Feed. Oats makes the best feed for breeding geese as it is not too fattening. Corn, wheat or barley fed alone is likely to prove too fattening but a limited quantity should be fed for variety. The grain should be fed twice a day throughout the winter and should be given rather sparingly, depending on roughage to make up the bulk of the feed. Vegetables, clover or alfalfa hay, chopped corn stover or silage make good roughage for this purpose. Corn silage is a fine feed if it is not moldy and does not contain so much corn as to be too fattening.
About three weeks or a month before it is desired to have the geese commence laying, which should be at such a time that the first goslings hatched will have good grass pasture, a mash should be added to the feed to stimulate egg production. This mash is generally fed in the morning with the vegetables or roughage and may consist of three parts bran or shorts, one part corn meal and one-fourth part meat scrap. If available buttermilk or skim milk can be used to mix the mash and replace the meat scrap. Another mash for this purpose consists of corn meal one-fourth part, bran two parts, and ground oats one part, mixed up with skim milk or buttermilk.
Grit and oyster shell should be kept where the geese can help themselves particularly during the laying season. Drinking water must be available at all times and if a natural supply is not available, must be given in drinking fountains or dishes which should be so arranged that the geese cannot get their feet into the water. When they can get into the drinking water, they will quickly get it into a filthy condition.
When the geese are running in a field with horses or cattle a small enclosure should be fenced in to which the geese can gain access by means of suitable openings but which will keep the other stock out. In this should be placed the drinking fountain for the geese and in this enclosure the geese should be fed. Otherwise the cattle or horses will get most of the feed intended for the geese and in addition, some of the geese may be stepped on or kicked and injured when the stock crowds around at feeding time.
CHAPTER XII
Incubation
Care of Eggs for Hatching. Since egg production usually begins early in the spring while the weather is still cold, it is necessary to gather the eggs at frequent intervals to prevent their freezing or becoming chilled. Later in the season daily collection will be satisfactory. The eggs as collected should be kept in a cool place and where the evaporation of the egg contents will not be too great. If set at fairly frequent intervals, there will be no difficulty on this score. If they are to be kept for some time, they may be stored in bran to prevent evaporation. It is well to mark the eggs as gathered with the date they are laid so as to overcome the possibility of saving too long any eggs for hatching.
Some goose raisers think that it is best to wash goose eggs before setting them. This belief is based on the fact that when a goose makes her own nest and has access to water in which to swim she comes on the nest with her feathers wet. It is to simulate this condition that the eggs are washed. Certainly any dirty eggs should be washed.
Methods of Incubation. The most usual methods of hatching goose eggs are by means of the chicken hen and the goose. Incubators may also be used but do not as a rule seem to give as good results as they do with hen or duck eggs. Turkey hens may also be utilized for this purpose but are not commonly available although they make good mothers. Probably the most common method of hatching is the use of chicken hens. Next common is to allow the goose to hatch her own eggs. Goose eggs hatch well under hens or geese. During the height of the season nearly every fertile egg should hatch if the breeding geese are managed and fed so that they are in good condition. Early in the season the eggs may not run as fertile or hatch as well as later.