Chinese Geese Incubation- pipping on day 28

[Goose Smith]

Great job on this thread! Congrats and beautiful goslings!

 

[Finnie]

Great job on this thread! Congrats and beautiful goslings!

Thank you. The next hatch is due at the end of the month, so I will have more to post then.

The 7th egg from the first hatch internally pipped and then died. So 43% hatch rate stands.

 

[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]

4-24-23, day 30

8am All 14 eggs pipped now, 3 zipping that look stuck, including the one that still had blood vessels last night. Assisted that one and the next one out. 9 goslings out.

11am 10th gosling hatched on its own. 11th egg fully zipped, but top hatch glued to gosling. Assisted and discovered dried “glue” (and wet glue) all over its body. That one got a thorough bath, and I also washed much dried gunk off of #s 9 and 10 as well. (3 goslings bathed in very warm water.)

[Need to research whether this is caused by too high of humidity or too low of humidity.]

5:00 pm 12th egg zipped half way and stalled. 13&14 have “windows” but also appear stalled (Dry down sticking out of holes, 2 hours elapsed since zipping commenced.)

Assisted all 3. Definitely “shrink wrapped”. All 3 navels pretty much closed, but swollen with fluid. Assistance definitely required, and timely.

Final tally: 14 live goslings from 24 fertile eggs on days 29 and 30, for a 58% hatch rate on first setting in new cabinet incubator.

(For the record, 17 turkey eggs set in the same incubator at the same time produced 14 poults for a 82% hatch rate. Both groups had 14 make it to lock down and 14 hatch!! I think that’s some kind of new record for me.)

So far it appears that Chinese geese hatch around day 29-30.

Next hatch due around April 29.

 

[Finnie]

Note on 2nd hatch- 2 goslings did not survive. 12 live goslings from 24 fertile eggs lowers the 58% hatch rate to a 50% survival rate.


3rd hatch of the season

4-2-23

Sat 8 goose eggs in metal goose eggs rack, top level of GQF 1502 incubator.

4-10-23

Began cooling and misting.
First candling: 100% fertility.

4-17-23

Second candling, all good

4-26-23 (day 25)

Third candling, all good, not ready for lockdown yet.

4-28-23 (day 27)

Candled. 1 is dead in shell (removed and opened) and 1 looks possibly dead but left in just in case. (Spoiler: this one hatched.) Still not ready for lockdown.

4-29-23 (day 28)

Candled and locked down in Farm Innovators 4250 because turkeys are still hatching in the Incuview. A few of the geese look internally pipped, including the one that looked dead yesterday.

5-1-23 (day 30)

7:30 am: 2 pips

9 am: 4 pips

1 pm: 6 pips. Transferred to cleaned and heated Incuview.

5 pm: 2 goslings out. 3rd gosling making a “window” at top of shell instead of zipping. Will definitely need assistance at some point.

7 pm: All 7 eggs are pipped.

9:30 pm: Another gosling out on its own. Plus I assisted the “window” gosling. It was definitely stuck in place. And I assisted another gosling which was also glued in place and making a window instead of a zip-line. 5 out so far.

5-2-23 (day 31)

7:30 am: 6th gosling out on its own. #7 zipping.

9 am: Assisted last gosling due to seemingly stalled zipping. Navel slightly still open, but it had begun pooping inside the shell, so assisting was the right call.

7/8 = 87.5% hatch rate.

Next hatch due around May 11.

 

[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.