No. 4.] DUCKS AND GEESE. 1G5 



one is more likely to see flocks that are plainly a mixture of all 

 these with common geese. Sometimes the geese are common or 

 grade geese and the ganders of various pure races. As geese after 

 mating once remain true to their mates some gi'owers mate several 

 kinds separate for the first season and afterwards let all run to- 

 gether. So in these cases what looks like a mixed flock will produce 

 mostly pure goslings of the various races in it. 



Growers of geese do most of their hatching with hens in the early 

 pai't of the season, and use both hens and geese in the latter part. 

 A few people have been successful in hatching goose eggs in in- 

 cubators, but operations are generally on too small a scale to make 

 it worth while to use machines, especially as the geese lay only a short 

 time in the spring and may as well hatch and rear a brood apiece 

 as not. 



The old geese, as has been said, prefer to remain out doors in all 

 weathers. Under ordinary conditions it is as well to allow them to 

 do this, for though they may not lay quite as early, there is no great 

 advantage in getting goslings out before they can have gi'ass pas- 

 turage. During the early part of the winter in this section the breed- 

 ing geese usually do very well on what green food they can get when 

 the snow is off the ground with two light feeds of grain a day. They 

 should not be fed heavily on gi-ain because then they get too fat and 

 the first eggs they lay are likely to be infertile or to produce weak 

 goslings. 



About the latter part of February or the early part of March, 

 according to conditions and the weather the geese begin to lay. At 

 this time they should be fed a mash, such as is described above for 

 ducks, once a day, a feed of ei*acked corn and oats once a day and 

 all the root and leaf vegetables that they wiU eat. The number of 

 eggs a goose will lay before going broody varies. Some lay only 

 from twelve to fifteen, some twice as many. Occasionally a goose 

 will lay steadily and produce fifty, sixty or more eggs in a season. 

 As a rule, however, after laying from twelve to twenty eggs geese 

 become broody. The usual practice is to set the eggs laid during 

 this first period under hens and break up broodiness in the geese 

 and get them to lay again as soon as possible. When the geese 

 begin laying again they are not likely to lay as many eggs as in 

 the first period and the grower 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 



