Toulouse broody behavior questions

[wayfarer]

I'm brand new to the forum (been lurking for about a year) and I've been searching, but didn't really find what I was looking for--

We have two Toulouse; one we got last year as a gosling who we are not sure of the sex, and an approximately three year old female we got this year.
We got the female this year because we assumed our original was a gander, as we hadn't seen eggs yet, while our ducks had started laying.
since then, on many occasions we have seen two goose eggs a day, so we've been wondering if our suspected gander is actually not.

The three year old (Houdini is the name she came with) has gone super broody - pulling feathers to line the nest, won't leave the nest, VERY vocal when you bother her, etc.

My wife is suggesting we let her keep the eggs to see if they'll hatch.

Is it true that the birds sort of "know" when the eggs are fertile ?

I've seen the younger goose (we just call him / her "Goose Goose") exhibit behavior like the drakes, but only to the ducks, never to the goose. My wife saw Houdini and Goose Goose trade spots so Houdini could get food and water

any thoughts ?

They have free range of the backyard, Should I start creatively penning them to try to isolate eggs / behaviors ? I'd like to figure out once and for all the sex of our Goose Goose !

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'm brand new to the forum (been lurking for about a year) and I've been searching, but didn't really find what I was looking for--

We have two Toulouse; one we got last year as a gosling who we are not sure of the sex, and an approximately three year old female we got this year.
We got the female this year because we assumed our original was a gander, as we hadn't seen eggs yet, while our ducks had started laying.
since then, on many occasions we have seen two goose eggs a day, so we've been wondering if our suspected gander is actually not.

The three year old (Houdini is the name she came with) has gone super broody - pulling feathers to line the nest, won't leave the nest, VERY vocal when you bother her, etc.

My wife is suggesting we let her keep the eggs to see if they'll hatch.

Is it true that the birds sort of "know" when the eggs are fertile ?

I've seen the younger goose (we just call him / her "Goose Goose") exhibit behavior like the drakes, but only to the ducks, never to the goose. My wife saw Houdini and Goose Goose trade spots so Houdini could get food and water

any thoughts ?

They have free range of the backyard, Should I start creatively penning them to try to isolate eggs / behaviors ? I'd like to figure out once and for all the sex of our Goose Goose !

If you have seen 2 goose eggs in one day and are sure they weren't just covered up with bedding and someone un covered them sounds to me like you have 2 females. Many females will go through the mating process with another female the tell tale difference is the gander gives a loud victory yell when he has mated. I have 2 female geese one is very broody and she is sitting on 8 fake ceramic goose eggs so no they do not know if an egg is fertile or not untill right before hatch and they hear the gosling peeping when it has internally pipped. But if you still aren't convinced crack open one of the eggs and look for the bulls eye.

Welcome to BYC

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/16008/how-to-tell-a-fertile-vs-infertile-egg-pictures/50