Is the egg alive?

[imjin03]

Hi! I found this egg in my backyard and I cannot tell if it’s alive. My friend’s brother thinks it’s a goose egg. Anyways, I tried checking to see if it was alive by doing this thing called “candling” and I still can’t tell if it’s alive or not. If it is alive, any tips on taking care of it will be appreciated! Thanks

 

[CindyinSD]

Hi! I found this egg in my backyard and I cannot tell if it’s alive. My friend’s brother thinks it’s a goose egg. Anyways, I tried checking to see if it was alive by doing this thing called “candling” and I still can’t tell if it’s alive or not. If it is alive, any tips on taking care of it will be appreciated! ThanksView attachment 2099372View attachment 2099374View attachment 2099372

Hi, @imjin03

Sorry nobody got back to you! Welcome to BYC! sometimes posts can kind of get buried before anyone who can help sees them. From the size of your egg, it could be a goose egg. Great candling pics. Those can be hard to get. What you're seeing is just the yolk inside the white (or albumin).

The first way to tell whether the egg is fertile is to break it and look for a white "target" on the yolk. It's just a white dot with a white ring around it. That represents the growth of the embryo as it goes through the goose's reproductive tract. Of course if you do this, all the egg is good for is a) telling you that your gander has bred your goose and b) providing you with a great breakfast.

The second way to tell is to put the egg in an incubator. You should see an embryo growing by seven-ten days at the latest. Goose eggs can take a while, but if it's fertile you'll eventually see a red spider-looking thing in the surface of the yolk when you candle the egg.

By now, the egg will likely not be viable, but if it was, it would be from a wild bird and thus be federal/state property, illegal for us normies to incubate. Again, I apologise that you didn't get an answer earlier, but hopefully this alleviates your curiosity.