104 



HOW TO FEED POULTRY FOR ANY PURPOSE WITH PROFIT 



for the goslings, but the feeder should use care to feed 

 only what will be eaten up at once, for goslings are like 

 other creatures in their tendency to eat the most of things 

 that are easy to fill up on, and if they have mash lying 

 by them will not eat so much green feed. 



As soon as the grass in the enclosure is eaten short, 

 or becomes soiled so that the goslings do not care for it. 



TOULOUSE GOSLINGS THREE WEEKS OLD 



the coop should be moved. A coop 6 ft. square with half- 

 a-dozen young goslings in it, on average good lawn, will 

 need moving daily after the second or third day, and 

 soon will need moving twice a day. Then a larger yard 

 should be provided. When the goslings must be con- 

 fined to the brood coop at night, it should be opened as 

 early as possible in the morning, and not closed until 

 the attendant is about to retire for the night. Growing 

 them well on mostly green feed is a matter of giving them 

 opportunity to fill up with it at frequent intervals through 

 as much as possible of the twenty-four hours. After 

 they are large enough to have yards instead of small 

 pens the method of handling them varies. A few gos- 

 lings may be given the run of a yard or pasture large 

 enough to afford them feed until grown, but large flocks 

 are more economically handled by confining them to a 

 part of the range until that is eaten clean. 



Growing Large Flocks of Geese 



Those who specialize in growing geese plan to have 

 a considerable number of hens hatching at the same 

 time. Then instead of putting the goslings out in single 

 broods at the start, they' either place several hens in their 

 brood coops so that while the hens are confined to these 

 coops the goslings from all will have the same pen; or 

 they take the hens away entirely, keep the goslings in 

 lots of two or three dozen in pens on the grass during 

 the day, and at night put them in coops or boxes in lots 

 of twelve or so, and put these under a shed or other con- 

 venient cover. Many growers say they would rather do 

 this for the short time it is necessary than bother with 

 the hens. The goslings are fed several times a day upon 

 such mashes as the growers are using for other poultry 

 or find convenient. Where they have plenty of clean 

 green feed, mashes are often used with no apparent bad 

 results that, if given to goslings with limited supplies of 

 green feed, would make them sick. In some places where 

 geese are extensively grown on pasture, all kinds of 

 mashes from nearly dry to sloppy, from heavy to light, 

 and from sweet to sour are used some growers being 

 very careless in the matter of taking up remainders ot 

 sloppy mashes, yet in general one grower's geese ap- 

 pear as good as another's. 



After a week or ten days, according to the weather 

 and the season, the entire lot of goslings near the same 



age is put together in a grass field and a low fence of 

 wire netting run across the field to confine the goslings 

 to a strip a few rods wide until that has been eaten short. 

 Then another fence is placed a few rods farther on, mak- 

 ing a yard of about equal width with the first; when the 

 grass in that is eaten off, the first fence is put a suitable 

 distance beyond the second and so on until the goslings 

 have grazed the whole field. By that time the grass on 

 the strip first occupied will have grown again, and the 

 goslings are taken back to it and started over again. This 

 system, of course, is applied with modifications to suit 

 different circumstances. Early in the season when the 

 goslings require some shelter they may be yarded where 

 they can be driven at night to some permanently located 

 out-building, or suitable shelters may be given them in 

 the fields. But after the goslings are about three weeks 

 old, and the baby down is replaced by the thicker, tougher 

 coat of down which is under the feathers of the bird in 

 full plumage, it takes something unusual in the way of 

 a storm to drive a gosling under cover, nor do they need 

 much shelter from the sun except in very hot weather. 



Many of the goslings grown in this way get no gram 

 after the first few weeks, and most of those fed some 

 grain get only enough to make a good growth of frame. 

 The grain fed is usually a mash or a little scalded cracked 

 corn. The goslings grown in this way are not fit for 

 market, and in general the growers take no interest in 

 fattening them, preferring to take what they can get for 

 them in a state to which they can be brought with little 

 cost. Goslings that are to be used for stock birds are 

 usually fed the same as the old geese after they are about 

 half grown. While this is common practice and the most 

 convenient way when small stocks are concerned, better 

 stock birds will be obtained if young birds run by them- 

 selves and are given a little more grain while growing. 



Rate of Growth of Goslings 



Goslings grow at about the same rate as ducks; tint 

 is, the goslings of breeds of large size, such as Toulouse 

 Emden, African, and crosses and grades of these, will 

 usually weigh about double (rather more) as much as 



GOSLINGS IN THE ABOVE PICTURE AT 9 WEEKS OLD 



ducklings of the Pekin, Rouen, and Aylesbury breeds at 

 corresponding ages. Mongrel common geese, like "puil- 

 dle ducks", grow more slowly. Also, to make full and 

 rapid growth on this scale goslings must have a fair al- 

 lowance of grain. The goslings that are reared almost 

 entirely on grass will not do it except where a few are 

 grown together arid the pasture is uncommonly good. 



