Disappearing goose eggs

[mominoz]

I posted on Predators, but thought maybe real goose people may know more. Last year I let my 1st year Tufted buff goose set some of her eggs inside the night pen(10 x10 section of a carport aviary ,roofed, surrounded by 2X2 wire with 3 ft.of 1/2 hardware cloth around the perimeter with a 2 ft apron of fence around exterior and a then a 4 ft with hotwire top and bottom fence around day yard, which opens thru gate to a 4 ft. field fenced pasture of an 2 acres, which they 'freerange" in the daytime. It was a straw nest on pond rock bottom inside the aviary. Twice she set eggs, each time the eggs disappeared slowly. I never candled them, because I was just waiting to see what happened. Her mate and other pair were with her at night and she stayed on nest , except for a few times a day. No shell pieces or anything.... I did have the gate open in daytime to her pen. I also saw a 3-4 ft. Kingsnake or ratsnake go into aviary a month or so later. However there was a hole in ground inside aviary about 2" across. Sometimes I see mice run out when I hose it down. Predator people said a King snake would not eat goose eggs. I live in farmland touching a national forest in nw Ga. Nothing big would have gotten in there in daytime (fence and hotwire and I am home all day and have 4 dogs)--And I lock up birds at night.
So I am trying to figure out what happened to two sets of eggs she tried to set with no traces of shells? This year I have put large plastic bins in the a aviary with straw as nest boxes..... thinking it would keep snake or a rat from coming underneath....
Or maybe I need to make a solid bottom in aviary instead of pond rocks over dirt. hhmmm anybody got an idea what can make two sets of 10 eggs just disappear gradually?

 

[Denninmi]

Quote:
Could the geese be eating their own eggs? I've had chickens do that -- once they get a taste for eggs, it can be a real problem.

Perhaps you could invest in one of those wildlife cameras that have night vision -- that might give you the answer.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

I've seen rat snakes try to devour 2 week old goslings so they most definitely could eat a goose egg and most likely it was them. Your best best is to either line the entire inside of your nest with hardware cloth before you put bedding down or take their eggs and incubate them because if the snakes know where they can get a meal, they most definitely will. I had a rat snake eat 40 Muscovy eggs in a matter of a few days.

Laurie