Geese egg incubation

[Jedwards]

Hey everyone,

I'm hatching geese eggs for the first time and I read through most of the threads on here about it so I think got most of it down but I still have a couple questions.

1. I’m borrowing an incubator for this season, a Roll-x, and I have seven unknown goose eggs in it but the wire turner is for chicken eggs so it only rotates the goose eggs about 90 degrees every hour instead of a full 180. I have been trying to rotate them 3 times a day by hand so they get that full 180. Is this too much turning? Would 90 degrees be enough? I guess what I’m asking is if I should remove turner and just do by hand?

2. I have 3 thermometers, one reads 99.5 (old reliable), ones at 100 (a rod one) and the third is at 101.3 (digital). I read that geese do better at a lower temp? 99? What do you experienced geesers (pun intended) do?

Thanks everyone

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hey everyone,

I'm hatching geese eggs for the first time and I read through most of the threads on here about it so I think got most of it down but I still have a couple questions.

1. I’m borrowing an incubator for this season, a Roll-x, and I have seven unknown goose eggs in it but the wire turner is for chicken eggs so it only rotates the goose eggs about 90 degrees every hour instead of a full 180. I have been trying to rotate them 3 times a day by hand so they get that full 180. Is this too much turning? Would 90 degrees be enough? I guess what I’m asking is if I should remove turner and just do by hand?

2. I have 3 thermometers, one reads 99.5 (old reliable), ones at 100 (a rod one) and the third is at 101.3 (digital). I read that geese do better at a lower temp? 99? What do you experienced geesers (pun intended) do?

Thanks everyone

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

 

[Jedwards]

Thanks! I have read through that guide earlier this week and the main thing I found was:

Temp 37.3C, Humidity 20-25% (dry incubation), vents fully open, hourly auto turning after 24 hours with a once daily hand turn of 180 degrees. After 6 days I start daily cooling and misting for 5-10 minutes increasing to 15 minutes daily from 14 days until Internal Pipping. Eggs are weighed weekly to check they are losing adequate moisture.

This guide left me kind of confused as to what the purpose of the 180 degree turn only once a day in addition to the hourly auto rotation of 180 deg. because mine only turns 90 instead so i was wondering if i should turn by hand more to compensate. That is why I made this post as well as I was hoping for some more personal accounts.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thanks! I have read through that guide earlier this week and the main thing I found was:

Temp 37.3C, Humidity 20-25% (dry incubation), vents fully open, hourly auto turning after 24 hours with a once daily hand turn of 180 degrees. After 6 days I start daily cooling and misting for 5-10 minutes increasing to 15 minutes daily from 14 days until Internal Pipping. Eggs are weighed weekly to check they are losing adequate moisture.

This guide left me kind of confused as to what the purpose of the 180 degree turn only once a day in addition to the hourly auto rotation of 180 deg. because mine only turns 90 instead so i was wondering if i should turn by hand more to compensate. That is why I made this post as well as I was hoping for some more personal accounts.

Since I only let my girls hatch can't help on bators but we do have many here who are experienced.

@8GeeseALaying

@Pyxis
@jchny2000 Just to name a few.

 

[8GeeseALaying]

Hello! You're in for an exciting time, hatching goslings.
Personally I would remove the turner and hand turn them myself. I don't trust an automatic turner anyway but seeing as yours is for chicken eggs it's not a good idea to use it with goose eggs. I turn mine twice a day once in the morning and once in the evening, some others turn them 3 times a day. It's up to you, but no less than twice a day.
For temps I keep mine at 100° for goose eggs I get a better hatch rate at that temp for waterfowl. I tried doing 99.5° but even though they developed fine they took a few days more to hatch and seemed like they were kind of weak and more of them needed help hatching. Also Dont forget to mist the eggs with warm water every other day.

 

[Jedwards]

Thank you! It is exciting because it feels like I'm hatching dinosaur eggs haha. Do you begin misting right away or around day 5?

 

[8GeeseALaying]

I usually start misting mine at day 8 or 10. If your incubator has the water reservoirs in the bottom fill those up and keep them filled throughout the incubation time. Also when the internal pip happens stop turning the eggs. When the external pip happens I like to add a hot wet wash cloth(excess water squeezed out of course) inside the incubator with them, off to the side. It increases humidity for them and keeps them from drying in the shell. Hatching can take 24-48 hours until they are out so don't get worried & try to help them if it seems like they are taking too long. More than likely they are right on schedule and helping at the wrong time can slice a vein in the membrane and they can bleed out quickly.

 

[Jedwards]

Okay thank you for all the info!!! Do you also do daily "cool-downs"

 

[8GeeseALaying]

I usually have my incubator full, 22-24 eggs crammed in it, and as I turn the eggs I use that time to candle each one. So while I'm doing that it takes long enough to consider that the cool down. That way it's all done at once and I don't forget to put the lid back on. I have seen many many people on here complaining that they forgot to put the lid back down after cooling and the eggs sat for hours uncovered, usually overnight. Most of the time it didn't cause harm but it still wasn't a good thing for the eggs to sit that long without heat.

 

[Jedwards]

I usually have my incubator full, 22-24 eggs crammed in it, and as I turn the eggs I use that time to candle each one. So while I'm doing that it takes long enough to consider that the cool down. That way it's all done at once and I don't forget to put the lid back on. I have seen many many people on here complaining that they forgot to put the lid back down after cooling and the eggs sat for hours uncovered, usually overnight. Most of the time it didn't cause harm but it still wasn't a good thing for the eggs to sit that long without heat.

Okay thanks a bunch for the info!! I'll let you know how it turns out I'm excited to see what kind of geese they are