Broody goose questions

[Sunny Side Up]

The little gosling died some time this morning while we were out at church.

It was alive earlier this morning, peeping softly & flexing a bit. I lifted the whole washcloth-eggshell bundle out of the cooler to take a closer look. The yolk was all absorbed so I gently pried back the leathery membranes holding it in place. I left the shell & membranes that were connected to its umbilicus, just freed its head, wings & feet. I re-wrapped it in a dry washcloth and put it back in the cooler. I didn't think extra humidity would be needed so I removed the bowl of water. I didn't want to risk having the baby survive all this only to drown after taking its first wobbly steps. I left the gosling in the cooler, loosely wrapped in the washcloth, under the heat lamp. It was still breathing, peeping & flexing.

But it was already dead by the time I got home. We knew its survival was very uncertain, and it really is a miracle that it lived for as long as it did. I don't think I could have done much more for it, left on its own in the nest it would have already been eaten by a predator or fire ants.

These Things Happen, but it always stinks when it happens to a baby incubated for so long and just days away from hatching. It happened because I have my goose in less than ideal conditions for brooding. She insisted on staying on the nest she made for herself away from her pen up under the boys' bedroom window. She laid her eggs there all season, and refused my attempt to move her nest to her pen. In order to keep her safe from nighttime predators I have been setting a bottomless cage over her each night & taking it off first thing in the morning. Most mornings I find her setting quietly on her eggs, her head pillowed on her soft back. But some mornings she's standing up pecking at the top of the cage, impatient to get out. Yesterday she had been jumping up & down to add more momentum to her pecks, and in doing so stomped on that egg.

So her egglings were kept safe from opossums & raccoons only to have one crushed by their Mama.

Sometimes you're darned if you do, darned anyway if you do something else. You live & learn, & often learn the hard way. The only thing I could have done better, and will do for the remaining days of Gertie's set, is to set my alarm clock for just after daybreak to wake up & open her cage before she gets anxious to go out. I usually get up on my own around 7-7:30 (I have lots of roosters and my bedroom window faces east) but now I'll set the alarm to go off around 6:30.

Thank you all for your encouragement, support & prayers. Please keep them up for Gertrude's two remaining eggs. I checked them this morning when she got off the nest. One feels heavier than the other so I don't know if they're both developing. I held them to my ear & tapped them with a fingernail, but didn't hear any peeping inside. I would really like to see at least one of them hatch after all this effort & drama!

(I just copied this whole post from my post on another thread I had started about this problem, hope that's okay.)

 

[Sunny Side Up]

We're on Day 32 here and I don't think Gertie is going to get her remaining 2 eggs to hatch.

I've held them to my ear and can't hear anything. It would be just like Murphy to have Gertie smash the only egg that was going to develop. If nothing begins to pip by tonight I'm going to take her off the nest & put her in the pen.

We do have 7 lovely goslings of hers that hatched under my chicken hens. And I do hope we have Gertrude & Elmer next season and can try again. I have learned things to make next season more successful.

 

[jellybean]

I could be wrong, but don't goose eggs take up to 35 days to hatch? Seems like I read that somewhere. Maybe give it a couple more days, especially if one feels like it's good. Good luck!!!