A few weeks ago, we wrote an article about geese, and how every homestead that has extra grass should consider them. We noted that they can be a low maintenance, inexpensive source of meat. What we didn’t mention in that article was that purchasing goslings is very expensive. They can range from $30-100 or more for each gosling depending on the breed. So for them to be an economical meat source, it is necessary to hatch goose eggs on your farm. Today we are going to tell you what we have learned about successfully hatching Embden goslings.
Before we get started, you should know that goose eggs have a reputation for being difficult to hatch.
Don’t give up if your first hatch fails. Over time you will improve your technique and learn exactly what the eggs need to be successful in your particular environment. With the right techniques, you can be successful. If you have hatched chicken eggs in the past, then you have a good handle on the basics of successfully hatching eggs. With a few adjustments you should have no trouble hatching goose eggs. If you are completely new to hatching eggs, don’t worry. We will go over exactly what you need to do to be successful.
Also, it is important to note that geese are a long term commitment. Unlike chickens who are laying eggs when they are 4-6 months old, geese only lay eggs in the spring. This year’s goslings won’t come into production until next year. Then next spring when they are ‘teenagers’, they will not be as productive as they will be in future years. Mature geese will have about 15% higher fertility, and eggs with about 20% higher hatch-ability than 1 year old geese. However, geese pay you back for patiently waiting. A goose can lay eggs and produce goslings for 10 years or more.
Also, geese will often go broody, so as they get older, you may be fortunate enough to have your geese raise some goslings for you. Older, experienced geese that have had goslings in the past will often be more than willing to (and capable of) taking and raising goslings that you hatched. Geese are typically very protective and competent parents, so if you have a good goose/gander pair, they can significantly reduce your gosling rearing workload.
To get goslings, we of course need fertile eggs…
It is important to select the right breed to meet your needs. Geese don’t lay very many eggs in a year, and all geese tend to have low fertility as compared to ducks or chickens. So, it is a good idea to look at both the average number of eggs laid, and the average fertility of a goose breed to make sure it suits your needs before purchasing geese.
Geese only lay 20-30 eggs a year with a fertility level that ranges from 50-80%. This means we need to do everything we can to maximize their fertility. One thing that you can do that can be helpful, particularly for large heavy breeds, is to provide swimming water that is at least 18” deep. Waterfowl normally mate in the water. Because geese are so large and heavy, they can have difficulty mating on dry land. Thus, if you are experiencing fertility issues providing them access to a swimming pool can help.
Also, it has been our experience that early and mid-season eggs tend to be more fertile than late season eggs. The first few eggs laid are also often not fertile. So let the geese lay eggs for a week or two, and then start collecting eggs to put in your incubator.
We would like to note here, that if you are positive you have both male and female geese and get poor fertility the first year your geese are laying eggs, don’t despair. It is not uncommon for first year geese to have fertility rates of 50% or less. As 2 year-olds, the ganders ought to be much more competent, and your fertility rates should be closer to the breed average.
Next we need to talk about incubators
Aside from good quality fertile eggs, the incubator is the most important thing that you need for a successful hatch. A quick internet search will reveal that there are dozens of options and a huge price range. However, keep in mind, you are looking for an incubator for GOOSE eggs.
Most incubators are designed for chicken eggs, and they will not work well for the significantly larger goose eggs. Also, if you are planning to hatch in the incubator, most incubators do not have a high enough ceiling for goslings to be able to stand up. This is also an important consideration.
Ideally you want a forced air incubator with an auto turner that will turn goose eggs. It is best if the eggs can lay on their sides rather than being held upright. One of the main keys to successfully incubating eggs is having an incubator that will maintain a constant temperature without fluctuations. While they are more expensive, forced air incubators typically keep a more uniform temperature than still air incubators. Additionally, a good egg turner is important. Eggs do best if they are turned several times during the day. An auto turner makes this task easy.
If you are curious about what incubator we use for goose eggs, we use an Incuview Incubator.
Please note, we are by no means endorsing this incubator, but its what we have and it works well for us. The Incuvview is relatively inexpensive, successfully turns goose eggs and has a large capacity. Large capacity is important for goose eggs because they are so large. Many incubators that will hold a dozen chicken eggs might only hold 3 goose eggs. The main con we find to this incubator is that it is obviously built out of the cheapest materials they could find, and it breaks easily.
