Should a goose lay a soft egg, a small egg, or two eggs in a day, it is a sign of misfortune to the owner of that goose.
An old woman in Llandrinio parish, Montgomeryshire, who lived in a cottage by the side of the Severn, and who possessed a breed of geese that laid eggs and hatched twice a year, when I asked her the time that geese should begin to lay, said:—
Before St. Valentine’s Day
Every good goose will lay.
and she added:—
By St. Chad,
Every good goose, and bad.
St. Chad’s Day is March the 2nd.
Mr. Samuel Williams, Fron, Selattyn, gave me the following version of the above ditty:—
On Candlemas Day,
Every good goose begins to lay.
Every good goose ought to lay
On Candlemas Day.