How long to wait before assisting goose egg

[Isadora]

I believe I'm on day 29 of incubation with a buff/pilgrim goose egg. Temperature is at 99 and humidity is 70 percent. I had one hatch this morning and the other hatch day before yesterday. There's two eggs left in the incubator. One I didn't have good hopes for in the first place because the air cell is pretty small. The other egg was wiggling a lot yesterday, but no internal or external pip. However, I have not seen it move at all today, which is very discouraging. I quickly candled it without moving it from the incubator, and there's no internal pip. One of the goslings that hatched before actually pipped at the wrong end, and I'm wondering if this egg is the same and perhaps it already suffocated or something. Is it normal for an egg to be wiggly one day and totally still the next? How long should I wait before trying to assist in some way? This is my first hatch ever, so I am not experienced at all.

 

[Isadora]

Still nothing happening in the egg, as far as I can tell. No movement, no noise etc
@casportpony @Pyxis @Miss Lydia
Any advice?

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Pyxis is the experienced one here with goose eggs. Have you read Petes guide?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed.491013/

 

[Sierra G]

Movement one day and still the next can mean the gosling was moving into position and is now tired and resting. If you're going to assist today the most I'd suggest is putting in a safety hole. Geese typically take 30 days before they start hatching and can take a couple days to complete it. The safety hole should give you some piece of mind without intervening too much.

If you want to make sure the egg is still alive take the egg out and examine it carefully for a pip. If the external pip is in the wrong place you won't see an internal pip. Put the egg down and let it sit on a towel or anything else that will keep it from rolling and make sure it's in the same position it was in in the incubator. Wait a few minutes then pick it up. If it has cooled down the gosling may have died. If it's warm to the touch the gosling is still generating body heat.

Edit: If the egg has externally pipped when the egg is put back in the incubator the egg should be positioned so the pip is up for easier observation. You may want to enlarge the airhole slightly. And a poorly positioned pip is usually an indication of a poorly positioned gosling, so you'll want to keep an eye on things.

 

[Isadora]

Movement one day and still the next can mean the gosling was moving into position and is now tired and resting. If you're going to assist today the most I'd suggest is putting in a safety hole. Geese typically take 30 days before they start hatching and can take a couple days to complete it. The safety hole should give you some piece of mind without intervening too much.

If you want to make sure the egg is still alive take the egg out and examine it carefully for a pip. If the external pip is in the wrong place you won't see an internal pip. Put the egg down and let it sit on a towel or anything else that will keep it from rolling and make sure it's in the same position it was in in the incubator. Wait a few minutes then pick it up. If it has cooled down the gosling may have died. If it's warm to the touch the gosling is still generating body heat.

Edit: If the egg has externally pipped when the egg is put back in the incubator the egg should be positioned so the pip is up for easier observation. You may want to enlarge the airhole slightly. And a poorly positioned pip is usually an indication of a poorly positioned gosling, so you'll want to keep an eye on things.

Yesterday morning I tried the body heat trick, and it was still staying pretty warm so I made a safety hole and put it back. Still no movement, internal pip, any movement when candling this morning, so I opened it up. The gosling was dead, and since this is my first hatch, I'm obviously no expert, but I couldn't see anything to say why it wouldn't have hatched on its own. It wasn't facing the wrong way, head wasn't tucked under its wing or anything weird. It was just dead.

 

[Sierra G]

Sometimes they get stuck moving into position to pip. Other times they just die because something went wrong with their development. Anything above a 50% hatch rate is good. Better than 85% is excellent. But if they don't hatch it's usually not your fault. Enjoy the ones that did hatch and ask if you have any questions. Someone on here should have answers.