Feathers using hair

[Andrew Schreiber]

Our team, for which I am the animation team, is doing an animation in which we show several (a flock) of geese. The model turned out nicely but the materials are going to be a problem. Aside from that however th real problem is making a realistic looking feather surface. What i mean is we want to put feathers on the body of the goose realistically. I know that using the Hair and Fur Modifier it is possible because Max put a tutorial about it in. However when i did the tutorial and tried to process for my feather it refused to work.

And yes i know i could just make a material that appeared that it was textured properly but up close (how id like to start the animation) it just doesnt look proper.

Any suggestions are welcome as are any tutorials. If you need more info jsut ask.