Gaggle of Chinese Ostracizing a Roman Tufted - Help!

[Miss Lydia]

Hmm, need to wait till May then. No signs of interest form either.

What does going broody mean? Will she pluck her feathers and line a nest? Does that also mean no more eggs till the goslings hatch?
Also, the eggs that I collected - do I need to turn them before setting them for her to sit on?

I think you can only keep eggs viable for around 10 days after that they really have a low hatch rate. I maybe wrong because I don't do this so hopefully more gosling hatchers will chime, I just let Missy lay and take her eggs as she lays them I left 2 of hers[ I marked them] so I could take them out and leave two new fresh ones and 2 fake goose eggs in her nest so she'll keep laying there, but most I took until it was getting close end of April then I left her eggs till she had 8 she went broody and broody means she was sitting on her eggs 24/7 except to come out to eat/bathe and then back in to sit again. Once mine went broody there were no more eggs for the year. I think your suppose to put the eggs pointy end up in an egg carton while saving them but it might be pointy end down so someone who knows what they are talking about needs to tell you. might find info by searching the web.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hmm, need to wait till May then. No signs of interest form either.

What does going broody mean? Will she pluck her feathers and line a nest? Does that also mean no more eggs till the goslings hatch?
Also, the eggs that I collected - do I need to turn them before setting them for her to sit on?

This is when Missy went broody[May] some go broody at other times every goose has her own time table so it's really a watch and wait. Toots may go broody at a different time but it won't matter they will all have fake eggs this year, 4 geese on my half acre is enough my ducks and chickens made me promise.

 

[Orpington Crazy]

You want to store the eggs with the air pocket upwards which is normally pointy end down. I have a few that it is hard to tell so we just candle them to see the air pocket mark which end that is then plop them in a carton. Making sure to turn them 3 to 5 times a day to do this we put a book under one end then move it to the other end until the next go. Hope this helps

Alyssa


Edited
This is how we do chicken and duck eggs.

 

[Miss Lydia]

How's the happy couple doing today? still waiting for iain utah and servpolice to give their opinions

 

[SarahTsu]

How's the happy couple doing today? still waiting for iain utah and servpolice to give their opinions

Well, the two of them are getting along just fine. However, after watching the video, we visited the place Tula came from this evening and there was a big dominant bird who charged at us to keep us at bay, while two other slightly smaller birds kept eating at a safe distance. These two were similar to Tula in size. So, we contacted the owner and will have to wait till next week to find out what can be done. Meantime, Tula has become quite at home, literally. I had the front door open to clean up and Tula stayed put by the kennel - no attempt to dash off outdoors. Such a dear bird - listens attentively when you talk to him (or her) and sometimes replies with small 'gaks'.

btw - love the gang of adorableness in your avatar

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well, the two of them are getting along just fine. However, after watching the video, we visited the place Tula came from this evening and there was a big dominant bird who charged at us to keep us at bay, while two other slightly smaller birds kept eating at a safe distance. These two were similar to Tula in size. So, we contacted the owner and will have to wait till next week to find out what can be done. Meantime, Tula has become quite at home, literally. I had the front door open to clean up and Tula stayed put by the kennel - no attempt to dash off outdoors. Such a dear bird - listens attentively when you talk to him (or her) and sometimes replies with small 'gaks'.

btw - love the gang of adorableness in your avatar

Well if Tula ends up being goose instead of gander will you keep her? that's exactly what I was talking about what you saw. Especially at this time of year ganders are really becoming protective. Is Tula voice low pitched? because ganders pitch is very high and eat splitting. lol

P.S. thank you for the compliment, look at Sam my white Embden very much the gander pose and Babe my young Toulouse gander standing right next to him much of the time Babe is standing with his head just like Sams The 2 girls in normal goose stance. You know you don't really need a gander unless you plan on hatching gosling to sell. You'll still get plenty of eggs from your girls that aren't with the Chinese gander. Hows the Pom doing?

 

[SarahTsu]

I think you can only keep eggs viable for around 10 days after that they really have a low hatch rate. I maybe wrong because I don't do this so hopefully more gosling hatchers will chime, I just let Missy lay and take her eggs as she lays them I left 2 of hers[ I marked them] so I could take them out and leave two new fresh ones and 2 fake goose eggs in her nest so she'll keep laying there, but most I took until it was getting close end of April then I left her eggs till she had 8 she went broody and broody means she was sitting on her eggs 24/7 except to come out to eat/bathe and then back in to sit again. Once mine went broody there were no more eggs for the year. I think your suppose to put the eggs pointy end up in an egg carton while saving them but it might be pointy end down so someone who knows what they are talking about needs to tell you. might find info by searching the web.

