Sebastopol Baby Pics Page 6!

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Coming into Day 29. One egg has been rocking and occasionally chirping since around 11 am yesterday but has not pipped externally. So that's about 17-1/2 hours. Should I be worried? How long does it generally take from internal to external pip for goose eggs?

 

[Sean S.]

My experience is only from this years hatches, but it seems like forever in all the final stages! The first few I was in your shoes worried to death! I followed Pete's instructions and used a small drill to make an air hole, but I don't know if it was nesscessary. I think it was my fourth one that flew through the process, kind of gave me some confidence that the little buggers know what they are doing! Made it easier for me to stand back and let it slowly happen on it's own! You can listen to the egg on the air cell end for a clicking sound to verify that it's still breathing. I'd give it a few more hours, hopefully someone with more experience will post. Good luck, hopefully a little gosling will be out soon!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Thank you for your response. I remember your post about drilling air holes, as Pete's instructions indicate. I'm sleeping in the room with the incubator and listening to the peeps from that egg. Makes me want to just crack it open and help the poor baby out. Maybe I will do the drill hole in a couple hours when it's finally daylight. My fear is that the gosling will run out of oxygen in the air cell before it externally pips. I had that happen once with a chicken egg when I was a novice hatcher.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

ACK! i decided to drill a hole in that one egg that was rocking and rolling, thinking it was the one that was peeping. It wasn't. There was another egg that had pipped on the underside of the egg where i couldn't see it. It was shrink-wrapped in the membrane. i took scissors and carefully broke through the membrane so it could breath, and dampened the membrane and upped the humidity in the incubator.

Here is a picture. i picked a little piece of shell off, and you can see the beak in the slit on the top part of the break. i am assuming now that it has been pipped since about 11am yesterday, so like 19 hours. Wondering if i'm going to need to help it all the way out. Pic below:

 

[littledear]

I would wait and see how it does for a while at least. If you can candle the egg you might be able to see the yoke sac at the bottom, pointy end of the egg. Pete indicates that if the yoke sac is still there it shows up as a dark spot and if it hasn't absorbed yet then the baby isn't ready to come all the way out of it's egg shell. I only have two of my Sebbie eggs out of the six I got that are developing. Best of luck!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Well, i got some festery sleep, having weird dreams of hatching out dolls and frogs. Woke up half an hour ago and the gosling has not made any progress. Still chirping and moving its beak, though. i tried to candle to see if i could see the yolk sac, and i can't. i could see that the baby hadn't pipped into the air cell part. i made sure to position it with the largest part of the air cell up, like Pete said. Anyhow, chipped a bit of the shell and outer membrane. Looks like there is still that inner membrane with active blood vessels, so i stopped, put a damp paper towel around it, and put it back into the incubator. i feel like a total novice here. Any advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated. Here is the latest picture:

 

[Sean S.]

By looking at what is in your picture I think it is a bit early. The air cell end of the membrane still looks to have active vessels in it. Pete's hatching guide shows covering the end of the egg with another shell and taping it so it stays moist and the gosling doesn't get stuck. Again I haven't got a lot of experience myself so I hope that someone else posts to help out! Good luck, I know how nerve racking it is when you don't know what to do.

P.S. After you see the vessels fade in the air cell end. I used a warm wet q-tip to ease the membrane back trying to stretch the membrane more than tearing it. Work for a minute or two then put the egg back in the incubator for an hour so you don't chill the gosling. Pete describes this method in his guides.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Thank you! Just in the past hour, the blood has receded a bit. The gosling seems active and doing fine, so i am going to take it slow. i do remember the part in Pete's instructions about putting another sterilized shell over the end. i have also been advised here that goslings take longer to hatch than chickens. So, i'm going to try to cool my jets here. i so appreciate the advise and input. These are stressful times.

 

[littledear]

It is so hard to wait when you want the little gosling to be okay. Keep him moist and try to wait it out. As long as he is active try to just wait.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

First baby is out and dry. Thank you to whomever posted the idea of putting a mirror in with a single chick. She is spending most of her time right in front of it. My husband has named her Ariel. Here she is. Sorry the picture is not so great.



Second chick is now out and drying in the incubator. Interesting, this one has a dark beak, and is very dark overall. The woman i bought the eggs from does have grey and blue geese, so wondering if i got lucky. Here she is:



Three out of the four eggs left have pipped. My husband picked a piece of shell off one and i can see the chick moving inside. Hoping that doesn't dry things out too much inside that egg. Other two eggs are moving and i can see them breaking more of their shell. i'll post more pics when we have more babies.