Confusion!!!My goose has layed 10 eggs...

[Truffle]

The first being over 10 days old. My question is...are the eggs still hatch-able?

She is NOW Brooding and laying consistently on them! Thank you so much to anyone who will help me out. This is what I did. When she laid her first egg, I covered it with cool dirt. It's been in the high 80s here. I read that the eggs must be kept around 65' and turned each day. I did that with all the eggs she laid. Then last night she went back on her nest and has not gotten up. So I took all the eggs out of the dirt and wiped them off and placed them under her. I took out the golf balls I had in her nest. Do you think there's a chance the eggs will hatch in a month?

Thanks.

 

[MandyH]

They should be fine.

 

[Denninmi]

Well, if they're fertile, they could. To be honest, I don't think covering them in dirt was such a good idea -- something light, dry, and fluffy like sawdust would have been better. But, OTOH, eggs have survived worse.

Also, if this is her very first attempt, she may make a lot of mistakes and not have good results, so don't be disappointed. I had a duck set last year and a turkey hen this year, both first timers, and neither hatched any. Both seemed to make a lot of "rookie mistakes" like leaving the nest for long periods to chill out, burying eggs very deeply in nesting material, pushing eggs off to the side and not really sitting on them, that sort of thing.

 

[Gypsy07]

Ten eggs is a LOT to brood. The biggest number of wild goslings I've seen one goose with was eight. Have you thought about maybe taking some of the eggs and incubating them yourself, then giving her back the hatchlings? Might give you a better chance of lots of goslings, I don't know... But yes, I'd imagine all the eggs are very viable. I've never incubated goose eggs (our geese did it the natural way too) but I have had great success with chicken eggs up to three weeks old...

 

[pete55]

Hi

Its quite late for eggs and they may not be fertile, have you seen your pair mating recently? I know our Ganders go 'off the boil' by the end of May. However there's always a chance. Are you able to incubate the eggs and give the female some dummy eggs for now to practice with? That way you can incubate safely and candle them after a week to see if they're fertile. You could always transfer them back to the goose to finish incubation and all the time she's been gaining experience.

I usually find first time females rather clumsy with their eggs and will often give them infertiles to gain experience with as a reliable breeding goose is well worth having.

Good luck with your eggs

Pete

 

[birdboy508]

i agree with mandy h