Oh NO! my goose eggs aren't fertile!

[crj]

I am so sad. I candled a bunch of my Super African goose eggs and they aren't fertile. I've been hoping to hatch these eggs. She has been laying eggs since Christmas. To me that seems like an awful long time to be laying eggs for a goose. I have a Sebbie setting on some and I had put a bunch of the African under her. I candled 2 of them and they were duds just like the ones I had in the incubator.

I'm not sure if she has been mating with the male Sebbie lately. I brought home an injured Sebbie that Fred (male Sebbie) has been taking care of. Even still, these eggs should have been fertile since they were mating before Ethel came (Ethel, injured goose). I'm hoping this isn't for life. They are all under a year old and I'm hoping that is the case. The Sebbies will be a year old on April 1st but the African and American Buff will be a year June 20th. Those were the hatch days.

Have you had a goose with non fertile eggs? Disappointing to say the least.

 

[Kevin565]

So sorry to hear about your dilemma!

. I've personally never had a case of this but hopefully someone else will chime in

 

[flaming007]

Can they get to water that they can swim in? I keep kid pools in my african pens to help with fertility

 

[zazouse]

How old are your geese?
Never heard of a super African goose before, are they something new?

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Super Africans are a label Metzers uses when selling the larger strain of Africans. Personally it sounds like too many options and changes for a successful season if you know for sure you have a gander. Now I wonder why you would want to cross those breeds?

 

[crj]

A friend of mine gave me a pair of Sebastopols when they hatched April 1st. The gander was left behind when coming out of his shell. My friend found him and right away put him under a light. She asked if I wanted him and hopefully he would come around. I found a female to keep him company. The female may have been a day or even a few hours older. Needless to say they did fine.

Then in July an ad was on CL for an American Buff and a Super African goose. A guy got them and he was having a problem keeping them. Yes, they came from Metzer's and he gave me the receipt as well. It just so happened that they were females. So, with 1 male and 3 females what is a guy to do? Yes, he mate with all of them except for lately.

A few weeks ago a female Sebastopol my friend had got injured. I took her to get her back in shape just to find out that she may have brain damage from either being hit by a car or falling on a rock or something. The gander has been taking good care of her since I put her with the other geese. I don't think he has been mating with anyone since they really haven't been in the pools. Although, I don't know about night time because they've been known to be in the pool at night.

I"m just shocked that the African has been laying eggs since Christmas and hasn't gone broody at all. She seems annoyed about laying eggs lately. Maybe she knows they are not fertile. I've seen the gander mate with the American Buff on the ground. Go figure. I wonder when the African will stop laying eggs.

 

[littledear]

My brown Chinese has been laying since December as well and is still laying. I am guessing around the end of May or the first part of June she will stop laying if she doesn't go broody.

 

[zazouse]

It could be the male is just a bit young still, are any of the other eggs fertile?
Sometimes a young male that is fertile can only handle a couple geese at least thats what i noticed with mine, most here only mate with one goose but i have 25 free ranging together.

 

[crj]

It could be the male is just a bit young still, are any of the other eggs fertile?
Sometimes a young male that is fertile can only handle a couple geese at least thats what i noticed with mine, most here only mate with one goose but i have 25 free ranging together.

The eggs that aren't fertile is the main goose he mates with which is the African. I should say was. Lately he has been mating with the American Buff. I don't know if her eggs are fertile since she just started laying recently. My Sebbie which I know he mated with is sitting on eggs.She only laid a few and I put some of my Africans in there. I did grab a few and candled them. It seems that 2 out of the 3 were duds. I'm hoping that third one will take. I've been wanting to look at more eggs but when I get around to it it's late and I'm too tired.

I just took out 4 more duds from the incubator. I'm so disappointed. I put some of the other eggs in there so we will see what happens. Hopefully the Sebbie that is setting will have better luck then me at this point.

My sebbie pair will be 1 yrs old tomorrow. Yep, April fools babies. Easy to remember.

 

[zazouse]

If 1 out of 3 eggs were fertile i say your boy is just a bit young, not his fault .