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The World's largest Lesser White-fronted Goose Farm at Hämeenkoski, Finland

• Photo album
• The farm
  • Contact to the farm
  • Why breed LWfG?
  • Description of the farm
  • Breeding geese
  • Economy 
• History
  • Founding the farm 
  • The origin of the geese
  • Breeding history
  • Genetic studies and re-introductions
  • Construction chronology

The Farm

Contact to the farm

Pentti Alho

phone / fax 358 (0) 3 7654 727,

mobile phone mobile 358 (0) 440- 654727

Why breed Lesser White-fronted geese?

The last breeding of a free living Lesser White-fronted Goose in Finland was observed in 1995. Breeding the geese in captivity is necessary for later reintroduction of the species in Nature. About one hundred Lesser White-fronted Geese are living on the farm in Hämeenkoski, accounting to 1/4 of the World's captive population and practically the total Finnish population.

Description of the farm

The Goose Farm is located in Hämeenkoski, Southern Finland. Its owners -- Pentti and Kaija Alho -- live on the farm. They take care of the 100 Lesser White-fronted Geese all year round. On the farm there live also a few other birds. Many of them have been brought there because of injury and are not capable to survive in Nature. All cages are insulated from each other and from their Environment by dense enough nets; this is in accordance with Finnish rules on preventing bird flu.

The farm's total area of about 5000 m2 consists of three adjacent parts

• The new part:
  • brooding compartments for 12 pairs
  • a winter hall of about 200 sq m size
  • a 1500 m2 pasture.
  • Two concrete swimming pools of 3 m diameter equipped with hygienic water circulation all year round.
• The old part:
  • brooding compartments for 10 pairs
  • another newly renovated winter hall (150 sq m)
• The bird hospital:
  • a winter proof 100 m2 hall with 2 small warm rooms
  • a 500 m2 pasture area with a concrete pool
• A rat roof storage building (36 m2)

Breeding geese

Breeding in separate brooding compartments of about 40 sqm for each pair has proven to be superior in comparison to an open compartment. In their boxes the pairs do not disturb each other or the goslings. Keeping track of individual birds and their ancestral lineages is also easy. In spite of our favourable system, a farm with a hundred Lesser White-fronted Geese is of maximal size, since oversized flocks lead to stress and internal conflicts.

The farm is run by Pentti Alho. Taking care of the bird's well being and keeping the farm's buildings in good condition all year round requires several hours of daily work, depending on the season. Occasional help - in particular during the construction of new buildings - has come from the Häme Regional Environment Centre, and the Friends of the Lesser White-fronted Goose.

Economy

Originally, the farm was part of a governmental financed WWF project. In 1998 the birds were abandoned by WWF. Since then Pentti Alho continues breeding Lesser White-fronted Geese on his own expence, except under the period 2001-2004 with some EU support. This unbearable state of affairs continues. Today, the Friends of the Lesser White-fronted Goose (est. 1999) are the formal administrators of the farm, but we have not been able to collect reasonable support since 2004. Instead, considerable construction aid has been given by our volunteers.

The Friends thank those who have contributed to our work by more than the equivalent of 200 EUR, by donating a high class signed and numbered print of a Lesser White-fronted Goose painting. A series of Finnish and Swedish artists have painted them and donated the paintings to the society. The paintings will be published annually; the first are created by the artists Auvo Taivalvuo, Kari Eischer, Pekka Saikko, Tom Björklund, Erik van Ommen and Dag Petterson.

A kind of painting by artist Niilo Kallio can be purhased by buying our T- or College shirts. You will find all these paintings on the farm's Photo album.

Occasionally, the Finnish Government, as well as the EU have supported our farm, but today we are completely dependent on our members and sponsors. Enterprises and private persons have contributed with material and food. We are very grateful to them all. See the Sponsor list on the Society Page.

History of the Farm

Founding the Farm

The Farm at Hämeenkoski was initiated by WWF Finland in the late 1980's, at a time when it had become apparent, that their original farm on Hailuoto did not have enough production capacity for the extensive re-introduction programme planned.

The origin of the geese

The first 18 Lesser White-fronts came to Hämeenkoski in autumn 1989 from Hailuoto. These birds were descendants of the Lesser White-fronted Geese kept in Sweden, Öster-Malma. Next year four young birds arrived the same way, and later Lesser White-fronted Goose have been bought in Denmark and Germany. They seem to originate from Russia.

Breeding history

The first goslings hatched in spring 1991. The proud parents were a pair of only 2 years of age (in their 3:rd cy). In the beginning, breeding was done in an open compartment, but this method soon proved insufficient for various reasons, and brooding compartments were introduced in 1994-5. Since then breeding has been successful with increasing numbers of goslings. 2002 a record high of 43 fledglings was reached and soon we had up to 133 geese on the farm.

