2 eggs and not brooding

[Miss Lydia]

What do you mark them with? Livestock marker?

Never heard of a livestock marker I use a washable marker some just use a reg one other pencil .

 

[LisabethBrooke]

I just marked mine with a standard number two pencil. Its what I had and saw that others who incubated them used so I figured it was the safest.

 

[LisabethBrooke]

We now have a total of 40 eggs. There are 36 in my nest here. And another 5 were layed in theirs today. The temp dropped around 30 degrees these past couple nights so I took all their eggs since no one was sitting on them yet.

I made my nest the same way they do theirs. Dirt, hay, feathers and some weeds to form a shape. Difference is my feathers are from what they molted and not down - I hope it doesn't matter much. And mine has a thermometer and humidity meter. The temp is around 95 degrees, although this morning when I checked them it dropped down to 70. I'm praying that didn't hurt anyone. And so I added more hay and covered them up with it for more insulation. The outer part of the nest is around 89 degrees and the inside is closer to 100, So when I turn the eggs (3X a day) I also rotate them so the outer is directly under the light and the inner is farther out. The humidity stays a nice 40%. I have a plastic Easter basket in there, I think it's keeping the humidity right.

I'm hoping to get an incubator this weekend, but we shall see. I know a guy who may let me buy his old, unused one. Fingers crossed.

Should I continue taking the rest of the layed eggs? They're still not setting on them the way they should be. One goose will sit on hers (or rather her one eggs I let her keep and one my buff snuck in there haha) But she only sits for a short time - like I'm supposing over night - and then is off of it for the most of the day.

 

[LisabethBrooke]

I took some pictures of candling a few of the eggs. I don't have a candler - so I used a high power flashlight and my legs haha. So they're not the best and the eggs are pretty dirty. I didn't clean them off after I stole them from the other nests. I don't see anything but and egg with a blob in it. I couldn't tell you if it was a good egg or a bad egg or an egg that just got started incubating. Unless I look at my markings then I could tell you when I started them and the week they were layed. But that's it.

 

[Ncantrell]

Interested if you ever got any from this batch? One of my geese laid fourteen eggs and never bothered sitting. A different goose took it upon herself to do the brooding and we may have some in a few days.

 

[LisabethBrooke]

We still haven't gotten any yet. If they're going to hatch they should be hatching within the next few days. I did get one goose to set on the nest made, and she's been a very good mother over the nest that had gotten 40 eggs built up in it before any of them went broody. I am now starting to get worried about her a little bit. I've read they should get up and eat and drink walk a bit and then sit back down, but to my knowledge she hasn't gotten off the nest for a few days now. For the most part she hasn't pushed any out of the nest like I read they will do if the eggs aren't any good. This morning she did push out two of them, so I disposed of them. She barely let me take the eggs she no longer wanted. I'm itching to candle the eggs that were at one point mine to care for and she wont let me, haha. But I'm sure they stand a much better chance at hatching and developing than if it was just up to me. I've decided next year I will be buying an incubator - probably a large one specially designed for waterfowl.

I have two other geese who shared a nest and one went broody before the other and my once loving buff is now a feisty protective momma, who also doesn't leave her nest. I'm worried about her two but hopeful nature knows what is best. The goose that she shared a nest with got egg bound, and I'm thinking its because her nest was being sat on. I had to give her a bath and a massage and left her lay on warmed blankets for the night and she must've been able to lay the egg in the nest, I can't find it anywhere else and she's acting WAY better.

The other two females - one made a nest and has now 8 eggs in it and hasn't set on it at all except for one night when it was pretty chilly out. And other than that no sitting unless she's laying an egg. And the other momma won't nest. She lays her eggs wherever and doesn't stay with them. Neither does the male. They mind their own business and my dog has found two of her eggs...again I'm leaving it up to nature. I'm sure if she wanted her eggs they would be defending them, the others do. The one with 8 eggs in her nest roams too but stays close to her nest and the attentive male makes sure after I've poked around in there his eggs are still safe. I think its adorable.

We bought a 3 baby Toulouse goslings the other day while in the store, and when I brought them home and they were chirping away playing happily in my brooder pen, and he (the protective daddy) came running honking up a storm. He would honk and stop and listen looking a tad upset and honk and listen and did that until he discovered the babies. Now he sleeps over by them, runs between his nest with the eggs and the new chicks I have a feeling he has clamed. haha.

I am now currently on the hunt for some African and Chinese geese. I seem to have developed an obsession and I love it. If any of the babies hatch I will definitely post pictures!