Goose Incubation & Hatching Guide - Completed!!!!

[Miss Lydia]

They are adorable.

 

[livininbrazil]

This post was very helpful for me! Two days ago 7 out of 12 of my geese eggs hatched!

This is a really useful thread for folks hatching goslings...a good read. How are your goslings doing now?

 

[Mamanpoule]

Oh Pete! If you are still following this please answer! I have 5 Toulouse goose eggs in lockdown in a Suro20 automatic incubator. Day 28 now. When I candled on day 26 one (egg "E") seemed so far ahead that on Day 27 (afternoon), I stopped the rocker and raised humidity to 80 from 50. It was moving vigorously and peeping. Kept temp. at 37.5 the whole time. By afternoon today (Day 28) it seemed much less vigorous and quiet. Having read your guide, I was worried it was running out of air as there was no external pip. So my husband & I washed our hands, sterilised a little file and made an air hole at the top of Egg E, candling to be sure no gosling on other side. We were quick & put him back in but that was 2 hours ago and no movement since. Now I am wondering if he had even pipped internally.
If there wasn't, does this mean we killed him? If by some chance he is not dead, is there anything else we can do?
Feeling desperately remorseful,

Ruth

This is my 2nd batch this spring - had one egg perfectly formed last time but died in shell at the end, membrane too thick. I so much want these to live!

 

[RURU]

First off I am not Pete but have talked with Pete when he was on here and another forum. You never turn the humidity up that early at the end of the hatch until they have both internally piped and then externally piped. People are jumping the gun on jumping the humidity up before externally piping! That cause moisture to go back into the egg which you are trying to get 16% of the total weight from the start of the egg gone so they do not drowned or have a heart attack with too much fluids in the egg.

So you have opened a hole in the egg for breathing. But the gosling has not even externally piped. I can not say what might happen because I am not Pete but do know you need the hole on the top of the egg. Have you candled the egg to see if the goslings had piped into the internal air sack yet? You can see the shadow of the gosling internally piped. Yes, take it out of the incubator to check it. It then needs to externally pip. Before you crank that incubator up.....
Hope this helps you some.

I have hatched thirteen goslings this season and have had to help them out on many of them... After the gosling has piped externally and has not done very much work after 24 hours I then take off some of the egg to make a breathing hole. Then put it back and let it work on it for themselves for another 8 hours or more if nothing then start very slowly to crack some of the egg shell off. Put back and see if any progress hours later. But you have to do this slowly or the gosling can bleed to death because the viens have not retracted from the membrane. So if they have retracted some you can wet that part of the membrane with warm water to help you free some of it from the gosling because it will stick to the gosling. The if you see any blood stop put it back in the incubator for about tow to three hours. Remember this is a very very slow progress. You only peel the egg on the top of the egg so the baby's tummy stays covered with the egg shell to help it absorb the egg yolk sack. Do Not betaking the egg shell off the bottom of the egg where the goslings tummy is that needs to stayed covered so the gosling will absorb that egg sack.

Please take your time and if the membrane bleeds keep putting the gosling back in the incubator to rest longer.

This is about all I can tell you on what to do. Just be very slow with this process so baby can absorb the egg yolk! If baby kicks out before the egg sack is absorbed take clean paper towels and wet them with very warm water and wrap the gosling in the paper towels so it is around the goslings and it's egg sack to help keep it wet and help it absorb. Then after it goes in more spray iodine on it to keep infection out of it...
Good Luck.

 

[Mamanpoule]

Thank your for your quick response. The eggs were rather old - Egg E was laid on March 11 and I was away, my neighbour kept the eggs for me - without turning or misting. So I was worried they had lost too much water. Then my goose - the mother -died so I started the eggs anyway, at the end of March 30th. All the eggs seemed to be developing well though- they had all movement inside & some had piped. But the air holes were very big - especially on the vigorous egg E. So I was worried that they would be too tough to break through the membrane or the shell. I thought lockdown was when you stop turning and simultaneously turn up the humidity.
I daren't take them out now that it is the end of day 28 - I suppose I overdid it on the humidity - I'll know on Tuesday but it seems ominously quiet and still in there...

 

[Mamanpoule]

Opened the eggs today (Day 30) to see what went wrong. 3 of 5 had internally pipped. None had externally pipped or absorbed their yolk. They all seem to have died in shell at the same time - either because I started the high humidity too early (Day 27) or opened the lid to make a hole for 1 that had stopped moving (Day 28).

 

[livininbrazil]

Opened the eggs today (Day 30) to see what went wrong. 3 of 5 had internally pipped. None had externally pipped or absorbed their yolk. They all seem to have died in shell at the same time - either because I started the high humidity too early (Day 27) or opened the lid to make a hole for 1 that had stopped moving (Day 28).

Oh, how sad. So hard with humidity, eh?

 

[AmericanMom]

Ok, question .... I've searched but couldn't find the answer.... 3/4 of my goose eggs are a couple days over due, I wasn't to worried knowing they may not hatch on day 28.... candled this morning and can see them this morning and 3 of the eggs look really good, air cell has dipped nicely and they rock overtime I whistle lol... candled tonight and two of the air cells dipped even more, can see a shadow in the air cell, very slight but a shadow... put them back and was just looking at the eggs with a flashlight and noticed those three eggs are not the bright pearly white they were, they are almost dull yellowish color... my question ( finally) do the eggs change color prior to hatching?

 

[AmericanMom]

Ok, question .... I've searched but couldn't find the answer.... 3/4 of my goose eggs are a couple days over due, I wasn't to worried knowing they may not hatch on day 28.... candled this morning and can see them this morning and 3 of the eggs look really good, air cell has dipped nicely and they rock overtime I whistle lol... candled tonight and two of the air cells dipped even more, can see a shadow in the air cell, very slight but a shadow... put them back and was just looking at the eggs with a flashlight and noticed those three eggs are not the bright pearly white they were, they are almost dull yellowish color... my question ( finally) do the eggs change color prior to hatching?

My own question has been answered... got a pip this morning out of the smallest egg...Its pipped the small end so I am watching it.. Its breathing so I'm going to spend some time reading on what to do (if I need to do anything)

 

[marquisella]

What causes the gosling to pip early, but then still have the yolk out? My first 2 hatches went pretty well, but this third one is a disaster. The first 2 groups, hatched on the 28th day as well as this last one, but every chick has the yolk still out...I've followed the advice about wrapping in a wet paper towel, etc. One of them pipped in the side of the egg not in the air cell, I caught it before it drowned. I saved one, lost one, and am now working on the 3rd. 3 other eggs have not done anything yet.