Goose incubation question.

[david4216]

My three year old goose began incubating her clutch of thirteen eggs a few days ago, however I noticed that one of the eggs had since broke and had made some of the other eggs dirty, will this affect the hatch rate of the twelve remaining eggs?
Thanks for any answers or advice.

 

[nao57]

There's 2 issues at play. I can identify the variables but not what will happen. Others would be more suited to that.

Variable #1 is the egg cuticle on them. That will help and if possible should be left on.

Variable #2 is the bacteria growth of spoiled egg on them. (It will helped to dry them but not if wiping away the junk disturbs the protective cuticle.)

At this point, maybe someone with more experience can comment. But people have the laying hens dried crap on eggs all the time and it doesn't usually stop things. Of course thats' assuming its dried.

 

[DiYMama540]

I'm not sure how much of a problem it would cause. If you can get mama goose off her nest to clean a lot of it up would be helpful though. I don't think I would use water to clean the eggs, just a firm dry scrubbing to see how much you can clean off.