Fake eggs & brooding

[TXMotherGoose]

"Inverse use of fake eggs"
We have 2 hens. No gander. One hen laid 1st. (20 or more). Shortly after she stopped the other started and is on her 36th egg? The fake eggs we ordered (10) came in & we have options. Now I'm wondering what is the best way to go about it? Or if it's even the best thing to do now? We want to avoid her going through laying more. I'd be inclined to go with putting like 8 of em where she's been laying? But we don't want her sitting on fakes for weeks either if it did work? If it did work. What is your guess on how long her sitting on them is long enough to get her out of the mood to try again?
My opinion is if it's over a week it's probably less stress to have her stop on her own? Miss Lydia told me one of her 1 st year geese stopped at 40 and our's is almost there now?

 

[The goose girl]

I haven't had much luck nudging my goose to go broody. She'll lay 40-50+ eggs and go broody in late June. Two years ago I pimped her nest with 12-14 fake eggs. She kept laying for another 5 weeks before deciding to sit. The year before that it was 7 weeks.

When she goes broody, I let her sit for about 7-10 days. When she gets up to eat and drink, I sneak the eggs away. Then when she comes back, she'll search the nest for the eggs for 10-20 minutes. Sometimes she'll search again an hour later, but that's it. The next day day she's back to being herself again.

 

[TXMotherGoose]

40-50? Making that many eggs has got to make for a lot of poop?
Guess I didn't use the right search words here? But from an internet search.
I found an article with you guys talking about this back in 2013.
Post title was "My goose has been laying for almost 6 months now!"
OK, the 36 eggs our girl has laid so far isn't the big concern it was earlier. And now I also see the real concern is replacing the calcium she's gone through. I will be starting her on some supplements ASAP. If you don't mind please point us towards the best calcium supplement these days.
As for the fake egg swap. Since her over laying isn't as bad as we thought. I've decided to not try the wham, bam, here's 10 mam. My plan now is to start swapping with fakes and see who runs out of eggs 1st? Hopefully her, and if so we're going to shoot for a one week bakey before the takey.

 

[The goose girl]

Thanks for reminding me of that thread! My goose ended up laying a whopping 108 eggs between October '13 and June '14 - with a 6 week laying break in January and February. She finally went broody on July 3rd.

Ever since that first year, she's only been laying in spring season. She's happy and healthy and she just turned 7 yesterday - we celebrated with lots of bread!

I give her crushed oyster shell for calcium.

 

[TXMotherGoose]

Unbelievable! But it does help me realize how clueless I am about these flocker's!
We are starting the fake swap today and looking forward to a twisted off Easter egg hunt this Sunday.
I'm saying since she'll be so happy to not see them disappearing. I'm going to throw in an extra fakey.

 

[TXMotherGoose]

Good news on the calcium supplements! On an internet search for them. Up popped the Mazuri waterfowl feed they are already eating. I'm thinking she's good on that front but please tell me otherwise if not.

 

[The goose girl]

Good news on the calcium supplements! On an internet search for them. Up popped the Mazuri waterfowl feed they are already eating. I'm thinking she's good on that front but please tell me otherwise if not.

I would provide extra calcium. Those heavy duty goose eggs use up a lot of it. If you can't find crushed oyster shell, you could crush up some regular (or goose) egg shells and offer her those. My goose also likes to crunch empty snail shells she finds - and once an occupied one by mistake!

 

[TXMotherGoose]

I tried some sunflower seeds but no takers. I'll try some egg shell & keep an eye on the egg shells she's laying. I'm hoping she only has a few more to go.
We started the brooding nudge yesterday. She had 2 that were exchanged with 3 fakes. So far nothing has changed in her spot.

 

[TXMotherGoose]

So far so good. She had laid another over night and had moved the hay we left her into position. The fakes were left pretty open but they weren't pushed out. Looks like it might work? We're thinking about adding an extra fakey next time she lays to try and speed things up? These girls were bought as saddle back Pomeranian's. Berty (the hen with the correct paint job) is the one that's laying.

 

[TXMotherGoose]

She laid another that was swapped for 2 more fakes today. She has 6 fakes now and is keeping them but not sitting on them yet. Lettuce in the pic is 3 days old