seem to be having lots of early death with goose egg incubation

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josiegirl

Chirping
Aug 24, 2020
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hi all so i have put about 25 goose eggs in two batches into the incubator. ive had lots of clear eggs and now have 6 out of 13 from the first batch doing very well on day 12 i can see them wiggling arpund. most of the eggs that i took out seemed unfertilized but a couple looked like they mightve eveloped a few days then quit.

the other batch was 12 i believe and are on day 4. most look good a couple are clear and i took them out but in this batch i see 3 that look behind development wise. no blood rings tho.

we do have 1 toulouse gander for 4 geese 2 of which are only a year so i did expect some blanks butdidnt expect so many early quitters. what could cause this? im discouraged, we hoped for 10 goslings out of 25 but now i think wed be lucky yo get a few! temp is 100 im using a basic sort of hovabator i started misting and cooling on day 5 im keeping humidity at 30-40 and turning 5 ti,es per day. maybe i m too rough when turning? did i candle too often? i admit i am excited so candle every couple days.
 
I believe it is Still air I don't see any fan. I did just read yesterday that still sure should be kept at 100.5 and forced air 99.5 I had been assuming for 99 before. I wonder if some were 'scrambled' one of the ones I tossed looked like it had that darkness to a fertilized egg but no activity. When I cracked it I saw nothing but it did seem the yolk was already loose or whatever. Or saw another egg that had the same shadow
 
josiegirl said:
I believe it is Still air I don't see any fan. I did just read yesterday that still sure should be kept at 100.5 and forced air 99.5 I had been assuming for 99 before. I wonder if some were 'scrambled' one of the ones I tossed looked like it had that darkness to a fertilized egg but no activity. When I cracked it I saw nothing but it did seem the yolk was already loose or whatever. Or saw another egg that had the same shadow
Click to expand...
I'm hatching my first goose eggs of the season right now, too - always exciting and nervewracking at the same time! :D

As to possible causes for the quitters: did you happen to set any eggs that were 'old' (more than 10 days from when they were laid)? That can affect the viability of the fertilized eggs.

I'd be surprised if any of the eggs were scrambled because that really takes some rough treatment - like the repeated shaking that can occur during shipping - and eggs are naturally rolled around in a nest. Perhaps it's just the younger geese's reproductive systems needing more time to mature - some people try not to set a layer's first eggs for that reason. You may see more eggs making it to the finish line as the season progresses.

Best of luck with your hatch!!
 
I believe all the eggs were under 10 days. I keep losing eggs!! I've lost two 14-16 day old eggs now.

But I believe I know what the problem is. They were quite dirty some were even covered in yolk( believe it or not our geese started eating chicken eggs) At first when I read threads about cleaning eggs I gathered that you shouldn't wash them so they keep the protective coating.

Then I read an article about hatcheries washing their eggs in hydrogen peroxide. They seemed to think the reason that improved hatch rates is because it removes the cuticle covering the egg. Most home hatchers achieve this by misting and cooling their eggs. Apparently that slowly degrades the cuticle. If it's not removed the gosling ends up with not enough air circulation or too much co2 or something. I will link the article.

So anyway I'm sure I'm not supposed to do this but I washed all the eggs in the incubator with hydrogen peroxide and really scrubbed the scum off. They did have a film on them. I suspect that is why they kept dying. I gathered another 15 eggs that I just don't think my geese will ever set( been waiting) and I washed those with water then sprayed with hydrogen peroxide. I will periodically spray with peroxide as they incubate since they no longer have a protective coating.

It's worth a shot because at this point none would make it to hatch anyway! I will be sure to update.
 
By the end of this spring I'll have set 40 goose eggs lol! Hoping we get at least a couple new goslings.
 
I think the hydrogen peroxide wash is a problem and I have a question.
How many separately purchased thermometers do you have in your bator right now? You probably have hot spots.

Have you really been spraying the eggs with water too? I would not do that again.


One more...is your humidity gauge been salt tested?
 
Yes with goose eggs everything I've read says you will massively improve hatch rates by misting and cooling for around 5-15 minutes per day. There are some very good threads on here about that. But like that article said, hatcheries don't do that they just wash with hydrogen peroxide. That's why they suspect misting and cooling is effective because it degrades the cuticle.

I bought a new thermometer/hygrometer just for the incubator, my kitchen thermometer matches up. I've moved it around to check for hot spots and it seems stable. Been keeping humidity at around 30-34. They seem to be losing weight at the right rate.
 

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