Broody goose question

[Finnie]

Today is day 31 for my Brown Chinese goose sitting on eggs. For the last few days, she’s been moving her nest to different spots in her plastic dog house. It got pretty warm here lately and yesterday she moved the whole nest outside the dog house. Then of course it rained last night and she did not move them back in.

This morning I decided to candle them. Some felt cool. One was pipped! So I left that one with her and took the rest inside to a dark place for candling. 4 were obviously dead in shell but two were moving and maybe internally pipped! And one looked dead, but since it still had veins, I’m hoping it was just asleep. So I threw away the 4 dead ones and put the rest back in the nest.
But ever since then, I have not seen her sit back onto the nest. Just standing near it.

Did I make her abandon her nest? Should I have left all 8 eggs instead of taking the dead ones away? (I did not break them. I could still put them back.)

Should I move the good eggs to my incubator? I have had zero luck with the goose eggs I have tried to hatch myself. I was hoping the broody goose would do better. Although she is only one year old and this is her first time.

I think I should never have interfered.

 

[Finnie]

Oh! After I posted, I looked out and I can see her sitting!

 

[jtn42248]

Give her time. She knows what she is doing.

Plastic Dog House? is it high enough for her to stand upright and large enough that she can fully spread her wings. It sounds like it might be a bit small for a goose.

 

[Finnie]

Give her time. She knows what she is doing.

Plastic Dog House? is it high enough for her to stand upright and large enough that she can fully spread her wings. It sounds like it might be a bit small for a goose.

I’m pretty sure it’s big enough. She stepped away to eat and drink, so this doesn’t really show perspective, but she seemed to have plenty of room the first 30 days while she had that nest inside it.

Don’t know how that got turned sideways or how to fix it

 

[Finnie]

So I interfered again, and maybe I shouldn’t have. Again.

Today is day 33. Last night I checked her nest, and the one that pipped on day 31 had hatched and died. I don’t know when it died or whose fault it was. There’s been a lot of rain, so I suspect she didn’t keep it dry. Or maybe she crushed it.

So today I candled the last 3 eggs again, but this time since I don’t trust her any more, I put them into my incubator, which is already on lockdown with one chicken egg that is hatching 48 hours late. (All the other chicks got moved to the brooder yesterday.)

All 3 goslings are moving and I hear cheeps from at least one of them. That one has huge cracks across the front. Not hatching cracks. More like uncareful mother cracks.

I’m still second guessing myself whether I should have taken them from her. I have been wanting to go out and buy some goslings for her to raise, because I thought these eggs wouldn’t hatch. But seeing how she didn’t keep that other gosling alive, I don’t know if I trust her with babies. Now if these ones hatch, I can’t give them back to her because I opened the doors of her pen and let her rejoin the other two geese.

Editing to add:
While I was typing the above, I looked out the window and saw all 3 geese chasing my baby ducklings, so I had to hit reply and run. (Broody chicken hatched the ducklings a couple weeks ago, and today is her first day free ranging them.) When I got out there, the geese were not hurting the ducklings. It looked as if the broody goose was trying to steal them for her own. I ended up putting all 3 geese into the broody goose’s pen and reuniting the ducklings with their stressed out mama.

I’m still not quite sure what’s best for the broody goose. My first gut instinct is to find her some goslings to raise before she gives up on the idea of motherhood.

Any input is welcome. Thank you.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Do you want more geese besides the ones you just put into the broody pen and the three that are going to hatch? You can give these 3 back to them around age 3 weeks just take them out daily so they can see them they will accept them. But of course up to you.

 

[Finnie]

Do you want more geese besides the ones you just put into the broody pen and the three that are going to hatch? You can give these 3 back to them around age 3 weeks just take them out daily so they can see them they will accept them. But of course up to you.

I can do that. I was hoping not to have to brood them myself.

In the meantime, I ended up taking the other two geese back out of Agnes’ broody pen and put them back in their regular pen. Then I put 2 golf balls and a ceramic egg in her nest, and she went back and sat on it. My hope was to keep her broody long enough for the eggs to hatch.

I did speak with the lady I got my geese from about it. She seemed to think if Agnes was still sitting on her nest that I could try to give her some babies to raise. Maybe put them under her in the night. Since goslings aren’t readily available, I ran out and got some Khaki Campbell ducklings from Tractor Supply.

Instead of waiting until night, I did a trial run using two of the ducklings as guinea pigs. It went very well, on Agnes’ part. You could tell she was trying to get them to come to her and she kept pointing her bill to the ground. They didn’t understand and kept running away from her through the chain link fence. Fortunately they were more scared of me than her, so I was able to herd them back through the fence to her. Eventually they started following her around.

But that chain link posed a new problem. So I decided she needed to move to a more secure place. I moved her food and water and her whole nest. Then I moved her and the babies. Boy was she protective of those babies! Once moved, they seemed to get along well. But she was intent on looking back to her old place. Then I made the mistake of releasing the other geese to free range, and I ruined everything! She spent the rest of the evening trying to get to them through the wire. I had to re-pen up the other two geese, but even after darkness fell, she was still pacing back and forth hollering for them.

I’m going to go back out in a little while, and if she hasn’t settled down, I’m going to take away the two ducklings and put them back in the brooder with the rest.

Oh, by the way, one of the eggs in the incubator pipped!

 

[Finnie]

Update. When I checked on her last night, she was quiet and settled until she saw the light from my head lamp. When I turned it off, she settled again. So I gave her two more ducklings.

All 4 survived the night, and I gave her two more this morning. I’d like to give her more, but I’m not sure how well she is going to keep them warm or make sure they eat and drink. (I bought 10 ducklings.) If she keeps these 6 alive over the next 3 or 4 days, then maybe I will give her more.

Also, now there are two goose egg pips in the incubator!

Did I mention I found a duck egg in her dog house? She must have abandoned it when she shifted her nest out. That’s in the incubator too because it still has veins and I thought I saw movement. Delayed in development from cooling off though, so I don’t know if it has a chance to survive.

 

[donkeydew2farms]

wow you must be stressed out I know I am just reading your post good luck.

 

[Finnie]

wow you must be stressed out I know I am just reading your post good luck.

Thank you!
Only a little stressed, lol. I did set my alarm for sunrise this morning so I could check on how Agnes and the ducklings were doing.