My goose is sitting but her eggs are spread around her.

[cymruargie]

Hello,

My goose laid a batch of 7 and sat on the nest, but not on her eggs, she had them all around her, then she left for like 2 days. I took the eggs and they are incubating now, 4 seem to be ready to hatch. Now she laid another batch of 7 and has been sitting for 3 days but again I see her eggs spread around her instead of she sitting on them.

Any suggestion? She is now 3 years old. First year she sat for nearly 40 days, but nothing. My guess is that they were too young then, both about an year old. The second year she laid the egs in january, and did not sit until late. This year she laid 2 batches as explained above.

Thanks!
JC

 

[chickens really]

Hmmm? Does she have anything under her?

 

[cymruargie]

Not right now. I counted 7 eggs around her.

 

[chickens really]

Not right now. I counted 7 eggs around her.

Tuck them under her..See what happens

 

[cymruargie]

She is very aggressive. How do you try doing that without getting your arm mauled ( lol)?

 

[chickens really]

She is very aggressive. How do you try doing that without getting your arm mauled ( lol)?

Grab her by the neck and push down while you push eggs under her. Where gloves...

 

[Ginmary]

Safely pick up an egg and place it close to her body directly under her beak. See if she will place it under herself. My silkie occasionally has a stray egg but will put it away when I give it to her.

Or: try this: Take a tool of some kind so your hand is not within striking distance and move all the eggs in front of her. See if she puts them away. You may need to remind her why she is there.

 

[Ginmary]

If you try again with her in the future you might consider a smaller nest box to force the eggs to have to go under her. Can you put any kind of sides up to shrink the size of where she is now?

 

[cymruargie]

Ok. This is what I did so far. I grab her neck and put the eggs under her. She remain there. Then I reduced the size of the box. It is an elevated box. I sort of made it like a smaller box inside by putting some wood and added a lot of straw so there wil be not much roomto move them. I put a piece woodlike 2x2 so that the eggs are in a say 1 ft x 1 ft space. I covered the wood with straw. So it is a small box inside the bigger box, and it contains a restricted space so the eggs wont roll from under her.

All things done, now she is outside roaming, So I hope she will come back and sit! LoL

 

[cymruargie]

Ok, she came back and has been sitting ON the eggs since yesterday. She does not have much room, I sort of made some contraptions so she can move a bit inside the nest box, but she cannot move the eggs from under her. So far so good.

What I did was I place a division (The nest box was created for two bird sitting, so there was too much room. After the division I raised the floor of the entrance. To explain that: Goose now enters the nest box via ramp as usual but when entering she is standing on a platform. So to go to the proper nest she has to climb down a bit like 2 inches, as the nest with the eggs is now in a lower level than the rest of the box. I hope I gave the right picture. Thank you all for your help.

JC