Goose egg hatching question

[Poultry Chick]

Hello,

I was given some fertile Buff Goose eggs and decided to incubate them. I couldn’t find a lot of details about them, but I candled them right before locking them down on day 26. I was told they should hatch by day 31. On day 29 I had to move the incubator because it was sitting on a box that was starting to collapse due to water dripping from the incubator and the eggs accidentally rolled in the process, I haven’t seen any movement or haven’t heard any noises since this happened and I’m afraid the rolling killed them. I’m not sure if I should give them a few more days in the incubator or if I should candle them to see if there’s even any sign of life?

 

[Kellyjenny]

If there are no piped eggs I would candle. I just do chick eggs. But that what I would definitely do. Start with just one first.

 

[Sierra G]

If they just rolled a little it should not hurt them. If they rolled because one side of the incubator was suddenly six inches lower than the other side it's a different story. Kind of like the difference between sliding off the seat and sliding off the seat due to a car crash.

I don't don't normally lock down goose eggs until day 28 because they never do anything until day thirty. I usually toss in a couple duck eggs with the geese and start lockdown when the duck eggs pip. Anyway, once they pip it can still be two or three days before they actually do anything. Candling them won't hurt, but hold the egg as level as possible so that if the gosling is moving or has moved into position you don't disturb that. If the gosling is moving and well positioned just put a mark on the shell where you expect him to pip and put the egg in the hatcher with the new mark pointed up.

If he's malpositioned and it's not day 31 he can go back in. Beyond that point you might want to put in a safety hole, but I wouldn't do more until at least day 33 unless there were desperate peeping or some other clear indication of trouble.

 

[Poultry Chick]

I candled one of the eggs, I couldn’t see any movement, the shell was just really full & I could only make out the air sac. There’s definitely been no internal pip. I’m not sure if it’s alive or not? I didn’t candle the other 2.

 

[Poultry Chick]

Oh I’m going on Day 32 as of 8pm tonight.

 

[Poultry Chick]

I just checked all 3, they are all full except the air sac, no internal pips in any of them and I couldn’t see any movement in the filled part of the egg. I don’t know how much room they have to move in the area out the air sac as it was mostly filled. So I’m not sure if that means they are dead or not? I saw egg wiggly before the rolling incident and nothing since. I’m devastated, but not sure if I should keep them in the incubator for a few more days or not?

 

[Sierra G]

Can you give me a better idea of exactly what the rolling incident was? Did the just roll, roll very fast, crash into the incubator wall, or what?

If they're alive they will be producing body heat. When you were candling the egg did it feel warm and did it cool off while you were candling or did it stay warm?

Edit: what was the humidity during incubation and how large would you say the air cell is as a percentage of the egg size?

 

[Poultry Chick]

Can you give me a better idea of exactly what the rolling incident was? Did the just roll, roll very fast, crash into the incubator wall, or what?

If they're alive they will be producing body heat. When you were candling the egg did it feel warm and did it cool off while you were candling or did it stay warm?

I have one of those foam incubator, they basically rolled to one side then rolled back, they didn’t crash, but they definitely rolled a good bit. They still felt warm when I was candling them.

 

[Sierra G]

It's always hard to see much of the eggs this late in development since most of the egg is now gosling and goslings aren't transparent.

There's no harm in giving them more time, until they internally pip they're not breathing so maybe they're still getting all the oxygen they need through the membrane.

I'm suspicious that you leak that caused the collapse may have also kept the humidity too high.

 

[Poultry Chick]

It's always hard to see much of the eggs this late in development since most of the egg is now gosling and goslings aren't transparent.

There's no harm in giving them more time, until they internally pip they're not breathing so maybe they're still getting all the oxygen they need through the membrane.

I'm suspicious that you leak that caused the collapse may have also kept the humidity too high.

Everything I read about goose eggs said they needed a minimum of 70% humidity once on lockdown, most recommending 85%. So I tried to keep the humidity between those 2 numbers. I read probably 7 different articles of people who raise geese saying they need a very high humidity. There’s not a lot of information available on them as there are with chicken eggs. Everything I read, said they are hard to hatch.