Goose nest smelling off

[Goose Smith]

I normally incubate goose eggs, but this year I wanted to see if one of my geese would do it all on her own. She’s an American Buff but I believe the eggs are a combination of her eggs and some from an Embden. There’s around 30 eggs under her. I went to check on things and got a feint whiff of rotten egg smell when I did.

I debated taking her off the nest and checking the eggs individually to remove spoiled eggs. I’m concerned that they will make a huge mess if I leave them. Will she kick out the bad ones on her own or should there be intervention?

 

[Goosebaby]

Definitely some rotten ones! Remove her from the nest and candle them “or sniff them” carefully to determine which are bad eggs and remove them. Rotten eggs can actually explode and launch diseased goo all over the place.

 

[telandra2]

It could also be broken egg mess rotting. Even if she does kick them out you should still candle to double check. (Plus it's interesting/fun. ) I was afraid to approach my goose but when I finally did there were 0 issues with reaching under or picking her up. Next year another goose was hissy but would flee. On the other hand I have a terror of an over protective duck. Give it a try and see how she reacts.

 

[Goose Smith]

Thank you for both nudging me the right direction! Just got back in from checking the nest. She had 27 eggs under there. One had been squashed and saturated a portion of the hay which resulted in the rotten stench. I removed the eggs that had yolk on them and cleaned them off with a warm rag. I did smell test the remaining 26 eggs and candled them, but she’s only been on the nest 4-5 days so I didn’t see anything. I’ll check again in 5 days or so and candle again see how many are fertile. I gave her a new fresh bed of hay and returned her eggs… she was quite displeased with me, but I think she’ll come to forgive my trespass. She’s in there rearranging them now, hopefully she doesn’t break anymore :/