New geese only laid 2 eggs each then stopped

[Popcorn Mcgee]

The spring of 2022 we purchased two female baby geese for our 3 year old male goose. They were introduced last summer and they have become great companions. About a month ago we found their first eggs. We found four. I don't know if they're all 4 from one goose, or if the two started to lay around the same time. They then just stopped laying... Completely stopped. I can't find anything about if they only lay a couple their first year so I don't know what's going on. They are American buff females. They are basically free range, (within a paddock), with some chickens and ducks our male goose protects from hawks. We've not had any predators since last year so I don't think it's anything to do with fear. Also, I know they can bury their eggs in loose bedding and there is nothing in our coop or paddock. What is going on?

 

[Goosebaby]

They’re either laying somewhere you haven’t discovered, something’s stollen the eggs, the geese ate them themselves (what are you feeding them? Do they have oystershell?) or they just stopped but might resume laying again sometime this season.

 

[Popcorn Mcgee]

I've been feeding scratch grains and layer pellets from tsc. I don't think they need oyster shells because none of our other birds are having problems, and when we ate the 4 eggs the geese layed the shells were VERY thick.

 

[Goosebaby]

It could be a nutritional issue, layer feeds are usually pretty low in protein and formulated for chickens and so they don’t have enough B vitamins for waterfowl. I would suggest getting them some sort of all flock or flock raiser type feed.

 

[Goosebaby]

Also I would suggest cutting back on the scratch grains, the corn in it doesn’t have a lot of nutritional value but also requires a lot of energy to digest, so they’ll want to fill up on it because it’s sugary, but by doing so they deprive themselves of more nutritious food while expending energy on just digesting it. Scratch is fine as a treat though.

 

[Dinosaur Village Keeper]

Mine bury them really deep and even way off to the sides of a nest! I have found them about 8-10 inches down and not even where it looks like there was a nest. I have found them after my husband has searched everywhere, and assured me there are none. It’s adorable watching the geese take the time to carefully bury them each morning before going out to free range. NOT adorable to see the huge mess the chickens make of it later in the day.