330 TURKEYS, DUCKS, AND GEESE 



a plentiful supply of water at hand. Their habit is to eat 

 a little and drink a little, and continue doing so until they 

 have enough. 



Natural Incubation Preferred. — Geese hatch their own 

 eggs ; when they lay more than a nestful the surplus eggs 

 should be hatched under a hen. The incubation period is 

 from twenty-eight to thirty days. The goslings should be 



Fig. 117. — White Chinese geese. 



left in the nest until they are perfectly dry. When taken 

 outside they should be placed in a small inclosure provided 

 with some kind of shelter. Goslings must be protected from 

 cold and rain until they are at least two weeks old, after 

 which they may be given their liberty. 



Feeding Young Goslings. — The first food for young 

 goslings should be bread and milk, made into a moist mash 

 with wheat bran or wheat middlings ; or a mixture of one 

 part each of corn meal and ground oats and two parts of 

 wheat bran. This should be moistened with either hot 

 milk or hot water and made into a crumbly mass which the 

 goslings can pick up easily. The food should never be hot, 

 only slightly warm. Goslings, as well as geese, should have 

 a plentiful supply of grass for grazing. They will eat grass 



