2017 Gosling Hatch a long!!

[Iain Utah]

Hope everyone's hatches go well!

We are still in hatchalong mode here at our farm. Right now, I'm wait for my buff dewlap to hopefully have babies in the next 1-2 weeks. I had another grey toulouse go broody last week, so I set a few buff dewlap eggs yesterday, which I will swap for her eggs at some point. Have one more buff about to go broody, and I really hope she is successful.

 

[Nannette114]

Picked up he incubator and cleaned/sanitized it.

Have it running now to make sure it keeps temperature!

Will candle the eggs again tonight and see where we are at.

Brilliant! Can't wait to see how it goes!

Hope everyone's hatches go well!

We are still in hatchalong mode here at our farm. Right now, I'm wait for my buff dewlap to hopefully have babies in the next 1-2 weeks. I had another grey toulouse go broody last week, so I set a few buff dewlap eggs yesterday, which I will swap for her eggs at some point. Have one more buff about to go broody, and I really hope she is successful.

Hi Iain!
Sounds exciting! Now that's the way to hatch goose eggs: with an actual goose! It look like you'll have your hands full too if they all hatch!
Btw how can you tell she is about to go broody?

 

[Iain Utah]

That is what makes it so nice using geese instead of bator. The parents do all of the work once they are born. I just get to sit back and watch.

Each goose is a little different. Some tend to their nests a lot, some will sleep on nests at night, some ignore nest then overnight they are sitting full-time. Once my girls sit more than 24 hours without getting up once, pretty good chance they are staying put for the next week.

 

[Nannette114]

oh I see. I guess you get to know the habits of each goose.

Keep us posted how they get on!

 

[WRVgirl]

Gonna update again before I forget everything I wanted to type and then go catch up

Incubator is running pretty steady. Looks like it's going to keep temperature and I changed my location to upstairs on the dining table (my husband is less than thrilled) but our house is split level and part of the downstairs is actually underground so it stays cold down there even when the house is set to 72 (it'll still be 65 down there)

We've got 40% humidity and no water in the wells, I figured out how to dismantle the turner and get it level so I can set eggs. I've got two water bottles in there for radiant heat.

Eggs were rechecked and no change in air cells, hopefully they will work out upright and we can dry the air cells out at top and go on to have a successful hatch.

Another cool thing about this incubator is the plexi lid...I can write all over it in expo pen and it wipes off....so I've charted my dates for candling, tossing bad eggs and lock down etc.

Will be loading up in a few minutes.

 

[WRVgirl]

Oh, and how much weight are they supposed to be losing? I want to work the math out in advance because I hate math!

Iain! Sounds awesome that your ladies can do the work for you! They're so much better at it than us. Lol

 

[Nannette114]

Hi it sound great WRVgirl!
I'm aiming for 15% weight loss which is what the articles say they need to lose for a healthy hatch. Here's a link to explain it if you fancy some bedtime reading!!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-guide-to-humidity-weighing-and-lockdown.577310/
I work out average weight then do a graph to plot their progress. here's mine:


The grey line in the middle is the average.

 

[WRVgirl]

Thank you!

I'm going to sit down and do some math....after I convert my weights to grams from ounces. Lol

Babies are in. Now to twiddle my thumbs for 4 days.

 

[Nannette114]

Thank you!

I'm going to sit down and do some math....after I convert my weights to grams from ounces. Lol

Babies are in. Now to twiddle my thumbs for 4 days.

How exciting!

As for conversions I personally ask Google every time I'm stuck ha ha! My maths isn't great either!

 

[WRVgirl]

Nannette, what kind of incubator are you using?