Egg Size

[telandra2]

First year goosekeeper. One recently laid egg is much larger than the others. Is this a jumbo or are the others small? The Jumbo layer is 2 years old, the others are from 1 year olds -- so I'm leaning toward jumbo is normal and others are omlettes. I'm guessing the large egg is also the best for gosling development.

Duck egg in lower right for size comparison.

 

[Goosebaby]

What kind of geese laid these?

Sometimes an egg can be larger because it has more than one yolk, other times it’s because it came from a larger bird. Sometimes it can be smaller if it doesn’t have a yolk.

The big egg is typical compared to what my Toulouse lay, the smaller ones are typical to the size my Roman and Roman cross lay, not much bigger than a duck egg.

Larger egg also equals a larger gosling.

 

[telandra2]

Thanks! The largest is African. The smaller probably African mixed -- one has a white breast. The neck feathers are a bit fluffy as well and not as smooth as the older pair.

I was thinking larger egg means more room for a developing gosling, not its final size.

 

[Goosebaby]

Thanks! The largest is African. The smaller probably African mixed -- one has a white breast. The neck feathers are a bit fluffy as well and not as smooth as the older pair.

I was thinking larger egg means more room for a developing gosling, not its final size.

It’s hard to say for sure if egg size has anything to do with overall size, from my own expierience it seems to play a part though, my smallest goose hatched from one of the smallest eggs I’ve seen, she was tiny as a gosling and still fairly small, on the other hand out of one of the biggest eggs I’ve ever seen hatched one of the biggest goslings, and he’s the biggest gander I’ve had so far.



This is a picture of both of them plus their siblings. Helios “furthest to the left” is the youngest by a few days but he looks like he’s older by a few days, Teenie Tuesday “the oldest by a few days” is between him and her buff sister “yellow baby,” and the size difference is noticeable,

 

[Goosebaby]

This isn’t the egg Helios hatched from but it’s one of his mom’s and close to being as big as the one he came from compared to what the other girls typically lay.