Moisture for Hatching Eggs. Where eggs are being hatched in an incubator, there is need for the use of considerable moisture. It should be added first at about the end of the first week of incubation and should be repeated a couple of times during the second week. This can best be done by sprinkling the eggs liberally with water heated to about 100 degrees. Beginning with the 15th day and until 2 or 3 days before the eggs are ready to hatch soak them in warm water for from one-half a minute to a minute once every 2 or 3 days. For the last 2 or 3 days do this daily.
When the eggs are being hatched by chicken hens or geese in nests indoors or in boxes or barrels and in dry weather, moisture should be added in the same manner and with the same frequency and amount as in the incubator. When the nest is on damp ground, it is not necessary to use any moisture on the eggs.
Hatching. Goslings as a rule hatch rather slowly and somewhat unevenly, especially when under hens. For this reason it is well to remove each gosling as it hatches from under the hen or goose and place it in a covered, cloth-lined box or basket and keep near the stove until the hatch is completed. As soon as the hatch is over, the goslings that have been removed from the nest can be put back under the hen or goose which is to be allowed to assume the duties of motherhood.
CHAPTER XIII
Brooding and Rearing Goslings
When the hatch is completed all the goslings which have been removed from the nest should be returned; and the hen or goose removed to the coop which she is to occupy while brooding them. At this time, if hatched with a hen the goslings should be examined carefully on the head and neck to see whether there are any head lice present. If any are found the heads and necks of the goslings must be greased with a little lard or vaseline. Not too much grease should be used as it may prove harmful to the goslings.
Methods of Brooding. The most common methods of brooding goslings are the use of geese, of chicken hens or of artificial means. Geese make the best mothers but are not always available especially during the early hatches. Geese may also prove rather unruly when they have young and for this reason are not in favor with some goose raisers. When hatching is done simultaneously with geese and hens it is the practice of some raisers to give all the goslings hatched to the geese to rear.
Hens can be used very successfully for rearing goslings especially if they are confined to a coop for the first week or two so that they cannot range too far and too fast and tire the goslings out. Not over 6 or 8 goslings should be given to a hen to brood.
Artificial methods are very successful with goslings much more so in fact than are artificial methods of hatching the eggs. Some goose raisers prefer to use artificial means of brooding, especially if they have only a few goslings and are brooding at the same time some chicks or ducklings.