Let's have a gosling hatchalong!

[flockman]

Maybe I am glad I am not trying to hatch any this year. I have duck eggs in the bator now set to hatch next week end. Hope it goes as well as my chicks.

 

[Irishgirl]

haha!! We share a property with my mil, though who can only half hear me at times...somehow she can hear highway noise and the birds? LOL I would love to have a couple guinea hens. Just for fun. But she gets that look in her eyes if I mention guineas or peacocks/peahens. Maybe one day. She doesn't mind the roosters and geese so I think we're getting somewhere. haha!

I can totally ship you some guineas if you want.

I just set 18 BEAUTIFUL reddish tan guinea eggs. They'll be ready in a month....

 

[Irishgirl]

My hatch is not going so great. It's day 30 and the first two eggs passed trying to internally pip. Eggtopsy reveals malposition in that head tucked into belly. The last egg looked to be starting to struggle, so I jumped in to try to help. Not sure if this one is positioned wrong or just shrinkwrapped, because its beak is in top middle of egg close to where it should be for pipping. I was able to free beak/nares in time. It gave a big gasp as I opened membrane and stretched its beak open wide gulping in air. It's got a bit of veining in it, so has a long way to go until it is safely hatched out, but it is breathing strong.

I don't screw up hatching it out.

I know what you're talking about, I had to help both mine because of humidity problems. I am totally a helicopter hatcher.

 

[flockman]

I have guineas but they got used to them. The funny thing is that sounds are annoying but if they keep it up they will have something else to worry about, smell is alot worse than sound and nothing is worse than the smell of hogs lol ive got the pens already we raised them before. Except i dont want to suffer lol ill stick with the birds for now since i love all types of fowl and poultry to begin with.

My inlaws live right next door. They flipped out when we got chickens. When we started free ranging she fell in love with them. She likes to see them out scratching around. Now she enjoys the ducks too. The geese only from a distance.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

No, I did not candle. I wouldn't know what to do as far as checking to look for internal pipping. I am sooooooooo new at incubating. This is only my 2nd year using an incubator. I hope that I didn't mess up by not doing this. The humidity was at 60%. Do I need to get it higher?

When you candle look at the "fat" end of the air cell. If the gosling is ready to pip internally, their will be a grey shadow actively moving there. After you see that, within 24 hours or so you can usually see the goslings head inside the air cell. I don't usually move an egg to the hatcher till I see the internal pip. However, it is fine to move them once the moving grey shadow happens. If you leave them in like I do, you will have to check them several times a day to make sure you have no external pips in the incubator.

I try to keep humidity in the hatcher around 80% simply because I occasionally open it and the humidity doesn't drop to badly at this level. Somewhere around 70% should be okay if you don't open it.

I had three eggs with movement in the air cell this morning: One had internally pipped. I moved the eggs to the hatcher and less than 30 minutes later had my first external pip. If all goes well, I should have goslings by tomorrow evening or Sunday morning. They will be numbers 6 through 8!

I posted this on my local thread, but the bottom two racks are half full of goose eggs: About 6 of them I just put in, the rest are all developing. The top rack has all the ones due to hatch in the next 10 days and the bottom rack the eggs set since the 18th.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

ive never incubated goose eggs and have a bunch here ready to set... so would like some pointers please....
i have a few questions...

do i need to wash the eggs first? (they are pretty dirty with dried on mud/muck)
People are split on this issue. I have washed eggs and they hatched successfully. You need to wash them under HOT running water. Then I spray them with Oxine or a weak bleach water and quickly dry them.
do they have to lie on their side in the incubator or can i stand them up on one end? (then i could fit more in...) i'm using an octogan 20 eco, and an octogan 20 older model...
Most people recommend laying them down. However, all 6 of the goslings I have hatched so far spent the first 14-21 days standing up in the incubator. You may be able to lay them down as you eliminate the infertile eggs toward the end of incubation.

do they take 28 or 35 days? im finding conflicting 'times', when would i know to stop turning them?
It depends on the breed of goose. Mine typically take 30 days, but I have had them hatch as early as 28 days and as late as 32. I stop turning them when I see the grey shadow that moves in the big end of the air cell on the egg. That is the gosling invading the air cell while getting itself into position to hatch.

do i need to spray them with water???

