BOOK VIII. XIV. 6-9 



laid them ; for it is said that a goose does not hatch 

 another's eggs unless she has some of her own also 

 beneath her. Goose eggs, like those of peahens, 

 are put under ordinary hens, the maximum numbers 

 being five and the minimum three, whereas a mini- 

 mum of seven and a maximum of fifteen are put 

 under the geese themselves. But care must be 7 

 taken, when stalks of nettle (which are used as a 

 remedy to cure disease) are placed under the eggs, 

 that they may not possibly hurt the goslings when 

 they are hatched ; for nettles kill them if they sting 

 them when they are quite young. Thirty days are 

 required for the forming and hatching of the goslings 

 when the weather is cold ; for when it is warm, 

 twenty-five days are enough, but more often the 

 gosling is hatched on the thirtieth day. While it is 8 

 quite small, for the first ten days it is shut up with 

 its mother in the pen and fed there ; afterwards, 

 when calm weather allows, it is taken out into the 

 meadows and to the ponds. Care must be taken 

 that it is not stung by the prickles of the nettle or 

 sent out hungry to pasture, but that it has had its 

 fill beforehand of chopped endive or lettuce leaves ; 

 for if it is still not very strong and arrives hungry at 

 the pasture-ground, it struggles so persistently with 

 shrubs or the tougher plants that it breaks its neck. 

 It is also well to provide it with millet or even wheat 

 mixed with water. When it has become a little 

 stronger, it is driven out to join a flock of birds of its 

 own age and fed on barley, the provision of which for 

 laying geese also is not without advantage. It is not 9 

 expedient to assign more than twenty goslings to each 

 goose-pen, nor, again, must they be shut up at all 

 with birds older than themselves, since the stronger 



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