TopOfTheHill
In the Brooder
- Apr 10, 2021
- 9
- 42
- 34
I vacillated back and forth for a long time with the decision to get geese for our hobby farm due to concerns about housing and noise. I wanted geese mostly for lawn control and possibly for meat eventually so I didn’t care too much about the breed other than wanting to get geese that were more likely to be on the quiet side. I eventually ran across a craigslist add for a sebastopol cross gander that mentioned that pilgrim geese were also available. Since pilgrims were supposed to be quiet, I decided to seize the opportunity and get a pair to try out. The woman had three available, two geese and a gander. She estimated they were 2-3yo but wasn’t sure. I knew nothing about pilgrim goose standards but have since learned that the geese I got are actually a pretty decent representation of the breed.
I was super excited when I noticed the geese making a nest this spring. The number of eggs in it built up gradually and Abigale, who I think the older of the two geese started sitting on them on/off. I realized that they had built the nest on top of an area that had wood planks sticking out unevenly from the floor so I started piling on straw under the eggs when she got up and then around the eggs when I realized the nest wasn’t as deep as it needed to be to keep all eggs insulated. Luckily Abigale put up with this and started to sit more and more consistently over the course of the following week. The other goose, Dorothy, would come and take turns on the nest too and I thought that things were progressing perfectly for about 2 weeks. Then one day out of the blue Abigale went missing. I was heartbroken and confused but grateful that Dorothy had seemingly taken over sitting on the nest. I looked everywhere for my missing goose or signs of a struggle with a predator but couldn’t find any.
Dorothy sat well for 2 days but on the 3rd day I noticed her off of the nest for a prolonged (~2h) period. I grew a little concerned but she seemed to return and sat again the rest of the day. Unfortunately, the following day (which was cool and foggy) she took another prolonged break. After 2h of her being off the nest I bribed her back into the coop area with treats and then had to leave for work. 2h later I returned to find her still off the nest and the eggs cold. There were 16 of them in the nest. Something I’ve since learned was likely due to them combining nests. The clutch was probably way too big for them to have successfully incubated. I was even more heartbroken, as I assumed the eggs were less than a week away from hatching. Having read that chicken eggs can sometimes remain viable for several hours of cool down I decided to drive the half-hour to the nearest tractor supply and get an incubator. I didn’t have time to test of stabilize the incubator. I just turned it on and started hauling the eggs to it in batches. The eggs had been cooling for at least 6h by the time they went into the incubator.
All I could do after that point was hope. I tried to candle them before I went to bed but struggled to make out any details. The following morning I tried again, saw some hints of red but no movement. Later that day it dawned on me that the little flashlight that came with the incubator was probably just not bright enough to shine through the goose egg shell. I tried my husband’s flashlight and to my relief and delight I saw movement in 14 of the eggs. 2 had not developed at all, I assume they were early unfertilized eggs. As I examined the eggs more closely and compared them to staging I realized that they were not as far along as I had hoped. Half were ~2wks along while the other were closer to a week at most. Likely due to Dorothy continuing to lay in Abigale’s nest after she had already started to incubate her eggs. Nevertheless, I pressed on and started reading everything I could about incubators and incubating goose eggs including the wonderful “Forums Other BackYard Poultry Geese Incubation & Hatching Guide” from pete55.
I got rid of the water I had originally put in the incubator opting for a mostly dry incubation to ensure appropriate weight loss, which I had to guesstimate at given that I didn’t know the actual age of the eggs or starting weight. I got several thermometers, calibrated them, and realized to my great disappointment that the incubator had been running 1.5 degrees too low and had a 2 degree differential from front to back. I ordered a Nurture Right 360 and turned up the FI while waiting for the NR360 to arrive. Unfortunately it wouldn’t fit all 14 but did fir 12. The other 2 I put in the most stable spot in the FI. I turned, I misted, I candled daily and agonized over the air cell size. All the while, I kept reading the threads on this forum and starting to feel some hope as well as considerable anxiety about the hatching process.
Eventually the air cells started to elongate. I think I didn’t stop rotating early enough with at least 2 of the eggs as the chicks died in the shell and looked like they had Mal-rotated and/or gotten tangled up on their cords. The rest continued on to internal pipping and then external pipping. I moved the pipped ones to the FI which I filled with water to get 80-85% humidity. I sprayed the eggs any time I needed to open the incubator and hoped and waited. Finally, I was rewarded by my first gosling hatching and then another and another. Over the course of the next 5 days 11 successfully hatched without any assistance. One stayed stuck for almost 24. She was shrink wrapped, likely due to my opening the incubator to get her siblings out and I needed to assist. Again the guide came through and allowed me to help her hatch successfully.
Against all odds, I ended up with a dozen goslings hatching. Probably double what I had been hoping against hope to have. Of course I was now faced with the problem that my brooder coudn’t accommodate so many. By this time BTW, Abigail had returned from whatever journey she had gone on (I still don’t know where she went) and had been starting to rebuild the mega nest but was not yet broody or sitting on it. After reading about the mothering instincts of geese, I decided to take another risk, I decided to try to give the goslings back to the geese. I started with one male who had a malformed nose as I wasn’t sure that he would make it anyway. The geese instantly took to mothering him and the enthusiasm all three of them showed for looking after the gosling made me feel comfortable with giving them the rest as they dried off and gained their footing (~24-36h from hatching). I took some video of the reunion:
as well as a few of them grazing on grass this morning:
I am so deeply grateful for all of the information that’s available on this forum. You all have helped a complete novice to incubation and geese beat the odds and turn tragedy into a success. Thank you and thank you for reading this very long post.
