New to geese- Sebastopol Egg Laying

[Lisa-Lu]

Hi all- we have 4 sebastopol geese, what we've been told are 2 pairs of gosling and gander. I have read and studied so much and seen so much conflicting information especially from the farm we got them from. They are about 8-9 months old.
One of them is laying eggs, 1 egg about every 2-3 days. We were told by their breeder that their eggs this season would not be fertile and we should pull them right away. Well that went fine the first week or so, but now she has become exceptionally broody and has me second guessing if she is trying to lay a clutch or just being broody. Can I be sure they are not fertile? Thank you for any help.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You can try cracking them open and see if you see the tell tale bullseye of a fertile egg. They most definitely could be fertile if you have both male and female.

A goose will set on a nest either way, so it's best to find out. If you don't want more geese than continue to pick up eggs so they don't rot, and explode if they aren't fertile.

 

[Pumperkinz]

Hi all- we have 4 sebastopol geese, what we've been told are 2 pairs of gosling and gander. I have read and studied so much and seen so much conflicting information especially from the farm we got them from. They are about 8-9 months old.
One of them is laying eggs, 1 egg about every 2-3 days. We were told by their breeder that their eggs this season would not be fertile and we should pull them right away. Well that went fine the first week or so, but now she has become exceptionally broody and has me second guessing if she is trying to lay a clutch or just being broody. Can I be sure they are not fertile? Thank you for any help.

Since they lay a low amount I personally take all eggs and incubate for a week to see development.

I do not crack them as I've had some early layers have fertile eggs! Sometimes the girls will lay 6/7, and if you don't pull the eggs daily they will become broody and stop laying.

I'd say the breeder you got them from was not being truthful. If they are past 9 months of age there are plenty of first year layers that do great. If you don't have a gander mating her then that's where the fertility issues would come from.

I currently have 5 hens to 2 ganders. Good luck and hopefully it's a good surprise