pilgrims

[shelleyd2008]

Start candling the eggs daily to see if they have internally pipped. You don't want to turn the eggs after they have pipped into the air cell. Once they pip externally (shell pip) increase the humidity to 65% or so. I usually just put a wet wash cloth in the incubator then (folded in 4ths), it brings the humidity up to about the right level. If any seem to have trouble getting out of the shell I wrap them in the wash cloth.

 

[blefky]

Thanks for the advice guys, I really appreciate it.

If you think of any other gems feel free to pass them along - I love hearing about everyone's methods. I'm really looking forward to this hatch - hope I end up with some babies. It doesn't seem all that different than hatching chicken eggs, except for the daily cooling and misting, but I keep reading that geese are difficult to hatch. Why is that? What do you think increases the difficulty level with geese?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Geese are not difficult to hatch, I think the problems come when people keep the incubation humidity too high. This doesn't allow enough moisture to escape the egg so the gosling ends up being too big to turn in the egg. I've been keeping mine around 45-55% for the most part, lower if there's not any others hatching. It seems to be working. Last year I kept it around 70% and I had 3 goslings hatch out of over 30 eggs set...only 1 of the 3 lived.

 

[bookerdog]

Quote:
Also don't feel bad if you only get a 50 percent hatch rate with shipped eggs.

 

[BooBear]

I am curious as I never hatched goose eggs either.
Should the temperature be the same as hatching chicks?
Is it ok to use auto turner? (I have a Brinsea with auto turner that turns whole bator from one side to the other)
Is it 30 or 31 days to hatch?

 

[hippiehen]

I got my eggs today!!! Totally surprised! All four look great

I will set mine when I get off work after lunch tomorrow if I use the incubator or tomorrow night if I use the hen, I still can't make up my mind. My husband doesn't want to trust them to the hen but I'm pretty sure she knows what to do better than me!

And everyone keep these tips and hints comin' I want to hatch some bebbies!

 

[blefky]

All right Hippiehen! I've got my hatch buddy! Has your broody had successful hatches before? Can't wait to get started!

 

[bookerdog]

Pilgrims

 

[Balbinka]

Quote:

 

[blefky]

Awww, those are so cute!!

I really hope I end up with at least a couple. I was reading up last night (for the 100th time) and again I notice in Holderread's The Book of Geese, he says that artificially incubated goose eggs have the lowest hatchability of all poultry eggs. And mine are shipped eggs.

I guess I'll just do my best with them and keep my expectations to a minimum. Sigh. Bookerdog, maybe you can blow some of your goose hatching vibes in this direction!