Will my goose ever sit on her eggs?!

[nancyahenry]

Hi, We have a year old pair of White Chinese Geese; they have been mating and the female now has 14 eggs in the nest but no sign of interest in sitting on them. Should we assume she's not going to sit on these? If I remove them to eat is there a possibility she will lay some more and sit on them later in the season? It's still quite cold up here in New England. I don't want to ruin our chance for goslings!

Thanks for your help. We're new to this!

 

[The goose girl]

How old are your geese? It's perfectly normal for geese to use their first laying season as a practice round, so if it's their first season and she doesn't sit - or doesn't sit long enough - it probably just her young age.

14 eggs are not that many, though. Usually they'll start sitting after collecting 10-15 eggs, but some may start sitting after laying only three eggs, and some may want to collect 20 or 25 before they sit.

Chinese geese are good layers, and if you decide to remove the eggs, she should keep laying until June or July. My goose, who isn't even Chinese, started laying in October 2013 and produced 108 eggs until she started sitting in early July. She's single, so I remove each egg immediately. I leave a fake egg in her nest.

If your eggs have been exposed to temperatures below freezing, they're probably no good for hatching and you should remove them from the nest. Leave one (marked) egg in the nest, so she doesn't deem the nest unsafe and abandon it, and let her keep laying frost free eggs until she's satisfied with the amount and starts sitting.

 

[brainfog]

I'm having the same problem. A 9 1/2 month gander and two geese, now with 21 eggs - and still no interest in sitting. I've never seen more than 7 eggs laid in a week, but I've seen both them on the nest and mating w/gander. Possibly on the plus side, over the last week, as the egg count went from 14 to 21, they've become even more aggressive so I'm hopeful they're getting the idea. OTOH, some eggs are also being broken.

They started laying around March 1st, and being North of Boston, at first I took a few eggs (leaving some) figuring they're too cold. Maybe I should do this again - and wait for the snow to be gone?

Also not sure if I have the correct housing for them - as they don't seem to like it. In daylight they have 1/4 acre fenced area to roam with a kids pool to swim. At night I herd them into an 8'x8' wire mesh pen that has two closed additions (wood boxes) with plenty of straw. One is ~4x3 and is basically totally dark inside. The other (where the eggs are) is ~2x4 with what amounts a indirect skylight. In the winter (even in a blizzard or wind chill warning conditions) they prefer to remain totally exposed outside and when confined to the 8x8 prefer the open air over the closed additions. But obviously they've been seeking into the pen - but one needs to be there 24x7!

 

[mominoz]

Two breeds of geese I had didn't figure out setting till they were over 2... they sorta set the first year ot two, but at 3 got more serious....