Need advice on 2 abandoned goose eggs

bernie131

Songster
6 Years
Apr 26, 2016
564
722
221
Kansas City, Kansas
My Canadian geese that I have been feeding for years had 3 goslings today but left 2 eggs in the nest. When I got there Mom decided to walk them down to a pond close by (that has snapping turtles)but she left 2 eggs so I took them and put them in with my duck eggs that I have had for about 25 days,..do I turn up the heat for them or what should I do?
My question is after the egg gets cold does it effect the fact that it won't hatch?
How often do geese have eggs that don't hatch? She had last year that did not hatch,...
what am I missing here?
 
Were the eggs still warm when you grabbed the eggs? If not they're probably dead. Any eggs left in the nest are most likely bad eggs or eggs that didn't make it.

If they were good eggs you would see a pip in the shell or hear it talk. Remember that these eggs were all incubated at the same time so if they were good eggs they would've hatched around the same time.

It's common for geese to just leave the nest as the first hatched goslings start getting hyper and wondering off. They will even leave the nest if a gosling is a late hatcher and not able to walk properly yet :(

Since you want to be sure with candling you should see a beak or atleast movement at the smooth side of the egg (not the pointy end).
 
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Definitely candle the eggs and see if they developed and died, or maybe they were duds to begin with. Or maybe they were recently added to the nest and not ready to hatch. Lots of possibilities, but candling should give you some idea.

And it is definitely possible for them to cool down and still hatch. I had a duck that abandoned her nest after 2 weeks. I wasn't going to hatch them, so I left them for 2 days, hoping she would go back to the nest, but she didn't. I put them in the incubator, and lost a few, but several still hatched! Our temps were near freezing the nights that the eggs were not covered outside.
 
They were luke warm, she just had three of them and when I got there for our daily feed and she followed me down to the water and the little goshlings followed her down there so I went back to check the nest because I knew she had 5 eggs and brought them home but I do not see any movement so do I give up. They are in the incubator with some duck eggs,..
 
I opened the eggs and there were full grown goslings with a small red sack on their bellies,..should I have tried to hatch it after the others hatched or why did they die? One had a air sac and one did not. Could it is because they got a little cold( actually they were luke warm)Could moving them from the nest to home cause something to happen? This is so depressing to see them full grown and dead,...
 
Here's a reminder for all you people that think you're going to be able to save an animal that has been on this world much longer than humans..

In light of the recent emphasis on environmental enforcement matters, individuals and businesses alike should be aware of potential liability under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) for “takes” of birds protected under the treaty—including Canada geese.

The MBTA implements treaties entered into by the United States with Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the Soviet Union. The MBTA makes it illegal to “pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill, possess…transport or cause to be transported, carry or cause to be carried…” migratory birds, nests, or eggs. Regulations promulgated by U.S. Fish and Wildlife define “take” as to actually or attempt to “pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect.” States may promulgate additional and stricter laws or regulations, as long as they are consistent with the MBTA.

Any person who violates the MBTA is guilty of a misdemeanor (although certain knowing violations constitute felonies).
 
I opened the eggs and there were full grown goslings with a small red sack on their bellies,..should I have tried to hatch it after the others hatched or why did they die? One had a air sac and one did not. Could it is because they got a little cold( actually they were luke warm)Could moving them from the nest to home cause something to happen? This is so depressing to see them full grown and dead,...

Very common that goslings die at that age of development. For all we know the mother goose left the nest for an hour with the hatched goslings and came back to sit on the eggs and did that multiple times which caused the babies to die from temperature up and downs.
The eggs also could've been dead for days too as the mother sleeps on the nest with her young for about 6 weeks so the eggs could've been luke warm because she was sleeping on them with the goslings days after they hatched. There are so many possibilities my friend.

Either way once the mother left the nest with the goslings those eggs would've never made it so atleast you did your best :)
 

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