many years.

For further information on geese farming in Poland we refer you to this BBC News article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3538752.stm