My eggs are all dead! 😢

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

I can hardly bear what has happened. I’m trying to write this post before I break down and sob uncontrollably. First batch of eggs and I had one good egg. It died I believe day 12 but I held on hoping it was alive until day 24. 6 more eggs, 2 infertile. 4 healthy and strong last night, moving all over. Tonight, no movement. All 4 dead. Nothing changed with incubator. No temp fluctuations. No humidity fluctuations. Nurture Right 360 incubator. I’m so devastated. What have I done?? I truly loved all of these babies already! Every day I candled I was terrified because of what happened with the first one. Today I am living my nightmare.

 

[Wereplatypus]

I'm so sorry your little ones didn't make it

 

[Goosebaby]

I’m so sorry! That’s rotten luck.

I have no expierience with incubators but I know of a few things that can cause quitters.

Vitamin deficiencies in the mother.
Exposure to water, if the egg was submerged at some point bacteria could have gotten through the membrane.
Some infections of the parents, mycoplasma for example can cause quitters.
Old eggs that sat for too long.
Sometimes there is no known cause.


I’m hoping you’ll have much better luck the next time around.

 

[Yard Farmer]

That's a huge bummer.. I'm sorry that happened.
The worst hatch I've ever had was 1/15

 

[Goosebaby]

I contacted the woman I got them from and she told me that she has no idea what is happening to my eggs because she just had someone message her with a picture of one of her babies that hatched. I asked her if any of them were early quitters and she said that none of them were, that she had a 100% hatch rate. I’ve never heard of that before with geese.

Of the first 6 eggs I got from this woman, 5 were infertile and one was an early quitter on day 12. The replacement batch, 1 was infertile, 1 was cracked with a detached air sac, 3 died on day 14, and one I thought was dead was recandled this morning and showed the faintest bit of life. I believe it’s just taking longer to die but I will hold out hope for it which really only damages my heart further. It was by far the strongest of the eggs and much bigger at 170g (different parents than the quitters) while the others were in the 130g range. She later told me the small eggs were from first year geese. I would never have purchased them from her had I known that in advance! What am I to make of this?

I’m not sure what to make of it but first year geese are pretty much still babies themselves, basically teenagers so fertility is unpredictable and they aren’t the best parents, that may be the issue.

The breeder should have been honest about that and personally I wouldn’t necesarily trust her word on anything else because of that.

 

[Tonyroo]

Do more research on breeders that know there geese. There are common sense references that you can que on when discussing there birds for potential egg purchase.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I contacted the woman I got them from and she told me that she has no idea what is happening to my eggs because she just had someone message her with a picture of one of her babies that hatched. I asked her if any of them were early quitters and she said that none of them were, that she had a 100% hatch rate. I’ve never heard of that before with geese.

Of the first 6 eggs I got from this woman, 5 were infertile and one was an early quitter on day 12. The replacement batch, 1 was infertile, 1 was cracked with a detached air sac, 3 died on day 14, and one I thought was dead was recandled this morning and showed the faintest bit of life. I believe it’s just taking longer to die but I will hold out hope for it which really only damages my heart further. It was by far the strongest of the eggs and much bigger at 170g (different parents than the quitters) while the others were in the 130g range. She later told me the small eggs were from first year geese. I would never have purchased them from her had I known that in advance! What am I to make of this?

Were these all shipped eggs? Unfortunately, it's not unusual for shipped eggs to have a zero hatch rate, even if the eggs started out viable. Hatching first year eggs is entirely possible if they're fertile (I've done it with eggs from my own birds), but if they were shipped, they could have been damaged by shipping stress.

 

[Goosebaby]

I drove 3 hours to pick up the second group of 6 so that I would have a better chance of them hatching. The shipped eggs were large second year eggs and they were the infertile ones. Only 1 of 7 (total with shipped Eggs) of the large ones were fertile.

Found out the girl she claimed had a 100% hatch really rate had a 20% hatch rate. 1 in 5. She received one cracked, 3 infertile (also the large ones), and one that hatched. Breeder lied to me to make it seem like this was my fault so she wouldn’t have to return my money. It’s disgusting to make me think I killed all of these babies when really there is something very wrong with her flock and she continues to sell the eggs.

I’m so sorry!

 

[Iain Utah]

I'm very sorry for your loss, but luckily it is not too late in the season to get more eggs. It is unlikely that low temps killed eggs, however, high temps will kill eggs. If it is a forced air incubator, the temp needs to be 99 at egg level, whereas still air is 101. The eggs also need daily cooling after the first week. I believe the health of the parents and the nutrition they receive makes a big difference in viability, not whether they are shipped or not, I have hatched many shipped eggs, and I have shipped dozens of eggs from my geese with great success.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I contacted the woman I got them from and she told me that she has no idea what is happening to my eggs because she just had someone message her with a picture of one of her babies that hatched. I asked her if any of them were early quitters and she said that none of them were, that she had a 100% hatch rate. I’ve never heard of that before with geese.

Of the first 6 eggs I got from this woman, 5 were infertile and one was an early quitter on day 12. The replacement batch, 1 was infertile, 1 was cracked with a detached air sac, 3 died on day 14, and one I thought was dead was recandled this morning and showed the faintest bit of life. I believe it’s just taking longer to die but I will hold out hope for it which really only damages my heart further. It was by far the strongest of the eggs and much bigger at 170g (different parents than the quitters) while the others were in the 130g range. She later told me the small eggs were from first year geese. I would never have purchased them from her had I known that in advance! What am I to make of this?

My thought was were the eggs on the smaller side
Often if the egg is to small for the baby then babies can’t get turned ti hatch
Did any eggs show bruising on the shell outside the air cell area ?
My second question is
What humidity did you incubate them at ? Did you use a calibrated hygrometer and thermometer inside the incubator ?
Could you candle and take pictures of the air cell size
Others reasons for death at hatch are baby not loosing enough liquid through incubation and drowning at hatch time
Another reason is stated above could be issues from the moms