broody goose question

[sarah78]

I have a female toulouse that is laying for the first time. We had been taking the eggs out of her nest, but stopped a few weeks ago. She has about 10-12 eggs in the nest and has been sitting on them, but only at night. She gets on the nest once it gets dark out and stays on it until morning. She is off the nest during the day. Is this considered a broody goose? Is just sitting on the nest at night enough to get the eggs to hatch?

Sarah

 

[pete55]

Firstly is she a Dewlap Toulouse as they're not known for going broody. Saying that I've left my Buff with 5 eggs and looks like she's going broody now and has sat all afternoon and started to line the nest with down. Once the female lines the nest its a good sign she's about to go broody.

By the description of yours she's simply 'covering' the eggs at night which is not true incubation. Also has she stopped laying?

Pete

 

[sarah78]

She is a Production Toulouse and seems to have stopped laying. I guess I should count the eggs to make sure she's still not adding new ones to the nest. When we were stealing the eggs we'd always leave one or two, but she would never sit on those at night. Now that she has close to a dozen it seems that she's intentionally sitting on them at night, but could care less about the nest during the day. I did notice that she seems to cover up the nest with hay and feathers when she's not on it. I would actually prefer that she never goes broody as I don't really have the space to accommodate more geese if all these eggs were to hatch. I just don't how long to wait before deciding that these eggs are duds.

 

[pete55]

Just leave her to it and Im sure she'll go broody soon. She's displaying good parenting behaviour by covering the eggs when she leaves them. You could always reduce the clutch a little by removing the oldest/dirtiest eggs. Once she's broody then remove a few more. If they hatch Im sure there must be firends who would love some young toulouse

 

[erijn5]

My Buff Toulouse was doing the same thing...believe it or not she has moved the whole entire nest 3 times, and has finally found her perfect spot. She is was only sitting on them at nite, but after this last moment of all 18 eggs she is hard core broody...I tell her everyday, YOU GO GIRL!! I hope they all hatch!!

Good luck.. I think she will settle just give her another couple of days..