HELP Wanted with Orphaned Goose Eggs

SAJay

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Hi Everyone.

I have heaps of experience hatching and raising Chickens and Ducks. No Problem. I have a friend who called for help from me over the weekend. Her beloved 17 year old goose died suddenly after laying 11 eggs. She hadn't started to sit and laid the 11th egg the morning she died. So Saturday afternoon I arrive home with the prized eggs, make a cup of tea, and franticly try to research "incubating goose eggs". Now I have them on they're side with the temperature set to 37.3. I didn't turn them for the first 24 hours like I had read but now I'm turning 180 degrees 3 times a day. I have no idea how long they take to hatch, when they go into lock down or any thing. So if anyone out there has any handy hints for me to make this a success I would really appreciate it. I would like to be able to get a daughter for my friend to go on with.

Regards, Jay
 

Mark

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Hi Jay, that's a very interesting situation good on you for trying to help your friend out!

I see on my old Hovabator egg chart Goose eggs take between 28 - 30 days to hatch out.

You know what I found interesting about our last ducklings hatching out? It was how most hatched out at the same time and the rest over the next day even though the duck obviously collected all the eggs over a 7 - 10 day period so logically I would have thought you'd get a staggered hatching but it's amazing how birds/poultry usually only start sitting once they have gathered a good sized clutch.

Anyway, I have no experience at hatching out goose eggs either; however, I probably would stop turning them at about day 26 and leave them to hatch in lockdown mode. That'd be my guess - unless you see signs of them hatching out earlier... I do know of people who incubate their duck and goose eggs together so you probably already have a good handle of what to do and will give yourself the best chance of success.

Please let us know how your hatch progresses - it's a very intriguing story!
 

Ken W.

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I've never incubated goose eggs but remember reading that they require high humidity - around 80% I think - and they need spraying with water daily to achieve this. Something about immersing them in water after 2 weeks comes to mind also. Probably depends on the type of incubator you are using.
 

SAJay

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Thanks Mark, Thanks Ken,
I've read that somewhere too Ken. Think this is going to come down to experimentation and common sense! I don't even know if they're fertile yet. 17 seems pretty old but she had 4 goslings last year. All ganders though. Will candle them this weekend and see what I can see. Will keep you all posted.
 

SAJay

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Hey, Just to up date everyone. Only had 3 fertile eggs and all of them died about half way through incubation. I'm not sure why they died but just wanted to let you know how it turned out.
 

Mark

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That's unfortunate but you had a go anyway...

I have a hen sitting on a bunch of eggs several weeks after our rooster died and I've left her go in the unlikely event some make it - doesn't hurt to try these things sometimes.

Thanks for the update :)
 
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