4-H Club looking for help on hatching Sebastopol goose eggs naturally

[ptjenn]

We are a 4-H club in Uncasville, CT, USA. We were gifted with two pair of Sebastopol geese last fall and would like to have our geese hatch the eggs naturally. At night the geese are kept in a 10 X 10' horse stall in my barn. We built two side by side nesting boxes which are along one side of the stall. They have access to pasture daily and we have converted a little tykes turtle sandbox to what we call the "love tub". We have observe our older gander breeding with the younger goose. We just found our second egg in one of the nests yesterday. (One of our dogs found the first egg and brought it to me. But it was cracked). Our night time temps are down in the mid twenties to low thirties in the barn. Should we collect the eggs and store and then put back out to see if one of the geese will go broody? What's the best way to store as far as temperature? We have chickens, and we have one that was very broody last year . Should we try to set some eggs under her? What else? Any help, suggestions, resources would be most appreciated !
Jenn
Classy Caprines 4-H club

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC. With those low temperatures, I would bring the eggs in as laid. Store them at moderate temperature and humidity and turn twice daily. Place some ceramic nest eggs in the nests. When the goose goes broody, return as many of the freshest eggs as she can effectively cover. For me it has always worked better if each goose sets in her own nest. Co-brooding can result in cracked and broken eggs. Co-parenting on the other hand seems to be fine. Good luck. I have hatched goslings with chicken hens.

 

[ptjenn]

Welcome to BYC. With those low temperatures, I would bring the eggs in as laid. Store them at moderate temperature and humidity and turn twice daily. Place some ceramic nest eggs in the nests. When the goose goes broody, return as many of the freshest eggs as she can effectively cover. For me it has always worked better if each goose sets in her own nest. Co-brooding can result in cracked and broken eggs. Co-parenting on the other hand seems to be fine. Good luck. I have hatched goslings with chicken hens.

What would you define as moderate temperature? My back laundry room is 63 degrees F, Floor of a closet next to exterior wall is 55, and I have a small fridge at 45 degrees. For humidity can I mist the eggs several times a day? What is the longest you can hold an egg and still have it be viable? Thank you very much for your help thus far!

 

[oakhollow]

55 degrees is perfect! But 63 should work fine, too.

 

[ptjenn]

Thank you for your help! I think we will try holding them at 55. Is there a maximum hold time for best viability? I think I read somewhere seven days?

 

[oakhollow]

Chicken eggs are best within 10 days, I would assume geese are similar.

 

[ptjenn]

Thank you, will keep that in mind. We are up to a grand total of two eggs as of this morning, lol! She seems to be laying every other day right now. I am storing the eggs in the vegetable crisper of a dorm fridge that is in a cool closet about 55 degrees F. Am tilting the eggs in different directions 2-3 X a day and misting to inside od the box for humidity. Fingers crossed that our goose Natasha goes broody befor the eggs get too old. Thank you everyone for your advice!

 

[Cindyetal]

Geese lay every 36-48 hours so every other day is typical for me. 55 or 63 degrees are both good holding temps. After 10 days viability starts dropping but I have read studies where 20% of goose eggs 24 days old still hatched so just keep collecting till she sets. I would say collect and store but put dummy eggs in place so she thinks she's getting a clutch and decides to set before the stored eggs are getting too old. Don't wash the eggs. dust off excess dirt. I write the date collect on the egg in pencil. Turn the stored eggs daily to keep the membrane inner moist on all sides. I would not mist the stored eggs unless you live in a VERY dry climate and then I would use a humidifier in the room instead. Since they are in a closed fridge I think I would set a bowl of water inside to add humidity to the air. I have heard of chickens successfully setting on them but I would think a large duck may work better if that is an option. Incubation is 30 days for geese, 28 days for regular ducks and 35 days for muscovy ducks. Chickens are only 21 days so I think a hen may quit too early. It would be best to have a large duck or hen to sit on a goose eggs. I had the bad luck of having two females setting on a nest. One was setting and the other started laying in the same nest. When they first ones hatched three of the goslings got trampled (between two mom's and so many eggs). Once they were all fluffed and ready the flock and the two mothers paraded the babies around the yard and left the rest of the eggs. I took the rest of the eggs in and put them in the incubator. I ended up hatching 4 more goslings over the course of two weeks. They all had different start times because the second mother was laying in an active nest so they all hatched at different times. Another possibility is to get the nest area slightly warmer maybe a covered light bulb outside of the nesting box or inside a cinder block beside the nest box. If the next box is 50 degrees or more the eggs will store fine in the nest. These bird are from cold climates and I think the eggs would even bee ok but not optimal if it was 40 degrees. Just another possibility to keep the eggs in place.

 

[ptjenn]

Thank you very much! The ceramic eggs I ordered arrived yesterday, so I will place them in the nest today. Is there a minimum number to have in the nest? I only ordered three, but now thinking more might be better. Our temps here in CT have been fluctuating. Night time temps in the barn at best hover about thirty, but will be inching up over the next few weeks. Will see if I can set up a temp monitoring device in the nest. According to the previous owner, this goose did brood a clutch of eggs last year, though none hatched. The second female will hopefully set up in the other nest box.

 

[ptjenn]

This question came up from one of my 4-H'ers this morning: Does the gander need to breed the goose everyday? Or how long is sperm viable in the goose?