Let's have a gosling hatchalong!

[psue]

Hi there - nice to drop in and catch up over the Easter Holidays. Had a lot of health issues with my 2 year old son recently so just had to prioritise family and we're recently back from a long holiday in the USA

Our season's well behind and we've had the coldest March for 50 years. All the plants and wildlife are acting as though its early February. The geese have only just started and we've got 3 laying so far. We set some eggs last weekend and I was pleased to see we had fertile eggs from our best Buff Female paired to our best Split for Buff Gander. He's a yearling so at least he's proven but its early days yet as the eggs are only on day 8.

Hope everyone else is having a more productive season

Here in the US, the weather has been all over the place some folks got an early start and some of us are still waiting for some of the girls to start.

Hope things are better for the little guy

. Our best to you and yours.

 

[Iain Utah]

Sorry to hear of your son's health issues and I hope he is doing better.

While most of my dewlaps started at the beginning of March, I am only setting eggs from my best trio (buff gander to grey girls) and they just started laying in the past two weeks. I set 3 eggs last weekend and all were fertile, but 2 quit. But I have one egg left that is also on day 8! Then I have 2 on day 6 that show promise and I set 4 more yesterday.

 

[pete55]

Thank you both for your good wishes.

Best of luck with those eggs and a good mating to secure more Buff females and split males.

With Yearling Dewlap Ganders its always a bit hit and miss but your's sounds fine with high fertility. We had a number of splits from last year but still waiting for eggs from a Split to Buff pairing though they are at last mating.

We set 4 eggs 8 days ago and 3 are fertile but its very early days and I'll feel a little more confident when they get past Day 14. We set another 4 from the same pair last night so its fingers crossed. Hoping that we'll get some young Buff Ganders this year to choose from

We're also line breeding our Greys using our Holderread line and paired our Champion male to his best daughter. We've had 8 eggs so far but the first 4 were all infertile and got to wait until Thursday to see if the next 4 are fertile. The Gander is 7 years old and filled eggs last year but has only just started mating in the last week.

 

[Iain Utah]

That sounds like an exciting breeding season and I would love to see pics!! How many eggs do you get from your girls? I have two that laid 11 eggs and then went broody a few days ago, which surprised me. I was hoping to get 20 eggs? The girls from my main trio have laid 7 eggs and so far show no signs of being broody.

I am amazed you have a 7year old gander able to mate. Doesn't he slide off the goose with his fat rolls? I sent eggs from my 2 grey pairs that are yearling ganders/2 yo geese to my friend to try to hatch. I told her I'd be surprised if my boys could get the job done, but so far she has one developing and just set 4 more this week.

My main trio (from last summer's rescue) are two years old. The gander is from Allison Grell's lines (thequackhouse), but not sure where the greys originate from. Here they are:




Trying to hatch a buff girl for my favorite buff yearling gander:

 

[Miss Lydia]

Here are all of the babies that hatched. I thought that I had 4 fertile eggs but I only had 3 fertile eggs and all 3 eggs hatched. The other 8 eggs were not fertile. i will move them to the brooder tomorrow.

I have to give credit to the OP for starting this thread and to EVERYONE who contributed to this thread and asked and answered questions for all of us to learn. THIS thread is an active learning thread and I would have NOT been able to hatch these babies if it were not for this thread and everyone who contributed to it. It was because of you all that I know how to hatch goose eggs. So thank EVERYONE on this thread who posted information on "how to". And to everyone who asked questions. It was because of YOUR questions and the answers/responses given that I learned what I have. THANK YOU EVERYONE again.

And here are my very first goose eggs that I hatched in my Brinsea incubator.

I just found this kg they are adorable, Congrats!!!

 

[tia]

I appreciate the help. I've been hatching duck, chick, and turkey eggs for a few years, but this is my first attempt at goose eggs. We are hatching in the classroom and I have an incubator of chicken eggs due to hatch in a couple of days, some duck eggs that are a couple of weeks behind that and then just put four goose eggs in. I put them in up right and then started reading about laying them down. I have the chicken eggs in the R-Com that will roll them, and I was thinking of switching incubators and putting the geese eggs in there today and let the chicken eggs hatch in the other incubator. Musical incubators to make everything work. Lots of helpful information in the article thanks so much.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Thank you Miss Lydia. I am so excited. They are very friendly. They run towards my hand when I put my hand in their brooder. They enjoy being picked up. Not sure how long that will last because when they get bigger and I put them outside with Satan's Army (my other geese), the other geese will give them an attitude adjustment and there goes my sweet darlings. *sigh*

 

[kuntrygirl]

I just wanted to mention that I now understand why people who incubate eggs use "hatchers". When my first goose eggs started piping and rocking, I could have put it in a hatcher instead of keep it in the incubator with the other eggs. As I read posts, I couldn't understand why some people uses hatchers but now I have learned. Now, I have to get one. Thanks again for this tip everyone.

 

[psue]

FIRST SEBBIE EGG was layed today!

 

[Iain Utah]

I just wanted to mention that I now understand why people who incubate eggs use "hatchers". When my first goose eggs started piping and rocking, I could have put it in a hatcher instead of keep it in the incubator with the other eggs. As I read posts, I couldn't understand why some people uses hatchers but now I have learned. Now, I have to get one. Thanks again for this tip everyone.

It definitely makes a difference if you are doing staggered hatches. Also, it is better to have a still air bator for hatching waterfowl as fans tend to dry the membrane out.

FIRST SEBBIE EGG was layed today!

Congrats!!