Taking turns.

[renazee]

I have an issue hopefully someone can help me. I have geese's that are laying many eggs and they are sitting on them however they are taking turns. Every few hours they will rotate. When they out of there night pen they will lay eggs around my property and do the same thing. What is happening.?

 

[casportpony]

Hello and welcome to BYC! @Miss Lydia, @WVduckchick , @Amiga , @Ravynscroft , @Pyxis, do any of you have advice?

 

[rjohns39]

I can't speak to geese, but I keep my ducks in their shelter until about 9:00AM so that they've laid the majority of their eggs. Ducks will pretty much drop them where ever they are, when they decide to lay. @casportpony has called in the big guns so I'm sure you'll get great advice.

 

[WVduckchick]

Are you collecting the eggs daily, or do you want them to sit on them?
They could be "taking turns" just depositing their own egg. If they don't try to stay on the eggs overnight, and they move about during the day, they aren't trying to incubate the eggs. Just healthy egg laying.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Are they abandoning the nests in the night pens and going to others? Or staying on the same nests all day, every day?
If they are, they might be going broody... if not, and they're still laying, it may just be them laying... and they switch around because it is deemed a 'safe' place to lay...

 

[Miss Lydia]

Geese just love to hatch and raise young and they do it all as one big family including the ganders. How many females/Ganders do you have? Do they have a nice comfy area to lay their eggs in that is secure and safe? I'd give them a bit of time in the mornings before letting them out and see if they won't lay inside instead of all over your property.

 

[Pyxis]

It sounds like maybe they're all taking a turn laying in the nest, since you said if you keep them in the night pen they do this in the nest in there, but if you let them out then they start a nest elsewhere and take turns laying their eggs in that nest.

So it sounds like they've got a couple communal nests going. It doesn't sound like any of them are broody yet, because if they were, one or a couple would be on the nest constantly to keep the eggs warm, and the ones sitting on the nest would stop laying eggs.

 

[duncan5]

What kind of geese do you have and how old are they, are you sure they are not two females?