Goose eggs in cold climate (incubating)

[Pasha838]

I have a question about incubating goose eggs in winter. In the place where I live - in February-March, frosts still hold (the temperature fluctuates - then +3 C, then - 20 C)
Well, my geese begin to put the eggs in the february. They live (in the winter) in the greenhouse. When the frosts become severe, I take the geese to a small insulated shed; when it gets warmer, they walk in the greenhouse. If the nights are warm (there is little frost outside), I leave them in the greenhouse.

What is my problem - it's cold in the greenhouse. The temperature there is usually above zero Celsius, the drinking water of the geese does not freeze and ice does not float there, but it is cold there. And the geese lay their eggs and leave. It doesn't bother me that they don't hatch them, but I watch them every time so that they don't get cold.
As soon as I see an egg, I immediately grab it and take it to the incubator (I have many small incubators, so I can not put them all at once). Often I miss this moment and the eggs get supercooled before I can pick them up. What is the question - how long can the embryo in the egg withstand cooling? How many hours, minutes, seconds? What temperature is absolutely fatal for him?
Naturally, I try to pick up the eggs warm, I often wait near the geese when they sit on the nest, but I stay with them all the time or I don’t have the opportunity to heat the greenhouse to a pronouncedly warm temperature (the greenhouse is not heated at all, it heats up only due to the sun and the presence of her rotting manure).
The temperature in the greenhouse can drop a lot at night, there may be a slight frost (if it is very cold outside). Accordingly, with cooled eggs, I play the lottery every time - either they have not cooled down much, or they have completely cooled down and there is no point in incubating them and it is easier to eat them.
Does anyone have data on how long an egg can lie in the cold (or even frost) before it loses the opportunity to become a gosling?
Geese willingly sit down to incubate eggs in the summer when they have another egg-laying, but in the winter they just lay them and leave, and I catch time every time. Sometimes I'm lucky and I get some goslings in early spring, sometimes my efforts are useless.

 

[ExoticPetOwner]

A living and developing embryo usually shouldn't be colder for more than 10 minutes out of an incubator. When it's that cold outside, the embryo could easily pass in just a few minutes of not being kept warm. A fridge that is usually kept around 40 degrees F, or 4 degrees C, can kill any chances of someone incubating and hatching the egg because eggs can be in the fridge for a week, usually less, until they're able to not be incubated and develop. That being said, your chances of hatching goslings naturally are very slim, but still possible. An egg can last up to a week until you're not able to hatch it anymore. Make sure you're collecting the eggs as soon as you can every day so they don't freeze. Once you collect them, you can let them sit in a room temperature area, or put them directly into the incubator. To summarize, the eggs won't last long outside, incubated or not. You'll need to collect them as soon as possible and place them in the incubator. I hope everything goes well!

 

[Pasha838]

It's night now, I'll go check again. So far, I'm relatively lucky - I manage to pick up many eggs that are pronouncedly warm (the hand feels). Frankly, I put them in the incubator right away, because I have a lot of small incubators. If the geese hatch at different times, that's not bad for me, I'll just keep them in different places. Goslings are not aggressive towards other goslings, even if they are of slightly different ages.
I live near geese all the time and don't go anywhere, so I have a chance to control them. When the geese sit down to lay their eggs, the rest of the geese begin to make noise. I have already learned to distinguish between their cries when they are noisy just like that and when they are noisy, seeing that the goose is laying eggs.
True, sometimes I go to bed and this is uncomfortable. There is a risk that I will not hear and the egg will cool. And this is disadvantageous in that I do not know how much it has cooled down - whether it can be incubated, or is it better to eat it.
From warm eggs, I try to incubate everything, I need a lot of geese.
Frankly, I need them not so much for meat, but for the production of fertilizers, after the geese walk around my greenhouses in winter, tomatoes and cucumbers grow well there.
For meat, I usually cut only very old poultry.