You are absolutely right the eggs are no good after about a week. A couple of the older ones were rotten. Decided to share and eat the rest. Definitely makes sense about low hatch rates from old eggs. So much to learn! Ok, so I've been observing the laying goose for the fast few days. She's sitting on her eggs a couple of hours max then she's out with the rest and not sitting on the eggs continuously. Indicating she's not broody? I was hoping to set the fresh ones for her to sit. Found this info online on Egg production, incubation and sex identification of geese: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/livestock/poultry/species/geese-raising/egg-production and Candling Duck Eggs http://www.metzerfarms.com/Candling.cfm?CustID=3320215

 

[SarahTsu]

This is when Missy went broody[May] some go broody at other times every goose has her own time table so it's really a watch and wait. Toots may go broody at a different time but it won't matter they will all have fake eggs this year, 4 geese on my half acre is enough my ducks and chickens made me promise.

Fake eggs - didn't even know there was such a thing! Had to look it up online - so it stops egg production? Don't they get depressed at the end of the month with no hatchlings? Geese needing space makes a lot of sense, especially with ducks and chickens sharing the space. The gaggle of Chinese love their approx. 25' run - they run around it like olympic gymnasts preparing for an event (and love to chase out everybody else, including me).

Do geese require much space to rest at night? Have them in a 4' x 6' shed at night with 1' x 2' nest boxes inside, wondering if that's enough.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Fake eggs - didn't even know there was such a thing! Had to look it up online - so it stops egg production? Don't they get depressed at the end of the month with no hatchlings? Geese needing space makes a lot of sense, especially with ducks and chickens sharing the space. The gaggle of Chinese love their approx. 25' run - they run around it like olympic gymnasts preparing for an event (and love to chase out everybody else, including me).

Do geese require much space to rest at night? Have them in a 4' x 6' shed at night with 1' x 2' nest boxes inside, wondering if that's enough.

You have 4 geese in the shed at night only? The Book of Geese by Dave Holderread says for geese housed at night the space should be 7.5-10Sq' per goose. My goose house is 77X52 for 4 geese. As far as the fake eggs I only put them in their to encourage her to continue to lay because I would take her eggs all but a couple and I wanted her to see a good amount in her nest which I kept at around 8 I didn't want her to go looking for another place to lay, she is always snooping around in the other houses but I don't want her laying in them because the chickens and ducks have to use them. This year they won't get to hatch so I'll most likely let her keep the fake eggs to sit. I don't know if they get depressed but hopefully once she goes broody she'll be finished with breeding. My Muscovy's which are brood alcoholics went broody last year and I didn't let them hatch anything and they lived through it fine lol Some even brooded on nothing. crazy things.

I'm glad you finally checked in I was beginning to worry something was wrong with Juhy again. So what's going on with Tula? going to keep her if female?

What do you want your geese for Sarah do you want to hatch and raise gosling for the sheer pleasure of adding to your flock or do you want to hatch to sale for food for others or to sale to make money? If you only want to add to your flock and enjoy seeing your geese naturally raise their goslings then let your geese do it for you, what your seeing is your goose is practicing she will continue to lay and eventually she'll go broody. Missy did this last year and i got ahead of the game and had Iain Utah send me eggs and she didn't go broody till about a month later. So mark each egg you can put date or 1- but that way when your goose finally commits then take out the oldest till you are happy with the amount she is going to sit. WE make the decision on how many we let them hatch not them because we may not have the space to house 10-15 geese. They won't start to develop until she is sitting 24/7. Oh and I'd take the nest boxes up they don't need them, if you give them plenty of shavings or straw or what ever you use they will make their own nest and your boxes won't be taking up much needed room. Is your Chinese laying her eggs in the nest box? Candling is a blast getting to see that lil gosling grow and begin to move around is just wonderful.

 

[SarahTsu]

You want to store the eggs with the air pocket upwards which is normally pointy end down. I have a few that it is hard to tell so we just candle them to see the air pocket mark which end that is then plop them in a carton. Making sure to turn them 3 to 5 times a day to do this we put a book under one end then move it to the other end until the next go. Hope this helps

Alyssa


Edited
This is how we do chicken and duck eggs.

Thank you for the pointer, Alyssa! Keeping the eggs pointy end down from now - is this method for storage before hatching or during actual hatching? Dumb question - but to turn the eggs do they need to be rotated 180 degrees every turn? So from pointy side down - to pointy side up - then down again, and so on? During hatching do eggs need to be placed horizontally - like these sites suggest? http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/livestock/poultry/species/geese-raising/egg-production & http://www.wikihow.com/Hatch-a-Goose-Egg