Internally pipped goose egg!

Ok, so I'm on my second round of goose egg incubation. The pic above is me in a dark tiny closet, holding a small maglite to an internally pipped egg. That little peak is the beak! Internal pipping is where the gosling/chick/keet/whathaveyou breaks through the membrane inside the egg, allowing access to the large air cell at the big end of the egg. Within a day or so, I should see an external pip, where the baby breaks through the shell so it can access outside air. Shortly after that, baby will "unzip" the egg, breaking the shell in a circular manner so it can get free of the egg.

In the pic above, I think something is wrong with the egg. See how there's a lighter area under the air cell, unlike the first pic? Perhaps a ruptured air cell? I dunno. In any case, the gosling is moving around in there, so hopefully it can proceed to external pip.

This is my last round of incubator eggs this season, and it has been an incredible experience! The geese are done laying, and our second and last round of chicks are due naturally-incubated under Jerky Pecking $&@#% Hen next week. (Not every hen can be as sweet as Bellina, you know). I'm hoping to foster these new goose babies (if they make it through hatching) with Affie. Sooooo much easier when the geese raise them, as I don't have to feed and water them separately, and I also don't get ATTACHED to meat birds... sigh... We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!

Only the one fluffy baby so far

How cute is this little guy/gal?!

As for the others... One of the babies died late in the shell. It was turned the wrong way. 2nd hatched baby (hatched last night) passed this morning... Was pretty weak. Still have one working on unzipping its shell, so perhaps I'll be 2/4? We'll see. From what I've been reading on the goose section of the backyardchickens forum, this isn't exactly unheard of, and goose hatching is difficult. More than a little disheartening, but the one baby I do have is absolutely precious.

First baby hatched on the farm!!!!

Say hello to a noisy and very energetic new gosling. Little guy isn't even dry yet, and has been careening around the incubator and squealing for a good 45 minutes. Thought they were supposed to take a post hatch nap!?

We have a beak!

More patient than I am, by far

Baby is still sitting her nest. She has at least 15 under there. On the rare occasion that she gets up, Bitor hovers near the nest to protect it, and often Sweet Girl will go sit on the nest til Baby gets back. Affie, of course, doesn't sit. As far as she's concerned, the other two ladies make perfectly servicable nursemaids, and this way Affie keeps her lovely figure. :)

Me, though... I. Can't. Wait. To. GO HOME! When I left this morning, the two pipped eggs hadn't made any more progress from last night, though both eggs peeped and rocked when I directed the light through the incubator window. According to LJ, a couple hours later before he left the house, both were rocking away, and one had started to unzip the shell (he said it had broken off a large chunk!). I hope the other two non-pipped eggs have also progressed since this morning. One had finally pipped internally (I could hear the clicking breaths), but nothing yet from the other (just some faint movement at the top edge of the air cell). Fingers crossed for some more shell pips, and maybe a couple newly hatched goslings when I get home!

One step closer!

I came home to TWO pipped goose eggs! Woohoo! C'mon babies!

It pipped!

One of the goose eggs pipped internally today! That means that it broke through the membrane inside the shell. I heard it PEEPING!!!! Yay! We're not out of the woods yet, though. Lots to happen still. Goosey baby still has to pip the egg shell, "unzip" the egg, and get free. This should happen over the next 24-48 hrs, from what I've read. The other eggs need to catch up already!

Fingers crossed! Hopefully I haven't screwed up this hatch in some way, and these 4 eggs will produce little fuzzy butt babies. Cross your fingers for them. :)