Chinese Geese Incubation- pipping on day 28

[Finnie]

I’m just making this as a journal for my goose hatches this year. I can never find a definitive answer on how long Chinese geese need to incubate and what day they should be locked down on.

The standard answer is from 28-35 days to hatch. I’ve not really seen a good answer on when to lock down. Since a few of the threads I looked up said their goslings hatched on day 30 or 31, I decided to try locking down on day 28, and then hope they start pipping within 2-4 days.

In prior years, I timed them just like the ducks and turkeys (28 days until due, lock down on day 25) and it seemed like they were in lock down forever. But then, I also had very terrible hatch rates, so doesn’t matter how long they are on lock down if they aren’t even alive.

This year I am trying to follow the goose hatching article more closely. I never did cooling and misting before. I guess I will see if it makes all the difference. So far it seems to be. There are several other variables.

So today is day 28 of this year’s first setting. I was going to do LD after dark, but I happened to notice a pip at about 4:30 pm! There are actually 2 pips and upon candling, several internal pips. I am going to put some stats in the next post.

 

[Finnie]

 

[Finnie]

2nd hatch

3-25-23

Set 24 Chinese goose eggs in GQF 1502 incubator, using metal goose egg tray positioned on top level.

3-31-23

Began daily cooling and misting. (Remove entire metal tray from incubator to table, set timer for 15 minutes, spray with plant mister bottle, return tray to incubator.)

Did skip 6 days total throughout incubation.

4-1-23

First candling. 100% fertility, 3 blood rings, 21 eggs remain.

4-10-23

Another early death, 20 eggs remain.

4-19-23, day 25

Candled. Another early death, 19 eggs remain.

Was planning to lock down today, but there is no sign of “draw-down” or internal pipping. New plan is to candle daily and lock down when I see some activity.

Cooled and misted.

4-20-23, day 26

Still no internal activity. Wait for tomorrow. 1 egg looks dead, but leaving it in.

Cooled and misted.

4-21-23, day 27

Now 2 look dead, still leaving them in.

2 eggs have internal activity, possibly drawn down and internally pipped. Moving those 2 to the hatcher (Incuview) Rest of eggs not ready. Cooled and misted as usual.

4-22-23, day 28

4 eggs definitely dead in shell. (Opened and confirmed)
1 egg looks dead, but leaving in incubator for now.
14 eggs have draw down and internal activity, and 1 is externally pipped! All 14 are now in the Incuview.

10:30 pm final check of day: 5 pipped

4-23-23, day 29

10:00 am 2 goslings out plus 4 pipped = 6 working on it.
2:30 pm 4 goslings out plus 4 pipped = 8 working on it.

Edit to continue:

9:15 pm 5th gosling is out plus 3 zipping plus 4 pipped = 12 out of 14 active.

10:20 pm 3 earlier zippers appear stuck. 1 fully zipped but membrane not pierced, 1 mostly zipped but down is drying in place and 1 partially zipped appears to still have blood vessels. Leaving that one until morning. Assisted the other 2 out. They were ready, but definitely glued in place and would not have hatched unassisted.

7 goslings + 1 zipping + 5 pips = 13/14 active. (And 14th is visibly active inside when candled!)

 

[Finnie]

I am beginning to be of the opinion that too many days in lock down at high humidity is detrimental to chicks that make it to lock down but never hatch.

I just did a turkey hatch where I never added water to raise the humidity, and just let them hatch at the same (in the 20s) humidity that they incubated in. 14 of 14 hatched.

I did raise the humidity for this goose lock down, because I believe waterfowl need more humidity than other birds. But by waiting until I saw internal activity before putting them into lockdown, I believe I am saving them from up to a whole week long of extra humidity, supposing they had needed 35 days to hatch.

This also is the second batch that are hatching on days 29-30.

 

[Finnie]

4th hatch of the season

4-11-23

Set 8 goose eggs in metal goose egg rack, top level of GQF 1502 incubator.
Set 3 goose eggs in Genesis 1588 with Incuturn turner. (Metal goose rack was maxed out with 36 eggs.)
Decided that the 3 in the 1588 would not be cooled and misted.

4-18-23

Started daily cooling and misting.
Candled. 100% fertile.

4-28-23

Moved the 3 eggs from the 1588 to the 1502 because spaces opened up when other eggs went into lockdown. Decided to still not mist these eggs, even though they will get cooled along with the rest of the tray.

4-29-23

Candled. All look good.

5-6-23 (day 25)

Candled. All look good but not ready for lockdown.

5-7-23 (day 26)

Candled. Still not ready for lockdown.

