Geese started their nest already but it is cold out. Will the eggs survive?

[Buxton Ducks]

My 3 (possibly 4) female geese have started laying eggs but it is early march and still very cold outside. They have a nice cozy nest in my garage but it is only about 35 - 40 degrees out there right now. There are currently 4 eggs in the nest from yesterday and today and nobody has started to sit yet. Should I just bring the eggs in and incubate them? Should I be patient and see if somebody sits on them tonight? If you think the eggs have gotten too cold should I bring the eggs in for breakfast?

Here they are, both pictures were taken a couple minutes ago:



I know the tall sebbie in the back is a Gander and the other sebbie is a girl, the pilgrim is obviously a girl, the toulouse is a girl, but I don't know about the buff.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

do you have a market for mixed bred goslings? If not then dont incubate or let them sit.

 

[RURU]

Celtic is right if you do not have a market for geese do not breed them. It is just to easy for the geese to be mistreated that are mix breed............

 

[Grassman 52]

I have a little different question(s) - What will you do with the goslings if they do hatch? are they pets? will you process them? As long as you know what you will do with them, hatch what you want.

 

[RURU]

Now if you are going to do freezer camp that is a different story..... Or sell them for freezer camp.

 

[Buxton Ducks]

I can easily find homes for them, good quality pet homes to friends and family. I have hatched many mixed flock beautiful baby bantams and ducks here for 2 years and I have found good homes for them all. I will not give my babies away for "freezer camp" and I could care less if they are purebred or not. I have 1 purebred dog and 4 mutts and I love them all the same. My cats are all mixed breeds, I guess I should send them to freezer camp huh? I simply thought it would be fun to hatch out a few goslings here this year and give them away to friends and family. I would point out what my question was but this thread is already destroyed.

 

[Haunted55]

My 3 (possibly 4) female geese have started laying eggs but it is early march and still very cold outside. They have a nice cozy nest in my garage but it is only about 35 - 40 degrees out there right now. There are currently 4 eggs in the nest from yesterday and today and nobody has started to sit yet. Should I just bring the eggs in and incubate them? Should I be patient and see if somebody sits on them tonight? If you think the eggs have gotten too cold should I bring the eggs in for breakfast?

Here they are, both pictures were taken a couple minutes ago:



I know the tall sebbie in the back is a Gander and the other sebbie is a girl, the pilgrim is obviously a girl, the toulouse is a girl, but I don't know about the buff.

I'm in Livermore, ME and I have 3 girls setting eggs right now. I had to take one nest apart as the eggs were not viable anymore as they started setting the last of January. I look at it this way...the girls are getting practise at playing house. Even in an insulated building and the girls faithfully setting, we are too cold still. My building is up off the ground 18" - 2', the bottom is wrapped with plastic and the nesting boxes are first filled with 5" of shavings and then the hay thrown in loosely so they can build their nest they way they want. They also had a heat lamp up until the end of Feb.. Still, even though the eggs were viable the mid part of Feb. they weren't 4 days ago. I have another nest to go through tomorrow and probably have to take apart as well. As my geese will not be a year old until May, I am not holding out much hope for any hatches this year. If by some chance I do get some, I will be keeping the females for production and the males will be used for food.

Now I am new to geese. Before this year I have never had them before. The only reason I am answering here at all is because we are from the same area and I do understand the temps we have had to deal with. Even though the temps are cold, you may have some of the eggs start to develope. I doubt this early they will be anything more than 'practise' though. I am assuming you are also new to geese as you say you're not sure about the gender of some. I purchased some duck eggs from Celtic Oak Farms last year and the postal delivery person left those eggs in a mail box in temps that hovered around 31 - 32 with a freezing drizzle coming down. No phone call, nothing. Those poor little buggers sat out in that weather for about 7 hours. From these eggs, that I incubated, I had 10 out of 14 Khaki Campbells, 5 out of 14 Silver Appleyards [these eggs were mostly on the outside of the shipping boxes] and 3 out of 8 French White Muscovys. With the adverse conditions these eggs were subjected to....this is an amazing hatch. The point here is, the temps you have now are not as bad as what I dealt with in the latter part of 2012. There is a chance you will have goslings hatch, either from this clutch they are gathering or from a later one this Spring. You do need to think about what you are going to do with them.

