March 28.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
351 
sume, sit more at ease on his board while he amuses 
himself with his goose. 
It is useless, if not prejudicial, to turn the eggs in 
the nest; leave the hen to her own instincts in this 
respect, she will manage them properly. It is not 
injudicious however to examine the eggs, as Mr. 
Richardson directs, about the twelfth day, to ascer¬ 
tain whether they are fruitful:—“ for this purpose 
hold the egg between your hands in the sunshine, if 
the shadow which it forms waver, keep the egg, as 
the wavering of the shadow is occasioned by the 
motion of the chick within; if it remain stationary, 
throw it away.” On the 21st day the chicks begin 
to peck at the shell with their upper bills, and faintly 
chirp at their labour, as if they were saying, “ I want 
to get out.” But perhaps they may not be able to 
make an opening with their little pick-axes for many 
hours, yet it will be better not to assist them, unless 
it should at last be almost certain that they cannot 
do then' own work. 
After examining the eggs and listening to the 
chirp within, the eggs, if replaced, should be set on 
the large end, otherwise the chick would be turned 
upside down, in which position it could not peck at 
the shell. One object of the examination should be 
to ascertain, through the light, if the yolk has been 
taken up into the body of the chick to supply it 
with the necessary nourishment for 24 hours. 
The best instrument for opening the shell is the 
point of a pair of scissors ; and great tenderness 
should be used in freeing the prisoner from the shell, 
in case that its feathers should be glued to it, which 
will probably be the case if the chick do not extricate 
itself within a few hours after the opening of the 
shell has been first made. 
For the first fortnight the chicks should be fre¬ 
quently fed with crumbs of bread soaked in milk 
during the day, and afterwards with grits, curds, 
rice boiled in butter-milk or skim-milk, barley meal, 
potatoes, &c., according as they are to be fattened off 
or not. 
During the first month, the nursing hen is usually 
tethered by the leg to a small coop, placed on a 
grassy sward in sunshine, or confined in it, in order 
that at her warning voice the chickens may enter in 
through the bars. Unless she is a very giddy and 
careless mother, it is more humane to leave her at 
some liberty after her long sitting, in the full en¬ 
joyment of her little family, as far as their security 
will permit. 
Sometimes good sitting hens are made to sit twice 
in succession, by transferring the chicks to foster- 
mothers ; this is a barbarous custom, unnatural, and, 
therefore to be discountenanced, unless under some 
very peculiar circumstances. 
Turkeys. —The turkey lays all her eggs wherever 
she has made her first nest, which will be in some 
secluded nook, if she be not watched when she gives 
that peculiar note of warning which a poultry woman 
understands. The turkey hen lays sometimes every 
day, sometimes every second day, and sits for 32 
perseveringly; she is a gentle, unoffending creature, 
and yet the turkey cock would do her eggs, and her¬ 
self when laying, an injury if he could find them. 
The chicks of the turkey make their appearance on 
the 31st and 32nd day, and are to be treated as in 
the former case, that is, they are to be left to their 
own efforts as long as possible, and not removed 
from the nest for at least 12 hours after they have 
been liberated from the shell. As the mother is not 
a clever intelligent bird, the care of a woman or girl 
is constantly required to feed the young birds, to 
shelter them from showers, or excessive heat, until 
they are six weeks old, at which time they will eat 
boiled potatoes and turnips, or nettles, lettuces, &c., 
chopped and mixed with meal or grits, without her 
hand. Their first food should be curds and hard 
egg, with crumbs. The boarded coop will be the 
best security for them against sudden rain, after they 
have been housed until the weather has become suf¬ 
ficiently mild to admit of their taking the air. The 
confinement of the mother in or near the coop will 
be indispensable, if there be no enclosed yard, because 
turkeys are determined ramblers. 
Geese.—• 
“ On Candlemas day 
Good housewife’s geese lay.” 
The goose—which in the natural course of her habits 
began to lay in February or early in March—is per¬ 
haps now desiring to sit after having laid (always in 
the same nest where her laying commenced) a suffi¬ 
cient number for hatching, which we have stated in 
the calendar of last month to be 15. It is decidedly 
more economical to have goslings produced from the 
eggs than to consume them prematurely, if there be 
a run for them on a common more especially. Their 
value and usefulness is scarcely calculable. We will 
suppose that a village green supports only 50 brood 
geese, the owners of these would be dissatisfied if 
they got but 10 young ones from each in the year 
besides eggs. This gives 500 geese per annum, 
without taking the chance of a second brood; multi¬ 
ply 500 by the number of village greens and we will 
form a very inadequate estimate of the importance 
of the bird. And all this with scarcely any outlay. 
The little trouble they demand of being secured at 
night and let out in the morning, of setting the 
geese and pegging the goslings, is a source of amuse¬ 
ment and interest to thousands of aged and infirm 
persons, in whose affections their geese stand second 
only to their children and relations. 
The period of incubation for the goose is 31 days, 
during which the gander may be near her, if he 
chooses without any danger of his doing mischief. 
He is a quiet, loving mate, and has been known to 
take a turn at sitting on the eggs. The goslings 
must not be let near water for a few days after their 
birth, and must be kept dry and warm at first, like 
the young of other poultry. Green food and garden 
roots may be soon mixed with meal for them. Early 
geese should be well fed for the early market. 
Ducks.' —The period of incubation with them is 
also 31 days. But they are not often employed as 
nurses, on account of their propensity to quit the 
nest for a cold bath. Ducks are very prolific; and 
as they will often lay a great many eggs in the 
season, it is perhaps better on the whole to set some 
of their eggs, (say from 9 to 11) under a large hen, or 
from 15 to 18 under a turkey; though when they 
are able to run about and swim they cause dreadful 
terror to their affectionate foster-mothers, who run 
round the water intreating of them not to drown 
themselves, as they fear they are heedlessly about to 
do, but without being attended to by the ungrateful 
objects of their solicitude, as sometimes happens to 
other mothers too. Ducklings ought not to be al¬ 
lowed access to a pond before they are a fortnight 
old, though they may be allowed before that time to 
paddle in a flat dish. The care and feeding which 
is usual with goslings at the beginning should be 
observed with ducklings. 
Varieties. —The two best kinds of duck are the 
Aylesbury and the Rouen ; but we shall confine our 
attention to-day to that first-named. 