But in December 2005 The Finnish Lesser White-fronted Goose project was struck by disaster. In an unexpectedly heavy snow storm, large parts of the buildings collapsed and amost half of the geese were set free and died under the winterly conditions. Even worse, the geese who had lost their partners in the accident did not breed in 2006, so recovery was delayded. In spring 2007, only 75 Lesser White-fronted Geese were still alive. Today (May 22, 2007) the farm buildings are repaired and geese are breeding in all compartments.

Genetic research and re-introductions

In 1998 a genetic paper was published containing the claim that a large percentage of the captive Lesser White-fronted Geese in Finland and Sweden are hybrids between Lesser and Greater White-fronted Goose. Later studies have proven that this was a fatal misinterpretation of data.

In 2001 and 2002, the genetic background of our geese was controlled, both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. As a result of these studies, releases could be continued in Finnish Lapland.

A large German research project in 2006 was able to find the error in the original paper of 1998. Also, it was shown that captive Lesser White-fronted Geese have very satisfactory genetic variability. After picking out a few birds and some exchange of birds between various breeding sites, we will have an optimal breeding population. The original research report as well as Wetlands International's wiew on its reliability can be found at http://www.piskulkaconf.tk/ .

Construction chronology:

All construction efforts aim at improving the living conditions for the birds. For pictures, see the Photo album.

• 1989:
  • The farm's original fencing and two simple winter halls were built. First breeding Lesser White-fronted Geese.
• 1994-5:
  • The first brooding compartments were built.
• 1998:
  • More compartments were constructed.
• 1999:
  • The snow proof large winter hall was constructed.
• 2000: (The Friends have contributed to the constructions since 2000)
  • A 200 m deep well with piping was drilled in the rock to ensure sufficient fresh water supply. (By Häme Regional Environment Centre)
  • The large winter hall was completed with water and electricity.
  • The first hygienic concrete pool was cast and equipped with piping.
  • All 22 brooding compartments were equipped with a fresh water/sewage system.
• 2001:
  • The Lesser White-fronted Geese were given a second concrete pool.
  • Another new hall and pool were being built for the wounded birds Project. This was a big task, and by the end of 2001, it was still unfinished.
• 2002:
  • The bird hospital building was completed
  • The surrounding pasture was fenced.
    • The hospital construction was completed 6 months behind schedule. While constructing the hall, we decided to add two fully winter- warm rooms - one for storage of sensitive special fodder etc., the other for possible veterinary operations. Also, the hall itself was equipped with better insulation than planned, and got an electrical floor heating system.
• 2003:
  • A damaged roof net was replaced.
  • 4 old brooding compartments were modernized to the standard of the new, which are better winter-resistant.
  • The last old winter hall was replaced by a snow resistant building.
• 2004:
  • A rat-proof food storage house for fodder (36 m^2) was built.
  • 3 more old brooding boxes were modernized.
  • A new roofing net arrived from Russia. This net is large and expensive (total 5000 euros).
• 2005:

  It was intended that the renewal of the farm constructions should be finished by the end of 2005. To achieve this, the following work was done:

   

  • The third winter hall construction was completed and the geese got in.
  • The pasture areas around the new hall was rtoofed and taken into use.
  • The remaining 3 old brooding compartments were modernized.

    In the night Nov 30 to Dec 1 catastrophe hit the buidings. A unique snow storm destroyed the roofings and part of the fencing of the main pasture and half of the breeding compartments. Damages were estimated to 10 000 EUR.

  • By teh end of the year rubbage had been taken away and the area had been cleaned in preparation for reconstruction. The surviving geese were in two separate flocks in winter halls - no outdoors area or connection between the halls was available.
• 2006:

  The farm buildings were repaired almost to their original condition:

  • The brooding box roof was replaced by the newly aquired Russian net.
  • The main pasture area was divided into isolated parts for better safety and to enable dividing the flock into parts.
  • Half of the main pasture was completely cleaned and taken into use again after being covered with a new roof construction, a metal net with wire reinforcement.
• 2007:
  • The second half of the main pasture was treated like the first half.
  • Fhe food storage building was completed and painted.
  • ...
• Plans for the future:
  • An older pasture area will be reconstructed. There is lack of fresh food especially under breeding time in June.
  • Some piping needs repairing and digging deeper off the frost.

  YOU ARE WELCOME TO WORK WITH US. TOGEHER WE CAN RESCUE THE LESSER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE!

< kahanpaa@maths.jyu.fi> updated Feb. 24.2005