I have a little different question(s) - What will you do with the goslings if they do hatch? are they pets? will you process them? As long as you know what you will do with them, hatch what you want.

I totally agree with Grassman 52. Please don't get caught up in the babies because you can thing. Think about the feed costs now. They are only going up from here. I have 10 geese, Toulouse, Embden and 1 Chinese gander, plus all of the eggs that hatched from Celtic, the Pekins and Mallards from my own birds and the original ducks I had. I am going through a 50lbs. bag every other day. Plus the 5 grain scratch during the coldest months and days, plus the timothy hay and mixed greens I purchase from Hannaford. If we don't get some sun and warmth soon so the grass comes back it's going to be a toss up whether we eat or they do. Here the animals win out everytime. This is our reality in Maine. For most of the year we are going to be feeding purchased grain. No way around that. You need a plan you can and will follow. Most of the processing places here in Maine will not do ducks and geese so you will most likely be doing them yourself. Can you do this? I don't mean to be harsh but this is the way it is. Cripes! I've got one Toulouse who is setting 16 eggs right now. If even 1/2 hatch and survive, that's 8 more mixed geese I have to provide for until slaughter or through the next winter, plus all of the original ones. Ummm....yeah. I am so in love with the geese and ducks but I have had to really think this through and be willing to do what must be done. Too many and I won't be able to afford the feed and that would just be cruel. Their needs have to come before our wants.

 

[Haunted55]

I can easily find homes for them, good quality pet homes to friends and family. I have hatched many mixed flock beautiful baby bantams and ducks here for 2 years and I have found good homes for them all. I will not give my babies away for "freezer camp" and I could care less if they are purebred or not. I have 1 purebred dog and 4 mutts and I love them all the same. My cats are all mixed breeds, I guess I should send them to freezer camp huh? I simply thought it would be fun to hatch out a few goslings here this year and give them away to friends and family. I would point out what my question was but this thread is already destroyed.

Now wait a minute....you got this in before I could respond but let's take it from here shall we? I agree with you that the love we have for our birds are the same no matter what kind of mix they are. Mine are mutts I purchased from Paris Farmer's Union and I wouldn't trade you a single 'pure bred' for one of my mutts. I loves my birds, lol. BUT! There are only so many family and friends who are able and willing to take a goose, or a duck, or a chick. You need to look at this differently in my humble opinion. If you wouldn't be able to raise them yourself, through the winter, with all of the costs associated with that, do not do it. It would be cruel. I too want to see some hatches here. How awesome would that be, right? But I am also aware that I will be totally responsible for these birds, no matter what. I do not sell, give away or anything else. Anything that hatches here stays here.

 

[Buxton Ducks]

Thank you very much Haunted55, you are right. I would like a few more geese here so I think I will make omlets out of the eggs and order some geese this spring. I hate when people have litters of kittens and puppies they don't want but I wasn't associating this with my poultry. Sorry to those I jumped to the conclusion at, I was taking it as an insult about my mixed birds but I think you are all just trying to keep the surplus population of unwanted birds in check. So yes haunted55 lets move forward, I am thinking of added a couple pomeranians and tufted romans. I find goose eggs to be delicious anyway!

 

[RURU]

Even us breeders of pure bred geese have to think about how many we should produce or how many eggs to sell if you sell eggs. At this point I do not sell eggs.
Plus I do not want to produce too many sebastopols to flood the market either. I have desposed of about 39 eggs from the grils laying. I have 5 in one incubator and 11 in another one. I have 2 girls on nests right now. I do not know how many eggs they are on but do know all will not hatch. Anyway I make sure to have people on waiting list for goslings so they will have a home to go to.

I have had eggs that have gotten frozen outside over night in this cold weather so we just dispose of them. I have taken eggs that were very very cold got them to room tempature and the placed them into the incubator. Some were not fertile some where.

About feed costs that is getting higher all the time and it is getting very expensive to raise anything.