Here we go again - I'm hatching more goslings!!

[erijn5]

That humidity level is too high for incubation, could end in drowned hatchlings

okay, forget that...see what I mean..maybe I should quit before I start...I'm going to kill them and they are not even in there... okay so what humidity do they need to be..thanks

 

[Iain Utah]

I maintain temp between 101-102 and humidity around 45%.

I lay eggs flat on bottom of bator. I do not turn for 1st 24 hours. Then I turn 3 times a day by hand. I did not weigh first set, but I did mark air cell with pencil lines at start, day 7, 14 & 21. This time, I am weighing them as it takes the guess work out of it. By the way, the africans had only lost 13%. The one that passed was african and was the only one that had not internally pipped. The other african had some fluid in egg. The toulouse babies lost 14.5%. They were dry and overall healthier hatchlings.

I usually start misting after day 14 mark.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Humidity should be under 40% and normally closer to 30. After a couple of hatches you figure out your weight loss and adjust to works for your location.

Now with that said, you have never incubated your own eggs to confirm fertility? So you don't know which geese are laying fertile eggs are which aren't?

As with any animal ganders can shoot blanks when mating. They can and will also ignore some geese as well. You really need to confirm high fertility yourself before selling eggs. Having a goose sit and hatch doesn't do this in a group breeding g situation as you dont know who really laid the eggs.

 

[psue]

I'm in north central missouri and my Embden eggs have to stay 40 - 50 % humidity or they lose to much weight even with 5-10 min cooldowns.

The mixed eggs are so far following what the Embden set as a standard for us this year. As this is my first year I weight the eggs before I start then about every 4-5 days after day 7 and adjust humidity if I need to for weight loss.
I was lucky with Squishy... he'd lost 20% and is still doing fine. But Pete sugested that was not the norm.


here is Pete's other link
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/632744/guide-to-humidity-and-weighing-in-incubation#post_8530394

 

[erijn5]

Humidity should be under 40% and normally closer to 30. After a couple of hatches you figure out your weight loss and adjust to works for your location.
Now with that said, you have never incubated your own eggs to confirm fertility? So you don't know which geese are laying fertile eggs are which aren't?
As with any animal ganders can shoot blanks when mating. They can and will also ignore some geese as well. You really need to confirm high fertility yourself before selling eggs. Having a goose sit and hatch doesn't do this in a group breeding g situation as you dont know who really laid the eggs.

I don't incubate them in a bator, when she goes broody on the wooden eggs I put under what I have set back for myself..Out of 14 eggs I set back for myself last yr 13 hatched.. I sold some of the male geese last yr. We do not need 100 geese running around here DH says..

Those eggs were what I didn't sell last yr. Can't let an egg go to waste,, lol

 

[erijn5]

I have put over 20 eggs under Lily our main brooder before and if memory serves correctly I do believe I put 24 under her, I do know that she hatched out 18, and I remember after she got off the nest I candled the others 3 had developed and I believe the others were duds. We have had nothing but good luck hatching these out. We have goslings every yr.

I remember the 18 babies because I would let them all free range with Lily in the yard as long as I was out there...I would sit in my lawn chair with a book and keep watch.


Edit: These were not all her eggs they were all the girls'

 

[Marty1876]

Hey Erin, what can you tell me about the parents of our first eggs, or mine if you remember? How big are they, the egg is much larger than the extra toulouse someone else sent, so I'm thinking yours are giants? How long does it take them to get to full size?

 

[Iain Utah]

Erin, sounds like fertility is pretty good if you are getting those rates under a broody. It will be good to go through a new shipment to protect intact air cells for shipping, as I believe that is probably the missing key to getting high rates with shipped eggs. I'm super happy you want to learn how to improve shipped eggs and have happy hatching customers. I will figure out my hatching calendar (or someone I would trust to be the recipient of the eggs) and set a date to get a new set of eggs.

It would be awesome for you to also figure out how to incubate your eggs, as I understand that may be the easiest way to test fertility rates in the future prior to shipping eggs. One other tip for setting your eggs.... make sure your temp/humidity gauges are accurate. Also, the fluctuation between 35-40% for Celtic vs. 45% for my eggs is that our respective environment's humidity is totally different. That is why weighing the eggs and measuring weight loss is the better method for figuring out what humidity will work best for you.

 

[erijn5]

Hey Erin, what can you tell me about the parents of our first eggs, or mine if you remember? How big are they, the egg is much larger than the extra toulouse someone else sent, so I'm thinking yours are giants? How long does it take them to get to full size?

It takes then a good full yr if not a 1 1/2 yr to fully fill out and get their full wing span. I would say our biggest and oldest male has a good 5-5 1/2 ft wing span on him...he is huge!

 

[Iain Utah]

Marty, I wish you could have weighed her egg. My recent hatchlings' eggs weighed 196, 196 and 219. They are HUGE compared to Celtic's 150s africans. Erin's egg on day 20 (this baby will hatch, so help me) is 197, so I am expecting a big baby!