Just call me MotherGoose :D!! Day 1 Photos

[cockadoodlemom]

Just got home saw a pip in one of our first ever incubating chicks and then I hurry over here to read about these babies. Like greyfields said your gut feeling is telling you something and dang I wish I could be in two places at once! Come on goose gooses' I really want to see you!

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I've never hatched but, if they seem to be getting weaker with their peeps I would at least see about piping the egg and go from there.

Good luck!

Come on out little peepers!

 

[greyfields]

I guess I have a lot more experience 'assisting' now. It can't hurt to flake the shell away. The problems get started when you start peeling on the membrane. If there is any blood (bright red) stop immediately. Sometimes there is gunky pink dry blook which is OK. Basically you don't want the bird to bleed to death from the help.

What probably disappoints me most about geese is the hatching %. I'm getting about 6/10, with a lot of assists still. After the last clutch, I broke every shell open. Every single one contained a fully formed embryo which just didn't hatch. So, I guess I'm a little warmer to assisting now, since it's probably some nuianced mistake I'm making in my procedures. In that case it's squarely my fault, not weak embryos.

 

[Leslie In North Pole]

If I knew they were internally pipped and didn't have an external pip, I would make sure I misted them well. Once you pip that outer shell for them, the membrane quickly dries out as you release the humidity trapped inside. I think this is why humidity jumps in your bator when several eggs externally pip at once. With my eggs, I went as far as to wrap the eggs in warm wet paper towels. I think it get their membrane flexible enough they didn't get trapped. Tap on their eggs, peep to them, give them encouragement, they will come out.

 

[MissPrissy]

I have read over and over again that geese are the hardest to hatch. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I do know what I am doing right. They are living and developing normally. It is just they aren't hatching spot on. I have read some places that they take 28 - 35 days but I think someone confused them with ducks - muscovy taking 35 days. Several more academic pamplets list the geese at 28 - 30 days for a normal hatch. So, by that my hatch is 2 days late. The eggs were clean with no outward flaws. Temps have held at 100.3 consistantly. No problems there at all. I have had them in a turner and it has been working perfectly. I have kept the humidity at about 59%. I have spritzed and cooled down daily. I stopped turning and boosted the humidity to 85% (it is 89% now).

When I pipped the shell I couldn't see anything. I could feel the chick moving. I broke back a little more. I could see the beak through the inner membrane but the outer membrane was rubbery. I chipped away more shell and carefully broke into that first membrane. You can see that the membrane is white. In some places it still has a little blood veins. I dribbled warm water on the inner membrane and wrapped it in a clean sock soaked in warm water. I placed it back in the bator.

I'll see about gosling #2 when my hands stop shaking.


The next time I hatch geese I am dipping the eggs. No spritzing.

 

[greyfields]

He's ready to be out of there. I would go as far as to chip the egg further then uncurl his head from under the wing. Don't pull him out, but make it very easy for him so "slide" himself out. Then, even if he's still slightly attached, the umbilical will start drying out and break off.

 

[Leslie In North Pole]

MP,

Hatching on geese eggs usually takes 28-32 days. Usually, only Pilgrim geese hatch at 28 days, that might be due to them being a smaller breed. It is usual for waterfowl in general to take two days to hatch after they internally pip. I think your birds are doing fine. To be honest, over mothering hatching eggs is a flaw many of us have, not realizing that we are doing more harm than good and creating problems that weren't there to beginning with.

Part of why I do the wet paper towel thing is, if you have ever put your hand under a good broody and made contact with her skin, there is a humidity that you can feel radiate with the warm of her skin that she transfers to the eggs and it always made me think that I rarely see the eggs under them dry out like they do even in a moist bator.

 

[greyfields]

I think the act of opening/closing the incubator door is probably what causes most people's problems. With that said, I'm do it too often myself. It's hard not too.

 

[DuckyBoys]

Hmmm...if geese are so hard to hatch then I should definately look into letting mama goose do her own incubating when I start this...I've just heard that geese are not as tame when they are raised by their mothers compared to hatching them yourself. I am totally new at this and my first intention was to buy hatching eggs...that was until I came on here and saw how much of an exact science it really is. I cancelled those eggs and ordered hatchlings!

How hard would it be to take newly hatched goslings away from their mother and father and raise them tame????? Could lose a finger.

Anyway, I hope your little guys are OK MP.

 

[TheOLDNewChick]

My fingers are crossed over here Miss. I really hope everything goes well. I lost a chick about two weeks ago because I know I didn't intervene soon enough, so go with that gut. Take deep breaths and start pipping the other one if there's no progress soon.