BREEDS AND VARIETIES 



than most other classes of poultry. While the young 

 geese will often lay during their first year the results 

 from the eggs produced by them are not as a rule 

 very satisfactory. It is sometimes claimed that the 

 eggs of young geese will not hatch but this is untrue 

 and goslings have been raised from such eggs. 

 Canadian and Egyptian geese do not lay until they 

 are 3 years old. Females may be kept for breeding 

 purposes until they are 8 to 10 years old and should 

 give good results during this time. If they continue 

 to lay longer than this and are valuable breeding 

 individuals they should of course be retained just 

 so long as they lay at a profitable rate. Instances 

 are reported where geese 15 to 20 years old were 

 still giving good results as breeders. As a rule gan- 

 ders cannot be successfully kept for breeding pur- 

 poses as long as can the geese. Yearling ganders 

 are often used but they are at their best for breed- 

 ing purposes when from 3 to 5 years old and it is 

 not generally wise to retain them after they are 6 or 

 7 years old. Egyptian and Canadian ganders will 

 not breed before they are 2 years old. In general 

 it is good practice to mate young ganders to older 

 geese and to mate younger geese with older ganders 

 as this seems to get better results both in fertility 

 and in hatching. 



Marking Young Geese. It is often desirable to 

 mark young geese in some way so that their breed- 

 ing can be told or so that a record can be kept of 

 their age. This can be readily accomplished by 



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