Goose Incubation & Hatching Guide - Completed!!!!

[Ren2014]

Successfully removed all but one egg- I cracked it while trying to twist it out. Of the ones that were removed, 2 of them had a slight groove where they had settled in the tray. It's the strangest thing. They were received by mail and sat for about a day and a half before they were placed in the tray of the prewarmed incubator. We had room in another bator, so we moved the remaining eggs into it and used a nail file to smooth the edges of the eggs cradle areas of the tray. There was nothing sticky or noticeable on the tray- other than the contents of the egg that I accidentally cracked, as I mentioned above. The eggs are very large, so we think maybe a rough area on them and the sharp area of the tray, but I guess I'll never know for sure. It's just odd, because we've used this tray a few other times, and with XL eggs. Hopefully, after smoothing the edges of the tray, we won't have this come up again.

That is just so weird. Good luck with future batches

 

[Ren2014]

Complete disaster.

I made my first artificial goose incubation following this great post explanation. 8 eggs from my one gooses at home. After 1 week, I removed one infertile egg. At day 14, another egg was stopped and was removed. 6 remained until the hatching time when everything went wrong, and I don't know why, that's the reason of this post...seeking help for the future.
Since I am not an expert on the subject, but work in a lab, I used for incubation an laboratory incubator with temperature and humidity fine control. Based on the post I choose 37.5ºC and 55ºC until day 21 and increase the humidity after that to 70%. (The incubator is closed, with no light).
On the 25-26th day, the first egg showed the first internal pipping (everything seems corresponding to the post description), but then I felt that the baby geese could not breath, and I made a small external pipping to help him breathing. The day after it was dead.
Three others had another problem, the geese where not able to make the internal pipping and died between the 28 and 30th day. Again it seemed a problem of suffocation. Today the last one also died. Yesterday I saw the internal pipping and made the artificial external pipping. Today on the morning it seemed with difficulties to bread, and died also during the afternoon. I opened the eggs but I can not understand what went wrong. Can anyone help me? (The first 3 images were with internal pipping (28 days), the other 4 were without (30 days))

So sorry for your disaster. Did you weigh the eggs or watch the progress of air cell development? As per the article:
HATCHING
This appears to be one of the most controversial topics about incubation and yet although complex can be easily understood. The chick does not randomly hatch - there is nearly always a set sequence and process to follow. Once this is understood then hatching and management of hatching eggs becomes clearer.

By the 24th to 27th day of incubation (depending on breed) the egg should have lost approx. 13% of its weight and the air cell should be of a good size. The air cell should be slightly slanting downwards. At this point the eggs should be candled daily to determine their progress. Within a 24 hour period the air cell appears to suddenly dip downwards and appears to have grown noticeably in size. It often takes up a distinctive dipped shape and becomes easily recognisable...

Did you notice any of the above? The incubator not having light wouldn't have effected the hatching. You didn't mention vents. Did you have any vents on the incubator open?

 

[RubyNala97]

Thanks for your help. The humidity I choose was based in what is on the web, of course I imagine it may change with the accuracy of the equipment. The incubator I used is pretty exact since is for research (but for other purposes rather than egg incubation) therefore I suppose the humidity on the display must be correct. I do not have experience to comment on your explanation of "high humidity". I first was wondering if the problem was due to low humidity that could difficult the breaking of the egg shell (the goose egg is pretty hard...) but you maybe right with the difficult of the baby to move due to is oversize.
I was controlling every day the size of the air cell, but I do not have a size comparison to know if it is big or small...it seemed ok compare to the picture in this post...but....

In respect to the internal pipping, it happen in just two eggs (the other four did not  turn...malpositioned). The external pipping was only made after more than 24 hours of the internal pipping. The size of the hole, was small, no more than 2-3 milliliters. I could see the baby geese beak knocking from inside (before I made the external pipping), but it no success.

 I really don't have any explanation, and until this moment yours is the first possibility.
I have two  other questions....
1) Does the egg need any light during incubation? (My incubator was closed...dark)
2) The hatching should occur inside the incubator or we need to move the eggs to any other place before hatching?

