do you still mist/sprinkle water on goose eggs in lockdown?

[ascent]

Hello friends,

We're heading to day 29 with our first batch of 13 Toulouse eggs.
Most of them were wiggling since day 25 and some may have externally pipped (or could be some stronger internal pips that broke the shell, no beaks seen yet)
Anyway, yesterday I made a safety hole of 2mm in the air cell of each, except one that had a smaller air cell and today we found his head is in the wrong end of egg (by the pip he made)
I do know it can take up to 48 hours from pip to zip, but things seem really slow.

Humidity is around 73% and I can only get it higher if I place wet mats or sponges inside the incubator.
We have an incubator like the one in the picture attached.

My questions are: Will it help or hurt if I still sprinkle/mist water over the eggs?
Adding 2ml of apple vinegar in the incubator water will help moisten the eggs shell?

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

With my goose eggs I didn’t mist any of the batches in lockdown and hatched just fine with 65% - 70% humidity.

I have never heard of using apple vinegar to moisten the eggs.

Good luck with your hatch

 

[ascent]

Ok, so the most impatient one hatched after 36 hours since the first pip. The zip was done rather quickly in less than an hour. Hopefully the rest will follow, now that they can hear him.

 

[Miss Lydia]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed.491013/

 

[ascent]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed.491013/

Yep. A very good guide with lots of useful advice, along with the one for assisted hatching.
All of the 13 goslings made it rather easily. The one that was mispositioned came last. I removed a few pieces of the egg shell around his external pip but stopped when I saw veins still active.
In the end, he broke free on his own when he was ready.
I guess he just had his head in the small end of the egg.
For anyone's consideration, I did add a small amount of apple vinegar in the incubator water (here, it's said it helps moisten the egg shell, don't know if it really had helped ) and kept the humidity around 75%.
Cheers!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

Congratulations on your hatch!

I also do not mist and cool during lockdown, primarily because I take the eggs out of the incubator to cool - I try to avoid handling them as much as possible during lockdown so they can (hopefully) get into proper hatching position.

Thanks for sharing the info. about adding ACV! Since ACV is acidic, it could theoretically help make the shell easier for the gosling to break through by basically dissolving it a bit. Goose eggshells are mind-bogglingly tough - I may have to experiment with the ACV.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Yep. A very good guide with lots of useful advice, along with the one for assisted hatching.
All of the 13 goslings made it rather easily. The one that was mispositioned came last. I removed a few pieces of the egg shell around his external pip but stopped when I saw veins still active.
In the end, he broke free on his own when he was ready.
I guess he just had his head in the small end of the egg.
For anyone's consideration, I did add a small amount of apple vinegar in the incubator water (here, it's said it helps moisten the egg shell, don't know if it really had helped ) and kept the humidity around 75%.
Cheers!

All 13 hatched?! That’s wonderfu! Humongous pat on the back to you and also whoever raised the healthy parents that created your healthy eggs!

 

[ascent]

All 13 hatched?! That’s wonderfu! Humongous pat on the back to you and also whoever raised the healthy parents that created your healthy eggs!

Well at the start ot the incubation, there were 17 but 1 was too fresh, did not develop and 3 quit along the way so in day 25 we went with 13 in lockdown, so it's still room for improvement.
Yesterday was nice and warm outside so they got some vitamin D

 

[ascent]

I have another, maybe odd, question: Now at early stage, do you give your goslings a peppercorn, each?
It's said it's beneficial to them

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I haven't heard about doing that, but I did find a thread where there was discussion of feeding chickens black pepper, seemingly for holistic health reasons.

Can you provide more info about the background of this practice in your area?