Thin shelled egg. Questions for you experts!

[thasista]

I just purchased a trio of Sebastopols from a lady near here. They are beautiful and I am thrilled. On the way from her house to mine (2 hour drive), one of them layed an egg. About 2 hours after arrival, I had them penned in my 8 ft x 8 ft goose brooder prior to taking them out to the rest of the animals and another egg was layed. The first egg was perfect. The second egg had a very thin shell.

My question, can stress from moving from one farm to another cause a goose to lay an "early" egg. Or, might this be one of her first eggs? They are now with the rest of the animals, have shelter, food, grit and oyster shell and seem to be settling in nicely. They are grazing on the grass and talking.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[11th hour]

Yay! Congrats!!!!

I got 2 first eggs today from 2 of my seb girls. One of them collapsed where I grasped it a little. the others I have cracked to check for the bullseye were super hard though, so I think its just something that can happen at first. Just keep an eye on the subsequent ones and make sure they have access to sand as well.

You're so luck to have grass! Ours is so short you can barely see it now. Had to start 3 more wheat grass beds this week.

 

[thasista]

Thanks for your reply. It was pretty funny when we unloaded them. I have a pool in my garage near the brooder for the smaller geese and we put the new sebbies in because they got pretty dirty waiting for us to pick them up. Anyway, the male bred one of the girls about 5 minutes after they were in there. So, I take that as a good sign.

My husband was so pleased. He offered the gander a cigarette!! (figuratively speaking of course).

 

[pete55]

Hi - moving and stress may have contributed to expelling the egg a little early but more likely that they're both just coming into lay. The oviduct is still 'maturing' fromits resting phase as later eggs are likely to be normal.

Give them grass and if possible a Waterfowl breeders pellet which will have additional minerals and vitamins. Finally just make sure they have access to oystershell grit. After that leave them to settle in and keep them calm as the move may make them go off lay.

 

[thasista]

Hi - moving and stress may have contributed to expelling the egg a little early but more likely that they're both just coming into lay. The oviduct is still 'maturing' fromits resting phase as later eggs are likely to be normal.

Give them grass and if possible a Waterfowl breeders pellet which will have additional minerals and vitamins. Finally just make sure they have access to oystershell grit. After that leave them to settle in and keep them calm as the move may make them go off lay.

Thanks Pete! I was suspicious of this. There was another egg layed last night. This time with a nice hard shell. We are trying to keep them as stress free as possible.