CHAPTER IX 



MANAGEMENT OF GEESE 



Geese will bear confinement well if given proper attention, 

 but they require such large quantities of succulent green food 

 that it does not pay to grow them where they cannot secure 

 most of this by foraging. Very few people who keep geese in 

 inclosures too small to furnish them with good pasture can con- 

 veniently supply them with all the green food that they need. 

 Hence no one engages in growing geese in close quarters for 

 profit. Many, however, grow a few geese under such conditions 

 because of the interest a small flock affords. Goose growing 

 cannot be developed on intensive lines as duck growing has 

 been. One obstacle to this is the difficulty of supplying green 

 food under such conditions. Another is that the average egg 

 production is small. The description of the management of 

 geese on farms will show more fully why this branch of poultry 

 culture is likely always to be restricted to general farms. 



SMALL FARM FLOCKS 



Size of flock. On the ordinary farm, where only a few dozen 

 geese are grown each year, a flock of one male and from two to 

 four females gives a sufficient number of breeding birds. It is 

 more difficult to get a start with geese than with fowls or ducks, 

 because a young gander will often mate with only one goose, 

 and an old gander separated from mates to which he has become 

 attached may be very slow about establishing new family rela- 

 tions. An experienced goose grower does not expect to get very 

 good results the first season that a flock of breeding birds are 



1 68 



