Alaskan's Journal

[Mini Horses]

My broody hen has been stellar!! I CK her & eggs each day. This morning I hear a commotion in the barn & there's my only white hen on the broody nest!! Mom raising he//. I scooped whities up and over the enclosure rails. Black momma hens settles back onto her nest 5/1-2 is hatch date. 7 eggs started, still there

Whitie goes to another nest & crowds herself beside another hen, lays her egg & leaves. . Other hen squawks & leaves....I gather up 7 eggs...squawk & leave

 

[Alaskan]

I am in a similar boat. I noticed my 4.5 month old unsexed juvenile goose inside the nest house and didn’t think anything of it. The adult female has been laying in there for months and I was letting her keep the eggs in hopes that she would go broody. Chinese geese are supposedly more fertile and better parents at two to three years old than they are their first spring, and this goose turns two this year. None of them tried to go broody last year.

Anyway, after a few days I realized that the juvenile was actually in there brooding eggs. So I have no idea when incubation might have started. Probably around Easter, so that’s what I wrote down and I will start looking out some time before May 20. I guess I can assume she’s a female, right? I hope she doesn’t screw this up because I was really hoping the 2 year old would sit.

You could always add another nest? Maybe?

Yeah.... I am wondering if I can add any more nests... because really... why aren't all the geese on nests????

I think 2 are now on nests, with one nest vacant.

When I cleaned everything up I TRIED to candle the eggs. The eggs are WHITE! But... I can see NOTHING. It was a very nice strong flashlight too. The shell must just be way too thick.

 

[Finnie]

You could always add another nest? Maybe?

Yeah.... I am wondering if I can add any more nests... because really... why aren't all the geese on nests????

I think 2 are now on nests, with one nest vacant.

When I cleaned everything up I TRIED to candle the eggs. The eggs are WHITE! But... I can see NOTHING. It was a very nice strong flashlight too. The shell must just be way too thick.

I will ponder on that (about a second nest). There is a big dog crate with a feed bowl in it and half the geese were laying in there last year. The pen has a divider so I could block the other 4 away from the broody juvenile. Now that I think about it, I’ve just assumed all the eggs were laid by the 2 year old goose. 1 every other day until I couldn’t see in there to count them any more. But now I’m wondering if the 4.5 month old is capable of laying eggs and had added any to the nest. There are more than she can cover, so I’m planning to scoop up the ones not under her and candle them.

Yes, the shells are pretty thick and hard to candle through. I have found that a regular flashlight isn’t the best for candling. If I can’t make it kind of “seal” to the egg, the little bit of light that leaks out kind of blinds me. My real candler that I got from Incubator Warehouse is wonderful. It has a rubber edge that goes against the curve of the shell and directs all the light into the egg and not my eyeballs!