HELP! Clueless About Incubating a "Rescued" Goose Egg (PHOTOS)

[jordancurry]

Any advice about incubating goose eggs, as well as what to look for when candling - really just any information you have about this would be GREATLY appreciated. If you have a minute, check out the details and photos below and let me know if I'm doing anything horribly wrong. From what I've read, goose eggs can be stubborn hatchers anyway, and this is probably a hopeless case, but no harm in trying right? Thanks so much!

Here's the story:

My seven year old brother brought home a goose egg he found out in the field near the lake. He said it wasn't in a nest, it was all alone. I assumed it was a dud and the mother goose had pushed it out of the nest. But little bro didn't accept my hypothesis and was intent on trying to save it. I'm clueless about incubating anything, let alone this giant goose egg. The first few nights we just stuck it under a heat lamp. But then I did a little research on google and learned a few things about temp/humidity/turning/candling, etc. I watched a few videos about candling goose eggs and was convinced mine was a dud, but in case it wasn't I kept it under the lamp. But then one night we had a power outage, I was afraid that since we'd already kept the egg under the heat lamp for a few days, leaving it cold overnight would kill it...so I resorted to cuddling the egg to keep it warm...yes, I cuddled the egg. The next day I felt a little bit more attached to this silly egg and decided he needed a more legitimate incubator. Here is my journey so far, in photos:

Day One - what the heck am I supposed to do with this?


Stick it under a heat lamp!


Learn that they need humidity...




Power goes out and I spend the night cuddling the egg

What was I supposed to do? Lol
Next day, started designing a new incubator... 10 gallon aquarium inside of a plastic tote. Started out with the light bulb in the tank, but decided to keep it on top. Had an existing heat pad on the bottom of the aquarium as well as a hygrometer and thermometer (how convenient!). Filled in the space between the tank and the tote with packing peanuts for insulation. Had a glass plate of water in the bottom of the tank on top of the heat pad to add humidity, ended up adding a damp towel on the side as well.




Put foil over the top to try and keep humidity up, with a hole for the heat/air to get in.




Found the perfect distance between the egg and the light bulb in order to get keep a constant temp of around 99F.




Got the temp right, but now the humidity was out of control.




Comparison of the first and second time candling, about two days in between photos - fairly convinced the egg is clear at this point. Decided I'd give it another week before I gave up on it.



Finally got the temp AND the humidity just right, I've been able to keep it consistent ever since.



Comparison between the second and third candling (photo on the right taken last night) - about five days in between photos. The air pocket/sac was about 1/8" larger than last time. A little more research on the google machine taught me that increased air pocket could just be the egg getting old, not necessarily embryo development. The yolk spot thingy seems larger and darker, but not much, and there's still no defined dark spots/shadows or blood vessels. (Some of the photos seem overly saturated on my computer screen, make it look like there's a blood ring in some of the photos, but in person I haven't observed a blood ring) - also cleaned the egg up a bit, so the photos with the clean egg are the most recent.





Like I said above, I'm totally clueless. Google has been helpful, but I still feel like I'm doing everything wrong and seeing development that isn't really there. I'm also afraid that even if it miraculously managed to hatch, it would be crazy deformed and crippled, I just want to do the right thing.

Thank you for taking the time to check out my little project. I appreciate any and all advice!

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

How many days and at what temp has this egg been kept so far? Are you at or over tens days now? By day 10 you should see veins and distinct movement.

At the top of the goose area there is a sticky thread about hatching goose eggs. It will show photos of eggs during the incubation process.

 

[jordancurry]

My brother brought it home 11 and a half days ago. Spent the first several days on a towel in a bowl with a heat lamp above it, it was only a 60watt bulb though (wasn't monitoring the temp at that point, because I was mostly just doing it to keep my brother happy). It has been in the home-made incubator at about 99F/50-60% humidity for six and half days. Didn't see any change until it had been in the home-made incubator for two days.

- Just read the sticky, and I'm still not certain I'm doing anything right. I don't have any of the equipment they listed, but I'm doing the best with what I already had on hand. As for the pictures, again, not certain. To me it looks like the day four fertilized egg, however my egg is almost 12 days old already... so :/ I feel like "incubation" didn't really start until I got it into the home-made bator, which would put it at six days. I can make a comparison photo real quick.

So the photo below shows the example photos from the article compared to the photo of my egg at day two and day six in the incubator. I don't see a red dot or any veining in mine, maybe I need to use a brighter flashlight?...but from reading the article, the sensitivity of these eggs makes it seem implausible that my egg would have survived all of the craziness we've put it through. I'll probably leave it go a while longer, no harm in that I suppose. Although, I've read about infertile eggs exploding when left in the incubator...should I be worried about an explosion?

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

It appears to be getting darker inside with no signs of growth. I would be worried that is not growing and going bad. You really don't want it oozing or worse exploding in the house. It's a smell you won't forget.

I am impressed with the efforts you made to keep it warm, great job! Your little brother is precious for wanting to save it as well.

 

[Kiril749]

Well, it shouldn't look like that after 12 days.......I'm afraid all of your efforts were for nothing. And don't feel bad......if your brother found the egg in the middle of a field then chances are it was a dud. And just for the record.....it's only my opinion, but if he found the egg in a field it's probably a turkey egg. If you said he found it near a pond then I would guess it's a goose egg. But good for you.......the world needs more people that are willing to do all of this for one little orphaned egg.......you're awesome!