YES. After the 6th day, begin misting the eggs and allowing them to cool by leaving the incubator open. Start at 5 minutes and work your way up to 15 or even 20 minutes as you approach day 28.
ive also read about 'cooling off' times for goose eggs (15mins per day ?)

See above.

can i put goose eggs in an incubator with Turkey eggs?

I wouldn't in a small tabletop incubator, but then again I have never tried. I have mine together (on different racks) in my cabinet. When you mist the eggs it drastically increases the humidity in the incubator. I don't know that this harms the turkey eggs. However, the incubation temperature for the waterfowl eggs should be around 1/2 degree lower than the one recommended for turkeys and that may not help them. My cabinet has a 1 degree temperature difference from the top to the bottom. The top rack is 100 degrees and the bottom one 99. So, I put chicken and turkey eggs in the top and Goose eggs on the bottom two racks.


thanks in advance

Sorry it took me so long to respond. I have been super busy with hatching, moving birds, planting more in our garden, fertilizing the pastures, and doing stuff for our local A.P.A breeders club. My responses are above in blue.

 

[8GeeseALaying]

My inlaws live right next door.  They flipped out when we got chickens.   When we started
free ranging she fell in love with them. She likes to see them out scratching around. 
Now she enjoys the ducks too.  The geese only from a distance.

Its funny how people over react to animals. Then eat their words. I wish everyone was like that. I think my neighbors are just ignorant control freaks and will never change. The only reason they like guineas is because they heard that they eat ticks, and they like that because they raise pit bulls. They did like my chickens though, only when they were sneaking and roasting 3 or 4 hens at a time. Saw them in their oven and realized when the dog got in their trash that there were feathers in it that went to the chickens that were missing. I thought i had opossums lol

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Its funny how people over react to animals. Then eat their words. I wish everyone was like that. I think my neighbors are just ignorant control freaks and will never change. The only reason they like guineas is because they heard that they eat ticks, and they like that because they raise pit bulls. They did like my chickens though, only when they were sneaking and roasting 3 or 4 hens at a time. Saw them in their oven and realized when the dog got in their trash that there were feathers in it that went to the chickens that were missing. I thought i had opossums lol

Wow....now those are some nervy and scummy neighbors. In my state, chicken thievery may still be a hanging offense and I guarantee I would be buying the rope myself. I sure hope you got that stopped!

 

[budmarvinfarm]

Hello " fowl friends" ...I just finished a hatch-a-long with
the Easter Hatch of chicken eggs....hatched blue EE 's
eggs. I live in Ontario where it was fairly cold as I was
saving my eggs, some may have been too chilled..
.had 23 hatch from original 42...more than I'd expected
under these conditions.
My incubator is clean and I've put the goose/duck racks in
and have started 12 goose eggs as of March 29,2013 ..12 pm...
Are there many members starting at this time ? I saw this thread
but, there was too many posts to read so jumped in now......

 

[Goose and Fig]

Hello " fowl friends" ...I just finished a hatch-a-long with
the Easter Hatch of chicken eggs....hatched blue EE 's
eggs. I live in Ontario where it was fairly cold as I was
saving my eggs, some may have been too chilled..
.had 23 hatch from original 42...more than I'd expected
under these conditions.
My incubator is clean and I've put the goose/duck racks in
and have started 12 goose eggs as of March 29,2013 ..12 pm...
Are there many members starting at this time ? I saw this thread
but, there was too many posts to read so jumped in now......

Welcome! Yes- lots of people starting (or continuing) now. I am going to keep setting as long as I have eggs, starting a new batch every week. Can't get enough baby goose love!