jacobjessica
Hatching
- Apr 16, 2016
- 1
- 0
- 7
Hello,
I have a just turned 1 year old embden goose that I am hopeful is just starting to set on a clutch of 13 of her eggs. Yesterday afternoon, from about 1pm until 5pm she was on the nest and I thought she had finally became broody and decided to sit. However, she got off the nest after this and began grazing in the pasture. It is possible that she was not "setting" continuously for this whole time and was also spending some time primping the nest, but my concern was that if she spent so long on the eggs and then abandoned then, did she just kill the embryos? Can they be heated up for a few hours at a time and then cooled back down before she commits to setting full time?
I have had a big problem with depredation here and lost 3 geese this past year to coyotes. I am down to just this female and two ganders now. As a result, I pen my geese up every night, and let them roam around a 4 acre fenced in pasture during the day. Her nest is not within the enclosure, so I thought that getting put up every night might be interfering with here instinct to set (maybe this is impossible). So last night, I decided to leave them out and see what they would do. Sure enough, just at dark, she went back to her nest and the two ganders stood guard. Now this may have been a mistake, but I decided to leave the porch light on to lessen the chance of something sneaking up on them (she put her nest right against the house.) Anyways, everything seemed to be working, she was on the nest from 8pm until 10pm, when she got off and started grazing in the pasture again in the combination of the moon and porch light. They eventually ended up standing by the pen, so I put them up around 12am after she showed no signs of returning. When I checked the nest she had neatly covered the eggs with hay.
I let them out just after sunrise and I didn't see her go onto the nest until around 5pm. It is now 9pm and she has been there ever since (no porch light or moon, it is cloudy and pitch black.) I thought this last night, but is it safe to say she is finally setting on the eggs? Will her previous short sessions on the nest have ruined any chance of these hatching? Is it typical for geese to "ease into setting" or is this an issue with my inexperienced young goose? I have raised many chickens and have never been confronted with these issues. I usually just find them on the nest unwilling to budge when the time finally comes.
Thank you, any advice would be great.
I have a just turned 1 year old embden goose that I am hopeful is just starting to set on a clutch of 13 of her eggs. Yesterday afternoon, from about 1pm until 5pm she was on the nest and I thought she had finally became broody and decided to sit. However, she got off the nest after this and began grazing in the pasture. It is possible that she was not "setting" continuously for this whole time and was also spending some time primping the nest, but my concern was that if she spent so long on the eggs and then abandoned then, did she just kill the embryos? Can they be heated up for a few hours at a time and then cooled back down before she commits to setting full time?
I have had a big problem with depredation here and lost 3 geese this past year to coyotes. I am down to just this female and two ganders now. As a result, I pen my geese up every night, and let them roam around a 4 acre fenced in pasture during the day. Her nest is not within the enclosure, so I thought that getting put up every night might be interfering with here instinct to set (maybe this is impossible). So last night, I decided to leave them out and see what they would do. Sure enough, just at dark, she went back to her nest and the two ganders stood guard. Now this may have been a mistake, but I decided to leave the porch light on to lessen the chance of something sneaking up on them (she put her nest right against the house.) Anyways, everything seemed to be working, she was on the nest from 8pm until 10pm, when she got off and started grazing in the pasture again in the combination of the moon and porch light. They eventually ended up standing by the pen, so I put them up around 12am after she showed no signs of returning. When I checked the nest she had neatly covered the eggs with hay.
I let them out just after sunrise and I didn't see her go onto the nest until around 5pm. It is now 9pm and she has been there ever since (no porch light or moon, it is cloudy and pitch black.) I thought this last night, but is it safe to say she is finally setting on the eggs? Will her previous short sessions on the nest have ruined any chance of these hatching? Is it typical for geese to "ease into setting" or is this an issue with my inexperienced young goose? I have raised many chickens and have never been confronted with these issues. I usually just find them on the nest unwilling to budge when the time finally comes.
Thank you, any advice would be great.
