40 



the first period and the gTower considers this and tries to have eggs 

 on hand to set his geese as they go broody the second time. 



When the eggs are hatched under hens each hen is given four or 

 five eggs according to the size of the hen and the size of the eggs. 

 If the hen happens to be very small and the eggs very large, three 

 eggs may be enough. She will hatch stronger goslings than if given 

 four or five eggs, and it is the strong goslings that count. A goose 

 will cover from twelve to fifteen of her own eggs. 



The goslings that are hatched with hens require the care of the 

 hen for only a short time. If th^ weather is seasonable some growers 

 take the hens away as soon as the goslings are ready to be taken 

 from the nest and put the youngsters in small pens in sunny places 

 during the day and in boxes indoors at night. In any case the gos- 

 lings will in ten days grow so large that a hen mother is of little 

 further use to them. Goslings reared by hand or with hens should 

 have smaU movable pens and be moved to fresh gi-ass as often as 

 necessary. They may be fed the same mash recommended for young 

 ducks several times a day, or may have some feeds of this and some 

 of cracked corn soaked in water, or may be fed only the cracked 

 corn. Usually they will grow better with some mash. The principle 

 upon which they are fed should be to let them have all the grass 

 and gi'een food they will eat and what grain they want in addition. 

 There is little, if any, danger of their taking too much of anything 

 else if they have all the tender green stuff that they want. When 

 goslings are hatched and brooded by geese they require very little 

 attention. On a good grass run, with access to a little grain once 

 or twice a • day, the geese will bring up their goslings and protect 

 them from most of the enemies of poultry. 



Under favorable conditions goslings grow very rapidly. At nine 

 to twelve weeks of age a good gosling should weigh a pound for each 

 week of its life. If they have had good feeding, with a fair allow- 

 ance of grain, they will be quite fat at that time. If not they shoidd 

 be fattened before killing. Some growers fatten their own goslings 

 but many sell the goslings in a thin state to men who make a specialty 

 of fattening poultry. The birds are fattened by feeding heavUy 

 of scalded corn meal or of meal with a little bran and beef scrap 

 added. 



The conditions of picking and marketing gi-een goslings are much 

 the same as for green ducks, except that a larger proportion of them 

 are held for the winter holiday trade. 



