Why can't my geese hatch eggs?

It's been three years now, and for the first two I was very careful to collect eggs before they got to0 cold and replace under the geese when they went broody. Not too many. But, with three females in 2 years (this is the third) I've gotten a grand total of.... two goslings. The rest just rot under the birds.

One of my three seems to have another rotting nest. She's still dutifully on it but there are flies and obvious problems with it. She started with 10, now she has 4. The yearling nest actually seems clean and perhaps viable. The third is 25 feet into the swamp so who knows what she's doing. (I have a fourth goose but she's clearly lazy and likes to lounge with the ganders)

It's too late for this year but how can I help my geese actually hatch a freaking egg?

Are my females too old? Are the ganders too old? What is going on here?

EeyoreD said:

It's been three years now, and for the first two I was very careful to collect eggs before they got to0 cold and replace under the geese when they went broody. Not too many. But, with three females in 2 years (this is the third) I've gotten a grand total of.... two goslings. The rest just rot under the birds.

One of my three seems to have another rotting nest. She's still dutifully on it but there are flies and obvious problems with it. She started with 10, now she has 4. The yearling nest actually seems clean and perhaps viable. The third is 25 feet into the swamp so who knows what she's doing. (I have a fourth goose but she's clearly lazy and likes to lounge with the ganders)

It's too late for this year but how can I help my geese actually hatch a freaking egg?

Are my females too old? Are the ganders too old? What is going on here?

Click to expand...

Hi Eeyore. Well, obviously it has nothing to do with their age, as the eggs are fertile. I can´t remember, what breed are they? Some breeds do better than others. and goslings die in the shell for many reasons: inbred, dirty eggs causing bacteria, goose being off too long, and just because they´re geese. If the ganders are not related to the geese, then that rules inbreeding out, so then there´s not a lot you can do to improve it, except try to give them a sheltered place out of the weather with plenty of clean, dry hay where they can keep their eggs clean and dry.

Oh man I totally missed your post! Thanks for the info, they're American Buff geese. I believe the ganders ARE related but I'm pretty sure they're 1st gen (I could be totally wrong but I didn't think you ran into inbreeding issues until 4th or 5th gen? Or am I thinking a different bird species?)

I'll just keep at it and continue keeping notes and learn year from year and maybe swap out a gander or three.

It's always something, isn't it? I have the exact opposite problem with my other birds. They can hatch like the dickens but because the males don't participate in the upbringing (dang absentee fathers), my free-range birds (they DO have access to shelter, they just won't use it) sometimes struggle, despite my best and numerous efforts, in keeping their young out of predator mouths. With the geese, as long as the gosling hatches, it would take disease or a predator apocalypse, to prevent the little shavers from maturing to adulthood.

How do you treat and store the eggs you collect - before putting them back under the sitting goose? Do you wash the eggs - and if yes, with what? Are they stored vertically or horizontally? What's the temperature?

The goose girl said:

How do you treat and store the eggs you collect - before putting them back under the sitting goose? Do you wash the eggs - and if yes, with what? Are they stored vertically or horizontally? What's the temperature?

Click to expand...

They're stored generally horizontally but they get shifted around a lot each day in the pie plate/pot/basket (I get a LOT of eggs from my birds in the spring, they're stored in containers by age which is pencilled in so there's generally a daily shift to get things to fit and sort the ones that age out - age out is > 2 weeks). I only slate eggs that I know for sure haven't gone through a <45 degree night for hatching, the rest I eat or scramble and freeze for baking.

The temp in the house, where I hold the eggs, fluctuates. The heat in the spring is set to 55 but the sun often warms it more than that. So minimum 55, max probably somewhere around 65 on sunny days.

I never wash hatching eggs. I'll brush debris off but that's about it. (honestly I never bother washing any of my eggs for whatever purpose. if the waterfowl eggs are especially grimy when I cook them I just sand them and wipe with a wet paper towel prior to cooking - I'm a bit breezy that way)

A friend of mine recently hatched 13 out of 13 goose eggs. She washed six of them (in a gallon of lukewarm water plus 4 tbsp. of hydrocloric acid), but apparently that didn't affect the outcome.

She stored them a bit cooler than you do, at 48 degrees. But as geese in nature don't do temperature control, I can't imagine that's the problem.

They were stored horizontally and turned 180 degrees every 12 hours. Maybe you could try that?

Oh wow! I assumed that really below 50 was too cold for them. Probably operating under the assumption that if 40 was bad, 50 was 10 times better. I probably wasn't as diligent on the turning (they were moved but not with any purpose.) When you say stored horizontally but turned every 12 hours, you mean they're still horizontal but the bottom bit becomes the top bit every 12 hours? Or is it more like stored horizontally and (if they were a clock) noon is up for 12 hours, then 3 is up for 12 hours then 6, etc?

(sorry if that sounds stupid but I want to make sure I have it right)

And thanks!

Most people mark the eggs with an X on one side and an O on the other side. X side up in the morning; O side up in the evening.

Like this:



And like this:


Hope that helps.

Great, thanks! I'll try that next year. I still may get more goslings yet this year but I think we all can do better around here

It is also important to remember to turn clock-wise one time and counter clock-wise the next -