First Goose Egg!!! **Leap Year Goslings!!!! (pics pg. 4)***

[Sean S.]

My girl pictured above on the nest is still sitting tight, we have not seen her out of the coop at all. She ended up with five under her. I'll try to candle them this weekend to see if there is any development. So far she is very dedicated to the nest, so hopefully some are good! She a really good natured, she will let you look under her, so I hope I can get one at a time from her. By Sunday they will be under her for a week.

 

[tbitt]

How exciting. They are very pretty. Are you going to let her sit on them? See how long she tries?

 

[Sean S.]

Yes, Tbitt, I think I'll let her try it. So far she hasn't left the nest at all that we have seen. Even if it doesn't work out, she should still have time to lay another clutch in early march. If nothing else it should be a good practice for her.

I hope we are doing the right thing, we are new at this too!

 

[littledear]

Wonderful pictures! Beautiful geese. Mine are Chinese and Troulouse and they are laying but not sitting on the nest at all. My Chinese sits on the nest for a couple of hours talking to the eggs and turning them and then lays a new one to go with the others but hasn't stayed on them. Geese are very good at covering their nests up so that they are hard to spot. I hope you get a bunch of babies. We are incubating our eggs and have left the older eggs for the goose to practice on as all of my geese are under a year old.

 

[Sean S.]

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! . .

Didn't check all of the eggs, but 2 have internally pipped and you can hear tapping on the shell!!!

2nd white goose has been sitting since around the 10th of febuary has developing eggs under her too!

Can't believe it!! Better get a small brooder set up first thing tomorrow, it's still cold here in NY!

 

[Sean S.]

Question for all you experts,

If they are just hatching tomorrow night when it's time to put up the other 4 adults should I put a screen up across the nest box?

How soon should we take them?

Just watched our forecast and it says we have a rainy, snowy mess coming on Wednesday!

Any opinions appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[littledear]

I haven't actually had a goose sit on eggs yet, but I am wondering why you don't just let the mother take care of the babies? I would think that she would keep them warm. I would just put out a shallow water pan for the babies and starter crumble for them and let the mother take care of them. Make sure that the water is fixed so that the babies can't actually crawl into it, only drink from it. If you can seperate the mom and babies from the rest of the geese with a small fenced area.

 

[Sean S.]

Littledear - our daytime highs are in the 30's with lows in the teen to 20's yet here. She is only a year old, she has been really good with sitting on the nest, but I would hate to have her babies exposed to the elements. :/

 

[Sean S.]

You can hear them peeping in the eggs, but no external pip yet!
Any advise????

 

[Sean S.]

3 really active eggs - took them from her and put them in the bator.
One had piped the shell, but not the membrane. Other two are bouncing around, peeping alot, but no pips yet.


With Sebbies, how long does it take for the external piping and hatching from internal pip and them becoming active?