5-8-23 (day 27)

Candled. All but 1 are internally pipped. Locking down in Farm Innovators 4250 because there are still turkeys hatching in the Incuview.

5-9-23 (day 28)

8:45 am: First pip.
12:30 pm: Second pip.
3:30 pm: Incuview is empty of turkeys, cleaned and reheated. Transfer all 11 goose eggs. 4 pips now.
7 pm: 6 pips.

5-10-23 (day 29)

7 am: First gosling out on its own. Assisted 3 others that didn’t zip normally and appeared to be drying in place. 1 of them still had slightly open navel. (Which did heal later.)

2 pm: Another gosling out on its own and 3 more assisted. One fully zipped for 2 hours but didn’t push out. Two zipped windows instead of proper zip lines. All 3 were shrink wrapped.

10 pm: Assisted the 9th one out. Last two eggs look dead. Leaving them until morning. (Ended up they had internally pipped and died.)

9 live goslings out of 11 fertile eggs = 81.8% hatch rate.

But: 7/9 assisted = 78% assistance.

Note: I just realized I have not been tracking the relative humidity in the 1502. I just look at the hygrometer, see that the needle is pointing to an acceptable range, and leave it at that. I have noticed that as spring progresses, the RH has been increasing. It started out needing water added daily to boost it into the 20s. Then adding water was no longer needed. Now it is in the high 30s. I need to start recording it. I strongly suspect it may be influencing the stickiness of the chicks. I may need to start running the dehumidifier in the basement. The turkey and gosling brooders sharing the space are probably adding to the humidity. In general I prefer to incubate in the 20s.

 

[Finnie]

When my geese eggs hatched last year they pipped two days before actually hatching. Mine were under broody bantams, so it may be different. Wishing you luck for a good hatch.

Thank you. I will post when zipping commences, and also when they hatch.

I also plan to log the next two hatches and see if I get any consistency.

 

[Finnie]

Using different incubators. I should go back and edit my stats post to include that.

 

[Finnie]

Genesis 1588 goose hatch

Day 29

2 more pips overnight and another later in the day. (5 total so far)

First gosling out! (One of the overnight pips)

Yesterday’s 2 pips are making progress. One is 98% zipped and should be out soon. The other one has longer cracks in its pip hole, but not zipping yet. This one pipped on the underside of the egg instead of in the air sac. I had worried it had pipped and drowned, but then it began to wiggle.

First gosling is brown. Second zipper appears to be white.

 

[Finnie]

Day 29

2nd gosling is out. White Chinese

And, all 6 of the viable looking eggs have pipped.

First one is dry.

 

[Finnie]

Day 30

Two more hatched overnight (either day 29 or 30) and two more hatched mid day (day 30)

I did assist the last one because it seemed to stall out after zipping ~2/3 of the way around. And yes, it was glued in place. Navel closed and poop in shell, so I definitely didn’t go in too early.

Of the 2 “dead” looking eggs, one never “improved” but the other one does look more developed now, and I could see it pulsing, so it’s still alive. I put that one back in the Genesis 1588. (With the turner on, because there are now turkey eggs incubating in there.)

I will move it back to the hatcher after the last 2 goslings dry off and move to the brooder. I don’t know how much longer the straggler needs to keep developing, and I don’t want it to get kicked around/pooped on. I also don’t want it to have too much humidity, because maybe it wasn’t old enough for lockdown yet.

I put in my notes the dates that the hatched eggs were laid on. As expected, none of the first-laid eggs hatched. I began finding eggs on 2-22-23, and I was finding 2-3 eggs every day. (2 geese laying and 1 “spinster” goose that has never laid an egg in her 4 years of life.)

At first I had hoped that the spinster was laying finally. But then I realized that whatever goose had started laying first, must have buried several eggs in the bedding of the bottom of one chicken coop. And I didn’t find them until there was quite a stash. But I only found 1 or 2 at a time. I surmise that the chickens were scratching them and unearthing them, but not all at once. That was confirmed when I found a “new” goose egg one morning in the locked up chicken coop where no goose had been since I checked for eggs and locked up the night before.

Soooo, of the first group of eggs that I was finding for the first week, several of them were much older than I had realized. And those probably got frozen multiple times over as we had cold nights and above freezing days. Not to mention they were “pullet” eggs. However all but one had at least some development, so maybe being buried deep in the bedding insulated them.

There was only 1 clear, and only 1 blood ring. Then later there were 5 quitters. Oh, and I forgot the one I cracked open to check for fertility. That one had a small ambiguous looking disk, but I assume was probably fertile. I certainly didn’t crack any more open to check!

6 hatched from 14 fertile eggs equals 43% hatch rate. I will update if/when no.7 hatches.