Bunch of eggs, overwhelmed and no clue

[SittinDuck]

You can collect eggs up to 10 days and store them, some do longer. The longer they are the less chance they have, but there is still a chance. There are threads on here with DIY incubators and lots of them. As for water poultry, a lot of people that hatch ducks/geese do mist their eggs during incubation. You'd be surprised how much birds do to control the heat and humidity that reaches the eggs. It's not as obvious to us, but when I started incubating I had the more experienced hatchers point out things that the birds do that I'd never thought about. It is fascinating. Worth a google too.

Do you think there could be an issue with the doghouse being too humid? Should I make air holes?

I'm also wondering if the geese are getting spooked at night. If a coon or anything walks by, they hit the water. Maybe there is too much going on to ever sit on a nest for very long.

from my childhood, so a few years back.
They would not pay a LOT of attention until they had a big batch of eggs (12 or so) as long as she is laying, I would say she is probably ok.
When she decides to go broody she will.
My guess would be soon if she has 12 eggs,
maybe mark or number them so you know older from newer (if you have not already)

That's a good idea about marking them. I wish I had thought of that before I had 20 of them lol

When they go broody, how hard will they fight to stay on the nest?

 

[Danielle2189]

...

I'm not sure if she is laying more, but I saw one goose riding another across the pond the other day.  There are a lot of eggs in the nest.  Maybe close to 20.

Yeah, I was figuring it wasn't as delicate as they made it seem.  There's no way a wild goose could hatch one if it were.  At first I was thinking if I took them inside and messed up the hatching, then I would regret not leaving them with the goose.  But now I'm thinking leaving them is a guaranteed loss.  I think if I took them and messed up, I wouldn't feel as bad knowing how poor the mother is.

Then again, if I leave them with the goose this year, then I will know 100% what to do next year.  I am kinda busy with other things to be doting over eggs all the time and everyone asks me why I want more geese.  I just think it would be neat to have a baby one, that's all.  Other than that, it would be another mouth to feed.  The geese don't give anything back like the ducks in terms of eggs.  And the geese eat more.  I don't know what to do.

Yeah, I think just go with what your gut tells you! Maybe next year one will go broody or possibly still this year. You never know! If you don't have a lot of time to commit to it, I wouldn't try. It's a decent investment of your time between the turning and monitoring. Worth it though if you really want babies! Wish you luck! Let us know how it all pans out.

 

[Greg88]

Do you think there could be an issue with the doghouse being too humid? Should I make air holes?

I'm also wondering if the geese are getting spooked at night. If a coon or anything walks by, they hit the water. Maybe there is too much going on to ever sit on a nest for very long.


That's a good idea about marking them. I wish I had thought of that before I had 20 of them lol

When they go broody, how hard will they fight to stay on the nest?

My grandparents geese would get very protective of the next (goose and gander) once they started setting and would defend the next from anyone or anything. Tended to be very good parents. My guess is they will not be very willing to leave the nest if it has eggs once she starts incubating.,

 

[SittinDuck]

So I went out to feed them today and found all the geese on the opposite side of the pond, strangely hesitant to come get the food, and one duck was inside the doghouse sitting on the eggs. What does that mean?

 

[Danielle2189]

Sounds to me like the duck went broody! Hopefully, she can handle all of those goose eggs. Does it looks like she has them all covered? Keep an eye on her to see if she stays on the nest. She should be only getting off once a day for a few minutes.




So I went out to feed them today and found all the geese on the opposite side of the pond, strangely hesitant to come get the food, and one duck was inside the doghouse sitting on the eggs.  What does that mean?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Kinda sounds like you got a broody duck. And it sounds like she's put the geese in their place...lol

 

[psue]

So I went out to feed them today and found all the geese on the opposite side of the pond, strangely hesitant to come get the food, and one duck was inside the doghouse sitting on the eggs. What does that mean?

Broody duck, She should hatch them just fine.

for future reference... you can use/eat goose eggs just like you do chicken and duck.

Some geese will go set on 8 eggs... some (I have one) that prefers 20+ With super large egg numbers they sacrifice the outer ring of eggs to help regulate the center ones. A goose usually will ignore the nest until she feels she has enough eggs, this keeps them all on the same hatch schedule.

 

[SittinDuck]

Sounds to me like the duck went broody! Hopefully, she can handle all of those goose eggs. Does it looks like she has them all covered? Keep an eye on her to see if she stays on the nest. She should be only getting off once a day for a few minutes.

No, she covers about half of them. When I went to feed them, she ran off the nest to join the quacking and honking session they always do before I dump the food out.

Broody duck, She should hatch them just fine.

for future reference... you can use/eat goose eggs just like you do chicken and duck.

Some geese will go set on 8 eggs... some (I have one) that prefers 20+ With super large egg numbers they sacrifice the outer ring of eggs to help regulate the center ones. A goose usually will ignore the nest until she feels she has enough eggs, this keeps them all on the same hatch schedule.

I've seen my ducks go broody before and it never lasts long. A few days and they lose interest. I'm afraid that is going to happen again... the duck will lose interest or a coon will spook her off the nest at night for too long.

I've eaten the goose eggs before. They weren't as good as the duck eggs.

That makes sense about the hatching schedule.

So, everyone is comfortable with me leaving the eggs in charge of a duck, in the woods, in a doghouse rather than me trying to make an incubator?

 

[Danielle2189]

Maybe you could try to rig up an incubator just in case the duck does lose interest or you could take the eggs she can't cover. The duck will do a better job at hatching them than an incubator as long as she is committed to setting them.

 

[SittinDuck]

Maybe you could try to rig up an incubator just in case the duck does lose interest or you could take the eggs she can't cover. The duck will do a better job at hatching them than an incubator as long as she is committed to setting them.

Yes, you're quite right about that. You need to keep after me until I do it lol

I think all I need is a frame made from 2x4s with a plexi-glass cover and a light.