to cold to let goose set?

[slightlyscrambled]

I have a mixed flock of geese, my two females have been laying sporadicly all winter. I am starting to worry that they will "run out of eggs" before spring. Is it to cold to let them set on a nest? If they dont set on the eggs they will freeze. They are in a barn with no "bath water" I do try to get them out when ever I can for a bath but we have 10-15 foot drifts around the barn that I have to crawl over just to water and feed them and no way to move the snow. Any how... do you think it is a good idea to let them set or keep picking up eggs and wait for spring?
some one please advise me!!

 

[banter]

I feel for you!

A lot of us who have geese in the Northern states are having early eggs this year. My advice is to bring as many eggs as you would hatch inside to keep in a cool place. Take a couple of the newest eggs and bring them to room temp (24 hrs). Incubate them for 5-6 day and candle them. If they are fertile you can incubate them, or let the rest of the eggs set under the goose. Geese are amazing, if they choose to sit on a clutch of eggs the eggs are prob fertile, and they can hatch them in frigid conditions. The goose needs to have water near by and high quality food also (please give some green food and put it right next to the nest) for success. She will only get off the nest once or twice a day. You also have the choice of taking all the eggs but one, and see if you can keep her broody and laying until the weather gets warmer. A goose egg takes 28-30 days, so if she start to sits mid-end of Feb. you should be OK, if the geese have a shelter.

A little trick that works for me. Geese get depleted in the winter from breeding and using body fat to keep warm. Pump them up with some good food. I buy brown rice and give it to them cooked with thawed frozen green peas (about 1/3 c per bird, per day) and also in moderation, raw cabbage, pumpkin or squash, collards, chard or any other leafy greens, oats, chicken scratch and apples. You don't have to give a lot of any one thing. Give small amounts at first, especially if they haven't had fresh food for a while.

 

[slightlyscrambled]

Thanks for the advice. I have been feeding them a really runny mash of oatmeal, and flock raiser crumbles and kitchen scraps that I also feed to my chickens. Some one on here told me to soak alfalfa cubes in water and hers really like that, mine hate it. They do have shelter, a large part of the barn, I was just worried that come spring when I want them to lay and go broody that they may not.
When it starts to warm up to the point where I dont have to worry about eggs freezing if I just leave them in the nest will this help the "girls" to want to stay on the nest? I have been picking eggs up because we have had just horrible cold here up till this last week.