Because goslings cannot stand up in this incubator, and we have had moisture damage the control module during hatch, we no longer hatch eggs inside our incubator. Instead have a separate homemade hatcher. We would recommend that you use a similar system for hatching goose eggs.
Having a separate hatcher allows us to continue to add eggs to our incubator every week. This is important to be able to do. Geese only lay about 3 eggs a week, and only lay eggs for a few months. If you put a batch of eggs in, then wait 30 days for them to hatch, then put more in you might only end up with a few goslings by the time the geese have stopped laying. Using a separate hatcher allows us to hatch a small batch of goslings weekly.
Once you have your incubator set up, you can move on to the hatching process!
First, you will need to collect fresh eggs. You should collect the eggs every day and bring them into the house. Do not wash them. Do not refrigerate them. Store them between 50 degrees and room temperature. Lay them on their sides in a container and flip them over end to end 2-4 times a day. They can be stored up to a week before putting them in the incubator. Eggs kept longer than 7 days will have poor hatch rates.
When you are collecting eggs, you should weigh the eggs, particularly for first year geese. Sometimes first year geese do not produce eggs large enough to successfully hatch. Only eggs that weigh between 140g and 200g should be kept for incubation.
Eggs smaller than 140g are just not big enough to produce a viable gosling. In our experience, smaller eggs may develop, but they typically fail to hatch, and if they do hatch the goslings die within the first week. Don’t waste valuable incubator space on those eggs.
Now when you collect the goose eggs, you shouldn’t empty the nest of eggs. If you do, your geese will likely be upset by you removing the eggs and may relocate their nest elsewhere. The best way to avoid this problem is to either put ceramic eggs in your goose’s nest or to clearly mark the first week’s eggs using a permanent marker and leave them in the nest.
Once you have a week’s worth of eggs stored up
Write the date on one side of them with a permanent marker and place them on the auto turner in your incubator. Make sure that the temperature is staying steady at 99.5 degrees. It is a good idea to verify that the incubator thermostat is accurate prior to setting eggs. You can do this by using a calibrated thermometer. Set it inside a small dish of water in the incubator for several hours and then check the temperature.
In our climate we have found that dry incubating works best, and we don’t overly worry about humidity levels. We would recommend that you do the same unless you live in a very dry climate. It is not humidity level that matters, but rather the size of the air cell in the egg. You should be using the air cell to guide whether you have suitable humidity levels, not the number on a hygrometer. A large enough air cell is critical to a successful hatch, and many people end up accidentally drowning goslings/ chicks by trying to keep the humidity ‘correct’. We will show you how to do this below.
Also, if you are new to hatching eggs, this is an excellent time to read up on incubating and hatching chicken eggs. There is tons of information on hatching chicken eggs available and most of it is applicable to goose eggs as well. A thorough understanding of the chicken egg hatching process will make hatching goose eggs easier.
With chicken eggs, you typically set the eggs and then wait. You don’t open the incubator or disturb the eggs for a week.
Hathcing goose eggs deviates a bit from chicken eggs
With goose eggs, you do two extra things that chicken eggs don’t require to help the eggs hatch. Firstly, in addition to the auto turner, you need to hand turn your eggs. Though the eggs are on an auto turner, they appreciate being hand turned a couple times a day. Auto turners do not turn the eggs as thoroughly as you can manually. Also, sometimes because the auto turners are designed for chicken eggs they don’t turn goose eggs very well. Thus, it is best if you hand turn the eggs morning and night.
When you are hand turning the eggs, there is a right and a wrong way to do it. DO NOT roll them side to side. Carefully flip them over end to end, and then back the other way next time. If you roll or continuously flip the eggs the same time it will twist up the membrane inside. Research has shown that the best hatch rates are obtained if the eggs are flipped end over end 180 degrees at least 4x a day.
Secondly, Goose eggs require misting and cooling. After you have hand turned the eggs, spray them with room temperature water, and leave the lid off of the incubator for 10 minutes or so. This misting and cooling mimics the goose getting off the nest to eat/drink/bathe. The misting and cooling helps keep the goslings from getting too large in the egg. Goslings that are too large, and eggs that have too much moisture will result in a failed hatch.