TLDR. Got geese, incubated abandoned eggs, did lots of things wrong but managed to hatch them anyway thanks to the wonderful advice of folks on this board. Deeply grateful.
I was super excited when I noticed the geese making a nest this spring. The number of eggs in it built up gradually and Abigale, who I think the older of the two geese started sitting on them on/off. I realized that they had built the nest on top of an area that had wood planks sticking out unevenly from the floor so I started piling on straw under the eggs when she got up and then around the eggs when I realized the nest wasn’t as deep as it needed to be to keep all eggs insulated. Luckily Abigale put up with this and started to sit more and more consistently over the course of the following week. The other goose, Dorothy, would come and take turns on the nest too and I thought that things were progressing perfectly for about 2 weeks. Then one day out of the blue Abigale went missing. I was heartbroken and confused but grateful that Dorothy had seemingly taken over sitting on the nest. I looked everywhere for my missing goose or signs of a struggle with a predator but couldn’t find any.
Dorothy sat well for 2 days but on the 3rd day I noticed her off of the nest for a prolonged (~2h) period. I grew a little concerned but she seemed to return and sat again the rest of the day. Unfortunately, the following day (which was cool and foggy) she took another prolonged break. After 2h of her being off the nest I bribed her back into the coop area with treats and then had to leave for work. 2h later I returned to find her still off the nest and the eggs cold. There were 16 of them in the nest. Something I’ve since learned was likely due to them combining nests. The clutch was probably way too big for them to have successfully incubated. I was even more heartbroken, as I assumed the eggs were less than a week away from hatching. Having read that chicken eggs can sometimes remain viable for several hours of cool down I decided to drive the half-hour to the nearest tractor supply and get an incubator. I didn’t have time to test of stabilize the incubator. I just turned it on and started hauling the eggs to it in batches. The eggs had been cooling for at least 6h by the time they went into the incubator.
All I could do after that point was hope. I tried to candle them before I went to bed but struggled to make out any details. The following morning I tried again, saw some hints of red but no movement. Later that day it dawned on me that the little flashlight that came with the incubator was probably just not bright enough to shine through the goose egg shell. I tried my husband’s flashlight and to my relief and delight I saw movement in 14 of the eggs. 2 had not developed at all, I assume they were early unfertilized eggs. As I examined the eggs more closely and compared them to staging I realized that they were not as far along as I had hoped. Half were ~2wks along while the other were closer to a week at most. Likely due to Dorothy continuing to lay in Abigale’s nest after she had already started to incubate her eggs. Nevertheless, I pressed on and started reading everything I could about incubators and incubating goose eggs including the wonderful “Forums Other BackYard Poultry Geese Incubation & Hatching Guide” from pete55.
I got rid of the water I had originally put in the incubator opting for a mostly dry incubation to ensure appropriate weight loss, which I had to guesstimate at given that I didn’t know the actual age of the eggs or starting weight. I got several thermometers, calibrated them, and realized to my great disappointment that the incubator had been running 1.5 degrees too low and had a 2 degree differential from front to back. I ordered a Nurture Right 360 and turned up the FI while waiting for the NR360 to arrive. Unfortunately it wouldn’t fit all 14 but did fir 12. The other 2 I put in the most stable spot in the FI. I turned, I misted, I candled daily and agonized over the air cell size. All the while, I kept reading the threads on this forum and starting to feel some hope as well as considerable anxiety about the hatching process.
Eventually the air cells started to elongate. I think I didn’t stop rotating early enough with at least 2 of the eggs as the chicks died in the shell and looked like they had Mal-rotated and/or gotten tangled up on their cords. The rest continued on to internal pipping and then external pipping. I moved the pipped ones to the FI which I filled with water to get 80-85% humidity. I sprayed the eggs any time I needed to open the incubator and hoped and waited. Finally, I was rewarded by my first gosling hatching and then another and another. Over the course of the next 5 days 11 successfully hatched without any assistance. One stayed stuck for almost 24. She was shrink wrapped, likely due to my opening the incubator to get her siblings out and I needed to assist. Again the guide came through and allowed me to help her hatch successfully.
Against all odds, I ended up with a dozen goslings hatching. Probably double what I had been hoping against hope to have. Of course I was now faced with the problem that my brooder coudn’t accommodate so many. By this time BTW, Abigail had returned from whatever journey she had gone on (I still don’t know where she went) and had been starting to rebuild the mega nest but was not yet broody or sitting on it. After reading about the mothering instincts of geese, I decided to take another risk, I decided to try to give the goslings back to the geese. I started with one male who had a malformed nose as I wasn’t sure that he would make it anyway. The geese instantly took to mothering him and the enthusiasm all three of them showed for looking after the gosling made me feel comfortable with giving them the rest as they dried off and gained their footing (~24-36h from hatching). I took some video of the reunion:
I am so deeply grateful for all of the information that’s available on this forum. You all have helped a complete novice to incubation and geese beat the odds and turn tragedy into a success. Thank you and thank you for reading this very long post.
TLDR. Got geese, incubated abandoned eggs, did lots of things wrong but managed to hatch them anyway thanks to the wonderful advice of folks on this board. Deeply grateful.
