GOOSE BREEDING THREAD - for breeding, incubating, hatching and rearing.

[horsekeeper]

I have a serious problem on my hands.

Recently one of my scovy girls has decided to set up nest in my main breeding dewlaps' yard and has been causing upset with the girls. Now, my top dewlap goose has laid 2 soft shelled eggs in a row. The first egg (Sunday morning) was in her nest and this morning's egg was a few feet away from entrance. In the nest's place is a scovy egg.

This morning I spoke at great length with Gary Overton about my dewlap girl. After ruling out calcium deficiency or other possible causes, he concluded the scovy is stressing my dewlap and I need to get rid of the scovy right away. I don't know if I should clip her wings and keep her in a fenced pen until my dewlaps are done laying or just sell her.

My experience with muscovies is that they are fanatically broody and can be moved nest and all and still continue to sit.

An acquaintance of mine bought a broody on a whole clutch of eggs and moved everything into a dog crate, drove for quite a distance and stuck the crate in her duck pen, and momma sat tight and hatched her eggs.

I had my first hen get serious yesterday (bit me, too). I pick her off the nest twice a day to remove the chicken eggs, so now she is covering the nest with straw and fluff

 

[Jharper]

We think my canadian flew back with a mate today!!!

 

[horsekeeper]

I need a bit of advice on my goose/duck egg set. I candled tonight and all the eggs are showing movement with two weeks left to go

I am a bit concerned that the air cell is not very big. Once a day I take the top off the incubator and let the eggs cool for 15 minutes, then I use a sponge to moisten the tops and leave the damp sponge in the incubator. The humidity is at about 50% and falls to 30-40 by the next day. Should I leave them at 30% for a few days to enlarge the air cell? This is my first try at hatching waterfowl and I don't know how they should look, but I worry that they will get too big to hatch. If these were chicken eggs I would want the air cell to be bigger at this point. I hatch those with humidity at 35% and let them dry down to 20% before bringing them back up.

Thanks for any thoughts you might have on this.

 

[RURU]

Your humidity is too high for right now leave that sponge out. You do not bring up the humidity until the eggs have externally piped. Then you really bring up the humidity on goose eggs. Leave them cool daily for 20 minutes until lock down 27th day and wait until external piped to start the humidity high then put you sponges in...

 

[horsekeeper]

Thanks, RURU. It sounds like I should be treating them pretty much like chicken eggs. I didn't like the way the humidity swung from nothing to 70% using the water reservoir, so I put a little piece of kitchen sponge in (dry) and added water to it one teaspoon at a time. So easy to regulate that way; if the humidity shot up too much I could just take the sponge out.

What should the humidity be until lock down? I have hot air heat and my house can get pretty dry.

 

[psue]

I have a serious problem on my hands.

Recently one of my scovy girls has decided to set up nest in my main breeding dewlaps' yard and has been causing upset with the girls. Now, my top dewlap goose has laid 2 soft shelled eggs in a row. The first egg (Sunday morning) was in her nest and this morning's egg was a few feet away from entrance. In the nest's place is a scovy egg.

This morning I spoke at great length with Gary Overton about my dewlap girl. After ruling out calcium deficiency or other possible causes, he concluded the scovy is stressing my dewlap and I need to get rid of the scovy right away. I don't know if I should clip her wings and keep her in a fenced pen until my dewlaps are done laying or just sell her.

I would clip wings... I keep my girls clipped ... if I don't they are over my 4ft fence in no time. Napoleon is having that problem and now she's went for 5 days without an egg. I'm watching her and she's in with Jean Luc and Marie... she appears happier with them.

My husband has agreed to catch his scovy girls, clip wings, and keep them confined in secure location until my dewlaps are done laying.

my dewlap girl will lay a normal egg on Thursday.

You have such a wonderful hubby!

Hiya guys. Well im on day 31 and only one appears to be trying to internally pip.
It has been at it since yesturday.
There are also one or two that still have vein evident but no real progress.
Im loathed to give up on them yet.
What do you think? They are pretty large eggs and my other concern is that they have not lost 13% weight.

as long as there is veins there is hope

Thanks, RURU. It sounds like I should be treating them pretty much like chicken eggs. I didn't like the way the humidity swung from nothing to 70% using the water reservoir, so I put a little piece of kitchen sponge in (dry) and added water to it one teaspoon at a time. So easy to regulate that way; if the humidity shot up too much I could just take the sponge out.

What should the humidity be until lock down? I have hot air heat and my house can get pretty dry.

mine runs about 30% That's without any added moisture.

 

[mystil]

Day 32. Im up early to have a look at my eggs. One has internally pipped!

I dont think he has been pipped for long. He still has massive veins inside.
Now its just a waiting game. I will keep an eye on him.

The book says dont change the humidity until he externally pips. Is that right?

 

[RURU]

Thanks, RURU. It sounds like I should be treating them pretty much like chicken eggs. I didn't like the way the humidity swung from nothing to 70% using the water reservoir, so I put a little piece of kitchen sponge in (dry) and added water to it one teaspoon at a time. So easy to regulate that way; if the humidity shot up too much I could just take the sponge out.

What should the humidity be until lock down? I have hot air heat and my house can get pretty dry.

incubate dry through the first 27 days then when lockdown and external pip I shoot it up to 70 to 75 degrees or even higher with sponges.

 

[Iain Utah]

I would clip wings... I keep my girls clipped ... if I don't they are over my 4ft fence in no time. Napoleon is having that problem and now she's went for 5 days without an egg. I'm watching her and she's in with Jean Luc and Marie... she appears happier with them.


You have such a wonderful hubby!

as long as there is veins there is hope

mine runs about 30% That's without any added moisture.

It is not too uncommon to get a few soft shells when tapering off laying, even in middle of season when taking a break. I probably wouldn't worry too much about Napolean although I totally understand if you are. My girl is not taking a break as she is still eager to breed with my gander and becoming very protective of nest, so it does not appear that she is getting ready to take a break. The menacing blue scovy has returned to the dewlaps' yard this morning. Hope it won't be too difficult to catch her today.

 

[Iain Utah]

Here's the darling girl aka "Menace":