Geese

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I have a question about geese. If you gather goose eggs as soon as they start laying in spring will they continue to lay throughout the season? How many will they lay?We are considering incubating in the incubator this year instead of letting the goose set. Has anyone done this and how is it best accomplished for highest rate of hatch. Thanks

-- Norman and Susie Stretton (nightsong@beci.net), November 07, 2000

Answers

I have a question, but topic is the same, so I won't post seperately. One of my geese made a nest and laid an egg on Sunday! Is she just confused, or what? A blip in the hormones, maybe? She's at least 3 years old.

-- Teresa in TN (otgonz@bellsouth.net), November 07, 2000.

First, I've had geese begin to lay off and on around Thanksgiving. Some geese are just a little different.

As to the number of eggs, it varies from breed to breed, but Chinese are supposed to be able to lay around 60, if memory serves well. Africans are supposed to lay around 45, and the others around 30. I've never had any luck hatching any kind of egg in an incubator, so cannot help there. I do know the humidity has to be just right, and believe that is my problem.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), November 07, 2000.


There are some good poultry lists -- I saw on a poultry website that some people like using muscovy ducks for hatching goose eggs, as they are big enough to cover quite a few, and will stay on the nest until they hatch, and then are good mothers. We have had a goose sit on her eggs almost to hatching (Pilgrim, my favorite breed), but then a racoon raided the nest, so I don't know how many would've hatched.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), November 07, 2000.

Geese typically lay in the spring. While there may be some isolated breeders who have bred a strain of geese for a longer laying period, in general, a brief spring laying period is all you'll get. Sometimes a goose will do a bit of laying out of season, but you can't count on it. How many eggs a goose will lay every spring depends on the strain, her health, feed, environmental conditions, etc. Offhand the only numbers I can find are Toulouse 25-40 eggs/year, Chinese 40-65 eggs/year. The Chinese are supposed to be the best layers.

If you want to incubate the eggs, make sure your incubator can handle eggs the size these will be. You'll also have to have high humidity, and watch the humidity very closely. Unless you've got a big, expensive incubator, you're going to hand turn the eggs, and that can be a bit tricky. When the goslings start hatching, you'll have to spend a lot of time watching the incubator (unless you've got a big one) since you'll need to be grabbing the goslings out and getting them into a pre-warmed brooder or possibly another incubator. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), November 07, 2000.


I found a Goose egg on the ground and it was still quite warm.I waited for hours trying to see if a goose would come back and sit on it.Finally I couldn't take any chances and I took the egg( it wasn't in a nest). i have been keeping it under a heat lamp and it is quite warm. Am I doing all that I should be doing? What else should I do? What do I do when it hatches.

~Thanks~

-- Christina Mcnulty (tin_cn@hotmail.com), May 01, 2001.



I already wrote you a letter but i have to tell you that I do not have an incubater and I also dont know where you get one. The egg was moving a couple of times when I felt it, it felt like something rubbing my fingers. Do you think it's alive still? Could I still hatch it without an incubater( what are the chances?)?Please get back to me as soon as possible. ~Thankyou~

-- Christina Mcnulty (tin_cn@hotmail.com), May 02, 2001.

I found some goose eggs in the water but they were still quite warm. Do you think they will still hatch if I keep them under a heat lamp? Also I found a goosse egg before and I'm putting it under a heat lamp, is it fine like that?

-- Tina (tinkim2@hotmail.com), May 05, 2001.

Tina, I have never tried to hatch something just under a heatlamp. I kind of doubt that that will work. Even incubators, holding the exact temperature constantly, don't always work that well. My best results are from my chicken hens, they hatch anything I put under, and I put under a lot (guinea, chicken, peafowl eggs). I would also like to read here from someone about hatching eggs under a heatlamp. Karin

-- karin macaulay (kmacaulay@co.brazos.tx.us), May 07, 2001.

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