Hatching a goose egg under a bantam hen~RESULTS & UPDATES!

[Sunny Side Up]

Awww, thank you for those kind words of encouragement, Joni! It's always so much fun to share these interesting episodes with my poultry.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I just had another small bantam hen hatch a goose egg! I set her the night of May 25 so today was Day 30. This is a good, experienced buff-colored mixed-breed bantam named Biscuit. In the past she's hatched standard-sized chicks as well as Khaki Campbell ducklings but this is her first gosling. She's taking real good care of it.

I didn't do a thing for Biscuit or her egg besides just keeping her food & water dishes filled. I don't know how much she was turning it during her breaks. She was in a small cage so her breaks probably weren't very long, she didn't have far to go.

There is another hen setting on one egg, due to hatch maybe the 29th or 30th. And the Mama goose herself is setting on 3 eggs due to hatch in about 20 more days.

 

[jojo@rolling acres farm]

Looking forward to futher updates - congrats on the newest goslings. Great News!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

According to the note I wrote on my kitchen calendar I set that other hen with a goose egg the night of May 30. The hen is a Mottled Houdan, a 5-toed feather-crested bird named Moogle. She did a great job of setting, sticking tight on the nest night & day with just a short break each day. I wasn't expecting her egg to hatch until Tues or Wed, but this afternoon I was surprised to look in her pen & see a cute lil' gosling standing at the door, fully dried & fluffy. Awwwww! I said & reached in to pick it up and give it a cuddle. Moogle was just sitting in the nest box. But when I put the gosling back in the pen Moogle lunged out of the nest box & started giving the gosling hard pecks on the back of its little neck! Wheep! Wheep! Wheep!!! it cried pitifully. I immediately lifted it back up and left the door open for Moogle to go out.

I don't know if Moogle had turned into Broody Dearest, or if she was provoked by my presence, or if she just couldn't see well through all those facial feathers. No matter, I will not give her another chance to hurt this gosling. I opened the gate to the pen & she went running out. She's still going around sort of puffed up & bluck-bluck-blucking but I figure her dials will reset themselves to UNbroody soon.

Meanwhile I was wondering just what to do with this brand-new gosling, still sporting its little egg tooth. Though I was willing to brood it myself in a box indoors, I really wasn't looking forward to having yet another set of food & water dishes to fill & clean. Then I looked over at Biscuit, the little bantam hen with her own 4-day-old gosling. I know that sometimes Mama hens are reluctant to accept chicks they didn't hatch themselves. But when I put the new hatchling in the pen it just snuggled up under Biscuit's chest and she didn't seem bothered a bit. The other gosling seemed really interested in its new sibling and excited to see another member of its own species so near.

Dear little Biscuit, she's going to save me a lot of work by adopting this new gosling and raising it with her "own". I'm so glad to see how fertile my goose's eggs are, four out of five I've set under hens have hatched! Now I'm waiting for Gertrude the goose to hatch the three eggs she's setting on. My gander, Elmer, is striding around the yard handing out cigars.

On a sad note, Tarantula, the first bantam hen I tried to have hatch a goose egg, has died. She never went broody again, but just hung out with the laying flock. Then the other day I found her on the ground with her head under a gap in the fence. She hadn't been gnawed upon, I think perhaps she was chasing a bug or something, got her head stuck, and twisted her neck. I buried her under the peach tree, where I put all my dear departed broody hens. I like to think of them helping the crop of fuzzy-faced peaches thrive each season.

 

[texascowboy1979]

Oh My... Id love to see a picture of a chicken with baby geese...

 

[bock]

How cute!

I am sorry you lost your hen.

 

[silkieluv23]

ADORABLE, how is this even possible? I thought goose eggs were huge!
Pics PLEASE!!!

 

[chevel]

Thanks so much for the information on using chickens to hatch goose eggs. I just purchased 4 goose eggs and last night put them under a dorking hen that I thought was broody - however, this evening she was off them. So I immediately put two of them under a banty hen who will sit on anything anytime of the year.
My questions: did you end up having to turn the eggs or have you found that the bantys or other chickens end up turning them on their own.
Thanks for any advice you can give
Chevel

 

[livininbrazil]

Thanks so much for the information on using chickens to hatch goose eggs. I just purchased 4 goose eggs and last night put them under a dorking hen that I thought was broody - however, this evening she was off them. So I immediately put two of them under a banty hen who will sit on anything anytime of the year.
My questions: did you end up having to turn the eggs or have you found that the bantys or other chickens end up turning them on their own.
Thanks for any advice you can give
Chevel

You don´t have to do anything.

 

[aprildyer9678]

Hi, I have a silkie setting on a goose egg right now. I do not know anything about this process and I'm not positive that the egg will even hatch. However if it does hatch and a little gosling arrives what is my next step? how long do you keep the gosling with the hen? will it be okay for the hen to raise the goose? It sounds so silly! I hope someone can help me here. I look forward to any answers. Thanks, April
If a gosling does hatch out I will post pics It has only been 5 days so far.