On day 7 candle the eggs
Once your eggs have been in the incubator for a week, you will be able to see which eggs are developing and which eggs are infertile. To do this, you will use a dark room and a bright flashlight. Shine the bright light through the eggs from the large end. Eggs that are developing should have veins clearly visible. Eggs that are still clear looking, or those with a dark ring around them should be removed from the incubator. Do not leave dead eggs in the incubator as they could ruin your entire hatch.
You should also be able to see the air cell in the egg.
Note the size. It should get larger every week. By the time your eggs are ready to hatch, the air cell should be close to half the egg. Some people like to mark where the air cell is every time they candle the eggs to keep track. If you air cell is enlarging too rapidly, and it is getting close to half the egg long before hatch day increase the humidity in your incubator to 55% or more to slow down the water loss.
Day 7 is also when you would put your second week’s worth of collected eggs into the incubator. Be sure to put the date on them so that you do not confuse them with the older eggs. Continue to hand turn, mist and cool all of the eggs.
On day 14 repeat the process from day 7. Candle all of the eggs. If any from week 1 or week 2 are dead, remove them. Then repeat the process again at day 21. Keep in mind when you candle, that if your air cell is not enlarging every week, you need to lower the humidity. By day 21, you likely won’t be able to see a whole lot in the oldest eggs if they are developing properly. However, what you should see is the large air cell at one end of the egg.
Day 21 is the time to move the first eggs from the incubator to your hatcher.
If you have eggs of several ages in your incubator it is essential to move the groups to a separate hatcher to hatch them. There are several reasons for this. Hatching is a messy process, and if you try to hatch and incubate eggs together, it will contaminate your younger eggs with bacteria. The two groups of eggs require vastly different humidity levels, and raising humidity for hatch will result in the younger eggs not losing enough moisture. And lastly, as eggs near hatch they should no longer be getting turned, but the eggs in earlier development stages still require frequent turning.
Goose eggs hatch between day 28 and 35. Some of the larger breeds take longer to hatch than breeds with smaller eggs. We find that our Embdens hatch at about day 30. On day 21 we move the eggs to our hatcher. There we hand turn them 2x a day and continue to mist and cool the eggs. Between day 25 and 28 you stop turning the eggs add water to the bottom of the hatcher to increase the humidity for hatch.
We typically do this on day 27-28 since we know our eggs will hatch on day 30.
Ceasing to turn the eggs on day 25 should not be a problem, however, unless you are positive that your air cell is the correct size for hatch by day 25, do not increase the humidity that early. The humidity does not have to be high until the eggs have pipped, so if your air cell is still small, avoid raising the humidity until the last minute. The eggs can lose a lot of water during the last week of incubation.
On day 25-28 when you stop turning the eggs and raise the humidity, the eggs go on ‘lock down’. Do not open the incubator or disturb the eggs. You will likely see the eggs rocking back and forth as the goslings work on getting themselves into position to hatch.
And then you wait.
Goose eggs can take a long time to hatch. After you see the eggs rocking about, you might hear the goslings chirping. If you do, this means that they have managed to internally ‘pip’–they pecked a hole through the membrane into that all important air cell. During the next 24 hours, they should externally pip and crack a hole into the shell that they can breathe through. Then they rest.
At this point a lot of people panic and try to help the goslings. Don’t. Unlike chicken eggs that will often go from pip to hatched in a few hours, goose eggs can take a few days. We have found that most often our geese take a 24 hour break from the time they externally pip to the time they actually start to hatch. Then it can take them another day to escape the shell. This means that the entire hatching process takes up to 3 days, and this is normal.
Don’t be tempted to open the incubator to help a gosling hatch.
You need to be patient. They can do it themselves. If they are not ready to come out of the egg and you help, you can easily kill them. Also, by opening the hatcher and causing the humidity to fall, you risk harming the other unhatched goslings. Wait until they have all hatched and dried off before opening the hatcher.
Once they have all hatched and dried off then you can move them to a brooder.
We hope at this point you have managed to successfully hatch some goslings. If you failed, don’t give up. Analyze what went wrong and try again. Goose eggs are some of the most difficult eggs to artificially hatch, but we have successfully done it, and so can you.
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