Broody year old goose...why...there are no eggs

[duck&chickencrazy]

ok so i have a year old chinese weeder goose, very nice bird but i dont know if she is completly sane...she has been laying on an empty nest for 4 or 5 days now. she is not old enough to produce fertile eggs yet so why is she acting all broody over an empty nest...i just put some golf balls in there to tempt my chickens and ducks to lay some more eggs and i put one in the nest box she is in, well i went out there today and she had 2 golf balls in there so i am assuming she put it in there for some reason, i took both golf balls out and she a fit and ran out of the coop, i am sooo confused right now, i dont understand why she would want to lay on a nest with no eggs...

**the first 3 days there was nothing in the nest, i just put the golf balls in there a day or so ago...

can anyone tell me why a goose, who cant lay fertile eggs, go broody?

 

[duck&chickencrazy]

Anyone?

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Most geese and especially the smaller chinese will lay the first spring after hatching, unless possibly any that hatched in the fall. So she should be old enough to lay. Is it possible that she is or did lay some eggs elsewhere on your property and maybe they were destroyed some way and she decided to sit in the nest because it is better? Geese can be "extremely" clever at hiding eggs. I have found walnuts, short thick sticks and all kinds of things that the geese have put in their nests and were faithfully sitting on.

The goose nesting season is starting now, but for some reason geese across the country have been laying early this year.

 

[duck&chickencrazy]

i was getting some strange eggs for a bit, i got about 4 or 5, i didnt know what they were from (my ducks, chickens, and geese are all in one pen) so i dont know what its from...goose, chicken, or duck...the egg is really large, bigger than a duck egg but not as big as a normal goose egg, it is not waxy on the outside like a duck egg, it feels rough, its way to big to be a chicken egg, i didnt know what it was so i put one of them in the incubator to see and i guess ill know what it is when it hatches, it is developing now, on day 10, not developing as fast as a duck would tho, could it be a goose egg from my female? i didnt think she was old enough to lay fertile eggs.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Sounds like a goose egg to me. A goose egg takes about 28-34 days to hatch, depending on the breed. If any of your other geese are girls, watch their behavior so you are more likely to find any eggs they lay.

Goslings are soooo cute.