Very large goose egg

[Eagle Flight Farm]

We have a young pair of Buff Toulouse geese and we love them, along with all of our ducks. Our pair of geese were hatched June 7th, 2020 and shipped to us from Metzer Farms. This is their first season of breeding and laying eggs/nesting.

Our female, Tilly, started laying in the horrible sub-zero temps we had just about 3 weeks ago. This was extreme weather for Oklahoma. Her first 3 eggs froze before we could collect them, even though they were in her nest house in our coop. The next 3 eggs she laid we brought inside and set them in our incubator and all are developing well. Tilly continued to lay eggs every other day which we have let her keep. She laid her 5th additional egg yesterday and she stayed on her nest all day except for rare short breaks. We thought she was starting incubation of her eggs. Our gander, Willy, stayed right beside her guarding her and their nest house.

To our surprise, when we went out this morning to open the coop door and Tilly has laid another (6th egg) and it is HUGE! We brought it inside quickly to candle it to see if we could determine if it was a double yolker. It appeared to only have a single yolk. We took it right back to their nest house and she came back in the coop from getting some food and water and getting in a pool for a bit, then went back inside her nest house and settled on her 6 eggs.

This is our first experience with breeding geese and incubating geese eggs and having them set on their own nest. Is it unusual for them to continue to lay after they begin incubating their own eggs? Is it unusual to have an occasional huge egg? I’m including pictures for you to see. Both are goose eggs in the first pic. All Tilly’s eggs are the size of the egg on the right, except the huge one on the left that she laid this morning.

 

[ChickensForEggs2500]

Wow, congratulations! I know goose eggs are already huge, so that one must be colossal! I love the story.

 

[Eagle Flight Farm]

Wow, congratulations! I know goose eggs are already huge, so that one must be colossal! I love the story.

Yes, it is enormous. My husband asked if we had an ostrich that he didn’t know about when he saw the huge egg!

 

[jtn42248]

The larger of the two looks a lot like the eggs my Toulouse ladies lay. I would not be concerned. You may end up with a larger than usual gosling if they hatch. The first time ours laid/hatched they shared a nest and there were 20 odd eggs of which 8 hatched. That left us with a total of 11 geese which was more that enough. We are now down to only 5 females and that is about perfect since we no longer want to hatch anything. The started laying in the freeze we had in West Texas this year and are still going at it. Enjoy what ever comes. Goslings are cute and funny just like their parents.

 

[Goosebaby]

This first egg pic is of a monster egg one of my Toulouse laid last year compared to my Buff Apricot’s egg. Friday normally lays larger eggs but not this big. She laid a second of this size which she incubated along with eggs from the other girls that I gave her.
The big egg hatched last but hatched the biggest baby, Helios!
He’s the biggest baby in the middle, the big boy preening with the dad ganders in the third picture, and the big boy sitting to the left with his dad ganders again. He’s only 9 months and he’s already larger than Leo who is huge “he’s the big guy to the far right in both the last pictures.” Helios is an absolute sweetie despite his size.

Years ago I had a female hatch from a huge egg laid by my Toulouse Lavender, Kiwi was only a smidge shorter than Leo but outweighed him, so she was bigger than all the rest of my ganders, she was a big girl that ruled the roost.

Big eggs make big babies, and I think that extra boost from the start can help them grow into big geese, so if your big egg hatches you’ve got a good chance of growing an enormous birdie!

 

[Eagle Flight Farm]

This first egg pic is of a monster egg one of my Toulouse laid last year compared to my Buff Apricot’s egg. Friday normally lays larger eggs but not this big. She laid a second of this size which she incubated along with eggs from the other girls that I gave her.
The big egg hatched last but hatched the biggest baby, Helios!
He’s the biggest baby in the middle, the big boy preening with the dad ganders in the third picture, and the big boy sitting to the left with his dad ganders again. He’s only 9 months and he’s already larger than Leo who is huge “he’s the big guy to the far right in both the last pictures.” Helios is an absolute sweetie despite his size.

Years ago I had a female hatch from a huge egg laid by my Toulouse Lavender, Kiwi was only a smidge shorter than Leo but outweighed him, so she was bigger than all the rest of my ganders, she was a big girl that ruled the roost.

Big eggs make big babies, and I think that extra boost from the start can help them grow into big geese, so if your big egg hatches you’ve got a good chance of growing an enormous birdie!

Thank you! Your geese are wonderful!!!

 

[Goosebaby]

Thank you! Your geese are wonderful!!!

Thank you too, yours are beautiful!

 

[Andrejki]

The geese are very likeable and cute. Mine are almost the same, but I can't determine the specie.

Nevertheless, I had 3 gigantic eggs, one was double yolker, I gave 2 other ones for three small eggs of a different specie, but hmm, I should have checked it like you did. Maybe, not all were double yolks.