Mad scramble today! - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yetti 

Wife found one on the back porch today. I think the dog found it and brought it up? wife said the thing was covered in mud. the one girl who likes to squeeze under the fence must have got out and laid it in the yard somewhere the dog could get it. surprisingly not a mark on it.

 My dogs would have eaten it. But if geese eggs are as tough as my muscovy eggs are they probably couldn't have broken it open.

My Golden Retriever ate one of my goose eggs so they can break them sometimes.  Funny enough she hasn't touched any since then and she can get to them.  She has become leary of the geese though as the gander went after her after she got the first egg and she is not an aggressive dog.  I also had one of my geese break an egg at first so this is not uncommon.  One of my geese has already laid 30 eggs and has not shown any inclination to go broody as of yet.  She may sit on the eggs up to two hours and then get off and she always leaves a new egg each time she sits that long.

There's no need to leave the eggs in the nest.  They will continue to lay, very rarely do they change locations just because you took an egg.  Here in MI the geese routinely begin laying before the weather has completely warmed.  If you want goslings, you need to collect your eggs to preserve their viability.  Just pick up your eggs daily and bring them in.  Store them as you would if you were going to hatch them yourself, and if you want her to brood just put them back out when you have a good clutch.  Best thing to do is to put them out in the morning on warm days and monitor the nest action.  If you don't have someone sitting the nest by nightfall and it's going to be cold bring them back in so they don't freeze. Good Luck!   

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olive Hill 

There's no need to leave the eggs in the nest.  They will continue to lay, very rarely do they change locations just because you took an egg.  Here in MI the geese routinely begin laying before the weather has completely warmed.  If you want goslings, you need to collect your eggs to preserve their viability.  Just pick up your eggs daily and bring them in.  Store them as you would if you were going to hatch them yourself, and if you want her to brood just put them back out when you have a good clutch.  Best thing to do is to put them out in the morning on warm days and monitor the nest action.  If you don't have someone sitting the nest by nightfall and it's going to be cold bring them back in so they don't freeze. Good Luck!   

How long can you do this OH?  days/ weeks?  before they will need to be tossed. And i was thinking that like chickens if they are just learning to use a nest box maybe an egg should stay just to get them to realize hey this is a great place for a nest.
 

If you're saving for hatching I haven't gone over 10 days-ish.  Pretty much like other hatching eggs.  But I'm not certain it can't be done.  Just haven't tried it myself.  

I go for seven days and start my eggs although I have read that you can save them for up to two weeks at 40* to 50*.  I just candled the last bunch I started and the oldest one was fertile and is developing and it was seven days old when I put it in the incubator.  Hope that helps.

My Schnauzer retrieves turkey eggs for me.  And my labx has been discovered toting GOSLINGS across the yard and stashing them in his dog house.  120 lb dog, carrying day old goslings around and he didn't so much as injure one.    Wouldn't surprise me a bit if your dog brought you a goose egg.  The good news is, it's supposed to warm up for the foreseeable future so you should be out of the woods with the freezing issue.