Our Domestic Birds

ure most of this by foraging. Very few people who keep geese in inclosures too small to furnish them with good pasture can conveniently supply them with all the green food that t

lying green food under such conditions. Another is that the average egg production is small. The description of the managemen

Farm

goose grower does not expect to get very good results the first season that a flock of breeding birds are together. On the other hand, a flock once harmoniously mated does not have to be renewed every year or two. As long as the old birds are vigorous the entire product of young may be sold each season without reducing the producing capacity of the flock. The average gander is past his prime after he is six or seven years old, but geese are often good br

s afford more comfortable resting places when the birds tire of the wet land. They also furnish different kinds of grass from those growing on very wet land. On many farms there are tracts of land much more suitable for geese than for any other live stock. Cattle and hogs sometimes cut up such land very badly, destroying the vegetation on it and making it unsightly. Such a piece of land is sometimes a part of a pasture used for cattle. In that case it may be a good plan to fence the cattle from the soft ground with a wire or rail fence, which keeps them o

ut the pasturage being sufficient, a small trough or box containing grain of any kind that it is convenient to give them should be put where they can e

in some place where the nest is not well protected. When they do this, it is a good plan to place over the nest, without disturbing it, a large box with a hole cut in one end for passage. Geese, like ducks, lay very early in the morning. When they begin laying while the weather is cold, the person who has charge of them must be up early and get the eggs before they are chilled. A goose usually lays from twelve to eighteen or twenty eggs and then goes broody. The commo

gs and the size of the hen. A goose must be set in the nest where she has been laying. If she is inclined to be very cross if approached while sitting, she should be left to herself as much as possibl

mothers should be placed on sod ground where the grass is fine and soft, in coops such as are used for little chickens, with a small pen in front of each coop to keep them from wandering away. This pen may be made of boards 8 or 10 inches wide, set on edge and kept in place by small sticks driven into the ground. It is best to give them only grass to e

vided for protection from the sun, and a roomy coop with a dry floor to keep them in at night. If allowed to do so, they would stay out and graze at intervals during the night, but the owner will sleep more comfortably if he is sure that nothing can disturb them. Although very big ba

lings three o

oslings thr

oslings nin

nd fatten on grass without grain, but will not fatten as quickly or be as firm-fleshed. To fatten for market they should be confined for from ten to twenty days before

ks of Gees

many small ponds and marshy places used exclusively for geese. The absence of foxes makes it possible to keep them in fields a long way from the farmhouses, and for this reason many spots are used for geese which in other districts would be too exposed. The large flocks of hens in this district give an abundance of sitters to hatch the early goslings. As the

20 geese and 4 or 5 ganders are kept. A flock of this kind does not mate miscellaneously, as a similar flock of ducks would. It is comp

tematically and more attention is given to the goslings while growing. They are grazed each year on new grassland. Most

attenin

gs grazing on a

quality that will bring the highest price requires a change to a heavy grain diet. The farmers who grow these geese could fatten them better than any one else and make more profit on them, but few of these farmers are willing to give them the special attention that this requires. So large a part of the geese sold alive are thin that the men who bought them to dress for market long ago saw an opportunity to make a greater profit by fattening them before they were killed. Some of those who engaged in fattening geese were very successful and made large profits. As they extended operations in

n a goose-fatteni

er may get some geese having a contagious disease, and the infection may spread through his whole flock before he discovers it, for some diseases have no prono

ughbred Geese

large enough to meet the general market demand. The production of thoroughbred geese is carried on to supply stock of medium quality for the farmers who want to maintain a good grade of stock, and to supply exhibition birds of the best quality for the relatively small numbers of fanciers and breeders of standard-bred stock. The usual method of growing exhibition geese i

ew Geese on

g the green food. On the farms the birds graze; on the town lot they must be fed very abundantly with succulent food. They will eat almost any vegetable leaf that is young and not too tough, and they should have such food almost constantly before them. Most people who try to grow geese in a small space injure them by feeding too much grain. If they have had no experience in this line, they suppose, quite naturall

mended as a paying venture, every one interested in p

ld Geese i

ally kept during the breeding season in a small, isolated inclosure containing a permanent water supply. Here the female will make her nest, lay her eggs, and hatch her brood. The male at this period is very savage and will vigorously resent any interfe