How long after the Gander dies can the Goose eggs be fertile?

[MrsCountryChick]

My Gander died last year just after breeding season was over. My Goose never laid another egg after he died. They were definitely mating thru mating season, she laid very few eggs that season, sat on a clutch of a few, but as a first time mother she wasn't the best sadly... either due to fertility or her skills at hatching none developed. I'm asking this question due to the fact my Sebastopol Goose laid her first egg today & naturally since the Gander died I took the egg. In disposing of it I cracked it open to look at it & to my Surprise it was fertile...with the bullseye. Is this common? If so how many of her eggs this season "could" be fertile?
Any Info would be Greatly Appreciated! Thanks in Advance

 

[pete55]

Hi. I have known fertility from a mating to last 12 days with geese but then it rapidly falls away. I doubt your egg was fertile as you said you lost your gander last year. I think the spot you saw on the yolk was the actual ovum and not the signs of an early embryo (a bullseye). Assessing fertility this way is unreliable in my opinion.

Pete

 

[MrsCountryChick]

Thanks for your reply. I didn't really think it could be fertile but I've read so many places the estimation on how long fertility lasts is usually so many days or so many eggs laid past the female mating with the male. I've had chicken eggs look the same way when testing eggs...and always had peeps from the ones I incubated. Heck I may throw one in for the fun of it, with the incubator going anyway it's not like I'm wasting the time for "just" that egg, lol. This egg and the eggs I've previously found to be fertile looked like this egg on the right.

http://www.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/_images/Fertile_vs_Infertile_egg.png

 

[pete55]

Well it would be quite an experiment and I'd be interested in your result.

 

[sourland]

I tend to agree with Pete. Chicken eggs will retain some fertility up until a month after a rooster is removed. Longer than that is a stretch. The nucleus of a non fertilized egg will appear as a white spot which may be confused with the bullseye appearance of a fertile egg.

 

[justbugged]

I tend to agree with Pete. Chicken eggs will retain some fertility up until a month after a rooster is removed. Longer than that is a stretch. The nucleus of a non fertilized egg will appear as a white spot which may be confused with the bullseye appearance of a fertile egg.

This means I need to put some more of the eggs in the bator.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Your gander died last year and you think eggs are still fertile a year later? I must be misreading your question.