How many goose eggs can she lay before going broody?!

[NevadaEmma]

My female goose has been laying about an egg every other day. I took 4 of the earliest ones off the nest about 2 weeks ago and put them in the incubator. (Two do not seem to be developing and have been taken out of the incubator.)

Currently she has 14 eggs in the nest and no signs of her going broody. We thought she was going to stay put about three days ago, but she was just having an early morning egg laying session.

Is there a way to try to coax her to sit on the nest? She decided to make her nest in the goose house so all of them go inside for the evening. There are only four geese, but three are ganders and continue to have anywhere from minor tiffs to all out attacks on each other. They do seem to stay away from her corner of the house though.

I was thinking of fencing off a large area for all of them with an electric fence and let them decide who gets to go inside for the night. I would keep the door to the goose house open so they could all come and go. We do not tend to have many land predators, but there are coyotes and sometimes dogs that prowl around.

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Goosebaby]

There’s nothing you can really do to encourage her to sit, she’ll do that when she chooses to, it might be by the time she has 30 eggs for all you know, they can be silly.

Putting up a fence would be good, giving them more space is essential for hormonal ganders, when they fight the loser needs enough space to get away safely, if they don’t have that they can end up in a situation where they’ve been cornered by the other two who won’t stop attacking until the other is dead because they’re feeding off of each other’s aggressive energy.

 

[NevadaEmma]

There’s nothing you can really do to encourage her to sit, she’ll do that when she chooses to, it might be by the time she has 30 eggs for all you know, they can be silly.

Putting up a fence would be good, giving them more space is essential for hormonal ganders, when they fight the loser needs enough space to get away safely, if they don’t have that they can end up in a situation where they’ve been cornered by the other two who won’t stop attacking until the other is dead because they’re feeding off of each other’s aggressive energy.

Thank you. They have plenty of room to get away from each other, about an acre, but they like to stick together even though they fight. The Sebastopol had blood on his wings the other morning. It looked like one of his quill feathers was broken, but it seemed to have coagulated. He is the most ferocious except the mate to the female if I am too close. He lost all of his curly feathers over the last couple of months fighting. He is just very high strung. Not sure if that is a characteristic of Sebastopols.

Thanks for the info. I will let her do what she wants, but may pull some more eggs out later if she keeps laying.

 

[NevadaEmma]

And yes, they do seem to feed off of each others aggression. Even the female seems to be upset by all the racket and posturing.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Even the female seems to be upset by all the racket and posturing.

If she is upset or worked up, she won't go broody since she'll feel unsafe

 

[NevadaEmma]

If she is upset or worked up, she won't go broody since she'll feel unsafe

She should feel safe, she has three guardians looking in different directions when she is sitting down outside! They are funny.

 

[NevadaEmma]

Yes, the males do make a lot of fuss. I have fencing around the goose coop and have tried to fence her off, but the males just keep standing by. They used to be quite, but now they are more vocal. I think she likes the attention though. Maybe she just will not go broody this year.

 

[NevadaEmma]

Next question is can I feed the floaters to the chickens, hard boiled of course?

 

[NevadaEmma]

Next question is can I feed the floaters to the chickens, hard boiled of course?

sorry I did it again, I was trying to add to a different post. But you may know, I took all the eggs from my female gooses nest. I have about 11 floaters that I hate to waste.

 

[Goosebaby]

A bad egg is bad for everyone. Rotten eggs are big sources of salmonella, e.coli, aspergillus mold spores, and all kinds of other nasty stuff.