Thanks again for your help, and anybody else.

The reason I think humidity is because from the pictures the air cells looks very small to me. Right before internal pip the air cell should dramatically grow and take up almost 2/3 of the egg or at least half. It doesn't look nearly that big in the pics. You really can't go by a certain number or % because it depends on your relative humidity at your region of the country/world, your humidity in your house (if you're running heat), the actual eggs (thickness/quality of shells, if they are porous), how strong the fan in your incubator is, your elevation, ect. So you were at no fault for following what you read but it's hard to pin point a number till you experiment with it at home. It's really important to buy a seperate hygrometer that you can calibrate yourself and then test it against the one that comes on the incubator. It doesn't have to be a fancy one, I use a cheap dial one that is for reptiles. And calibrating it is easy. If you want directions I can post them. It's hard to know how big they should be when it's your first time. Next time you can trace them or take a pic and post them here on BYC and get some opinions from other hatchers. I'll post a pic of my peafowl egg right before pip so you can see how big the air cell grew after I had traced the third line only two days prior to taking the pic. Just look way below the third line. I think the eggs are fine in the dark. If they were under their mom they would mostly be in the dark anyway. How did you turn the eggs? Were they in an auto turner or did you hand turn them? If so, how many times a day did you turn them. I'm asking because malpositions can be related to turning issues but I also think they are more common with larger fowl. I'd have to check on that. I hope to help you figure it out so you can try again and get some beautiful babies!

So sorry for your disaster.  Did you weigh the eggs or watch the progress of air cell development?  As per the article:
HATCHING

This appears to be one of the most controversial topics about incubation and yet although complex can be easily understood.  The chick does not randomly hatch - there is nearly always a set sequence and process to follow.  Once this is understood then hatching and management of hatching eggs becomes clearer.


By the 24th to 27th day of incubation (depending on breed) the egg should have lost approx. 13% of its weight and the air cell should be of a good size.  The air cell should be slightly slanting downwards.  At this point the eggs should be candled daily to determine their progress.  Within a 24 hour period the air cell appears to suddenly dip downwards and appears to have grown noticeably in size.  It often takes up a distinctive dipped shape and becomes easily recognisable...

Did you notice any of the above?  The incubator not having light wouldn't have effected the hatching.  You didn't mention vents.  Did you have any vents on the incubator open?

Vents! That's a good question!

 

[chicken hawk 33]

Can anyone name the breed.

 

[Carrosaur]

Can anyone name the breed.

White Chinese.

 

[servpolice]

X2 white Chinese

 

[mvboas]

I did not weight the eggs, unfortunately. But the air cell did show the dip-down aspect in all eggs on the 27th. Only three of the incubate eggs had revealed the huge growth of the air cell after 24 hours (for what I understood is related with the re-positioning of the geese). From those two made the internal pipping.

 

[mvboas]

Thanks again.
Yes, the incubator is ventilated.
The malpositioned eggs did not show the huge increase in the air cell as you showed in your picture. The other two did, but for sure less than 50% of the egg space.
I think I will try again with 55% humidity all the incubation time and controlling the weight and the air cell. I will post the photos along the time to have your opinion.

Thanks,

 

[RubyNala97]

Thanks again.
Yes, the incubator is ventilated.
The malpositioned eggs did not show the huge increase in the air cell as you showed in your picture. The other two did, but  for sure less than 50% of the egg space.
I think I will try again with 55% humidity all the incubation time and controlling the weight and the air cell. I will post the photos along the time to have your opinion.

Thanks,

Good, I'm so glad you're going to try again! Don't hesitate to post throughout the incubation. Weighing the eggs is the most accurate way to determine if they are loosing enough moisture. Just make sure you weigh each egg on the day it was laid or collected because they will begin to loose moisture as soon as they are laid and during storage. Good luck!! I hope your next hatch goes great!

 

[gander007]

Interesting week as two of my girls have started to sit on their nest in the last two days

This young lady is only 4 years old but she looks ready to start her own flock

This is Momma and she is 13 years old and not her first nest