Goose egg hatching help

[Poultry Chick]

Hello,

I am having trouble getting my goose eggs to hatch, I seem to be able to get them to day 27 and they are still alive, but never hatch? I had 3 eggs at first and none hatch, I had one lone egg and the same thing. I have 2 eggs right now that are about 10 days out from being due. I put them in at the same time, but the one has almost completely filled the egg (I can only see veins) the other is developing but has much more space and ability to see in during candling. I’m a little concerned about how different their development is and also how I can have more success at hatching. These also don’t seem to be losing as much weight as they need to. I am trying to keep the humidity low so the air sac gets larger and they lose enough before hatching. Any help is much appreciated. I have been misting & cooling them as recommended since day 8.

 

[Kellyjenny]

Did you candle them to see if they are alive?

 

[Poultry Chick]

Did you candle them to see if they are alive?

If you are talking about the ones that never hatched, yes, they appear to die either before internal pip and one died after internal pip. The 2 I have left that are still incubating that are developing different are still alive. I just flipped them and the one that has most of the egg is wiggling when I flip it. It’s only day 21 of incubation, I thought it was a little early for wiggling?

 

[casportpony]

@Pyxis, can you offer some advice?

 

[Kellyjenny]

@DucksAreBest can you help

 

[Pyxis]

Can you describe your incubation technique? Such as what temperature and humidity you have the incubator set at, if it's auto-turning, if you've double checked the temp and humidity with calibrated instruments, etc?

Also, are these shipped eggs or your own eggs?

 

[Poultry Chick]

Can you describe your incubation technique? Such as what temperature and humidity you have the incubator set at, if it's auto-turning, if you've double checked the temp and humidity with calibrated instruments, etc?

Also, are these shipped eggs or your own eggs?

I have a Farm Innovations incubator, I’ve had them on auto turn, but a couple of days ago I decided to manually turn these last 2 eggs. I don’t have calibrated instruments. I also cannot set the humidity, it only reads the humidity, but it is adjusted by adding water or removing plug vents. The temperature has been 99.5, the humidity I’ve been trying to keep lower, because they are not losing enough weight. It’s been staying around 30% and is about as low as I can get it. The previous batch I tried I kept the humidity higher, because everything I was reading said they needed higher humidity, in hindsight it was too high and I believe the reason the other prior did not hatch. The most recent egg I had to day 27 lost the correct amount of weight and aircraft sac looked great, but died in shell.

 

[Poultry Chick]

Can you describe your incubation technique? Such as what temperature and humidity you have the incubator set at, if it's auto-turning, if you've double checked the temp and humidity with calibrated instruments, etc?

Also, are these shipped eggs or your own eggs?

The eggs were shipped, I currently don’t have any geese, but not for lack of trying.

 

[Pyxis]

The eggs were shipped, I currently don’t have any geese, but not for lack of trying.

So that is quite possibly part of the issue. Shipped eggs can be damaged during shipping and the embryo can develop incorrectly, so even if you did everything else right, it might just not make it.

I would try getting some calibrated thermometers and hygrometers and double checking that the temperature and humidity are actually what you think they are, though, just in case.

You can calibrate your thermometers with this method:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...incubator-thermometers-and-hygrometers.73634/

Hygrometers are calibrated like this:

Also, does this incubator have a fan, or is it still air?

 

[Poultry Chick]

So that is quite possibly part of the issue. Shipped eggs can be damaged during shipping and the embryo can develop incorrectly, so even if you did everything else right, it might just not make it.

I would try getting some calibrated thermometers and hygrometers and double checking that the temperature and humidity are actually what you think they are, though, just in case.

You can calibrate your thermometers with this method:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...incubator-thermometers-and-hygrometers.73634/

Hygrometers are calibrated like this:

Also, does this incubator have a fan, or is it still air?

It has a fan. Unfortunately, I think it will be too late to do that with this batch. Hopefully I can get these to hatch this time around.