I had been collecting goose eggs, with the intention of putting them back in the nest once I got a good clutch together. It had been really cold out, and rather than have the eggs freezing in the nest while the girls built up a clutch, I'd been bringing them in and storing them in the back bedroom where the temp stays around 55 deg or so. I kept only the nice clean eggs, and after a week had 9. Then, LJ decided to buy an incubator! So, even though I read that goose eggs are a bit tricky, we decided to break in the new toy with my carefully collected 9. We put them in on the 12th. I weighed them all and wrote their weights on the eggs with a pencil, as well as marking one side of the egg with an X, and one with an O. I've been turning them 3 times a day so that the x's and o's alternate each night as far as which side is up. So, on Sunday, I candled the eggs (shining a nice bright light into the egg), and FOUR showed development! Truthfully, I didn't really expect anything out of this experiment, so I'm super stoked. When illuminated, each egg shows a dark spot with veins radiating out from it. I tried to take a picture, but it just wasn't working. So, if I manage to not kill these four goosey miracles, I may (knock on wood) end up with 4 goslings in a little over 3 weeks. Woohoo!
During the week that these eggs were in the incubator, I continued to collect fresh eggs from the ladies. They'd originally had two nests in the goose hut, and they finally ended up dismantling the nest on the left and all began sharing the one on the right. On Sunday I put 5 eggs back in the nest, and crossed my fingers that number of eggs would be enough for one of the gals to start sitting. Lo and behold, they've all been taking turns on the nest! I didn't think they did that, but I've seen it. So, provided they do a good job (fingers crossed!) we may get a naturally hatched batch too. *knocking knocking knocking on wood*
Wish me luck, because this is my first time incubating!
It's Affie Girl's first time too
And she was such a CUTE baby!
5 comments:
What a doll-baby. She looks so soft and smart.
Good luck on both hatches!
Very exciting. If the incubator eggs hatch one week before the natural ones can you introduce them to the moms to raise once the others hatch?
This is very exciting! We're in our second year of hatching with an incubator and I still can;t get over the fact that you take an egg that you otherwise might eat, put it an a warm and humid place, and less than a month later you have a real, live chicken (or in your case, goose!). As far as I'm concerned, it's magic!
Dammit.
Now I want to hatch eggs myself.
Reading blogs is poisonous!!! I always find new things I want to do.
Congratulations on the four embryonic eggs. Just keep 'em warm and everything will turn out great! (said the ass hat who's never incubated eggs.)
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