Well if your looking in here you must be about to launch into the amazing world of hatching your own :)
So get ready for some seriously cute gosling's in about 30 days time :)
What you will need:
1: Working incubator!
2: Candling Lamp (See separate page, click here for link)
3: Turning Chart and pen!
4: Spray bottle
5: Thermometer that shows temperature and humidity
6: Pen for the gosling's when they hatch
7: Heat lamp for when they hatch
8: Shallow water dish
9: Some stones large enough for the gosling's not to eat that fit in your water dish
10: Chick crumb (Food)
1st Pick where your incubator is to go, ideally it needs to be:
A: On a level surface, this is important as the incubators heat distribution is most effective when the incubator is level.
B: In a room where the temperature fluctuation is minimal.
C: Away from direct light from a window, a boiler, air-conditioning etc
I would also suggest not on the side in your kitchen or living room, hot incubator is an interesting smell!
2nd and most important bit of advice I can give you is BEFORE you order / collect your eggs turn on your incubator and
A: Check it is working
B: It comes up to temperature 102°F/ 38.5°C for still air incubators or 99.25 to 99.75°F / 37 to 37.5°C in a forced air incubator (one where the air is fanned round)
C: Keeps it temperature over a couple of days
D: Add water (as per the manufacturers instructions) if needed to get the humidity correct 50 to 55% (This is really important for the future safety of the gosling's, without the correct humidity during germination they will not be able to brake out of their shells at hatching time as the shells will be too hard and they will die.
Don't fail before you start! just because it's new or a friend says it worked last year PLEASE CHECK
So your incubator works, your have collected your eggs, or they have arrived in the post.... So what is next? certainly not........
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !
This is where the magic starts, so get your broody apron on and lets go. What happens next is truly amazing...
1st Check the eggs over (gently, they do not like being dropped!) you are looking for any cracks, if the egg has a crack discard it. DO NOT think it will be ok, it will get infected and the smell of a rotting egg in a nice warm incubator has to be sniffed to be believed, it will stink your WHOLE house out!
2nd If you have collected your eggs by car or in the post, just let them settle for 10 to 12 hours at room temperature 70°F / 21°C (DO NOT put cold eggs into the incubator as this can cause problems with the eggs) Do not worry, in nature Mummy Goose will collect eggs for up to 10 or 11 days before sitting on the clutch, So the rest just lets everything in the egg settle down before germination starts. If your eggs have not travelled, 5 to 6 hours is fine.
3rd So before you pop them into THE PRE HEATED (Turn it on 2 days before they arrive!) incubator mark an 'X' on one side and an 'O' on the other, also on both sides number the eggs, you can do this with a felt tip or pencil, this will help you keep track of your turning.
4th Place the eggs into the incubator, on their sides either all 'O's facing up or all 'X's and now leave them for 24 hours, NO lifting the lid to take a peak! No turning the eggs, no spraying the eggs, just put the lid down and LEAVE! Use this time to get all your charts ready, so for day one make a note of the temperature and humidify and which symbol is showing on top of the eggs and mark off the chart.
5th So the first 24 hours is up what next.....
Time to get attentive!
From now to day 4 this needs to be your routine
a: Turn the eggs over 3 to 5 times per 24 hours ( i.e. from X showing to O showing) three times a day is the bare minimum, but it must be an odd number so the eggs don't spend the longest time over night on the same side night after night. If you work like I do, I suggest you turn once when you get up, once when you get home from work and once before you go to sleep. If you don't work every 2 to 4 hours is plenty, be gentle when you turn the eggs try to disturb them as little as possible.
The first week is the most crucial for the developing eggs and as a rule of thumb more the better - but remember an uneven number of turns!
You ask why do we turn the eggs?
Well the simple answer is we try to replicate what Mother Goose does, so if she turns it must be a good idea! in reality the movement stops the developing gosling's sticking to one part of the egg internally and thus restricting its growth and ability to hatch.
b: Check at each turning that the temperature is at 102°F/ 38.5°C for still air incubators or 99.25 to 99.75°F / 37 to 37.5°C in a forced air incubator and humidity stays between 50 and 55%
c: Thats all you do for the first 4 days, leaving the lid off for as short a time as possible, try just easing the lid to get you hand in and turn the eggs, this is to keep the temperature constant and will kick start the growth of the embryos.
6th Now we move into days 4 to 27 and now your routine will change slightly.
a: You still need to turn the eggs a minimum of three times a day
b: You still need to keep an eye on temperatures and humidities
c: Now you have to become mother goose! So start practising your honking .... only joking!
Once a day ( I pick the evening turn as I have more time then, but you might pick the morning or bedtime turn, it does not matter which, but try as far as possible keep it constant to one time of the day) and now your going to make use of that spray bottle.
Fill the bottle with lukewarm water, take the lid completely off the incubator (DO NOT turn it off!) turn the eggs and spray with water and leave the lid OFF for 15 minutes, when the time is up place the lid back on the incubator.
You may find the temperature has dropped don't worry it will soon come back up.
You may also find the humidity goes up, this will come down after a short time.
7th So you have been diligently being Mother Goose! Now its time to get these eggs ready for hatching! You are 3 or 4 days away from your new fluffy brood!
a: Keep the temperature the same at 102°F/ 38.5°C for still air incubators or 99.25 to 99.75°F / 37 to 37.5°C in a forced air incubator but now its time to rack the humidity up to 75% by adding a layer of water into the base of your incubator (if designed for it, if not refer to the manufacturers instructions for humidity control) you need to keep the humidity at this until they have all hatched.
b: As soon as you see the first crack in an egg, this is called pipping, stop turning all the eggs.
c: So your eggs have pipped... then nothing...don't worry it takes a lot of effort to pip and the gosling's will rest, it can take up to 24 hours to hatch.
d: So your first gosling is out, first of all congratulations! Now it is important that you remove all egg shell as they hatch, otherwise it will get stuck to another egg and could stop that gosling from hatching. Leave each gosling in the incubator for 24 hours to dry out, so they don't get a chill and could die.
Problems
So you think a gosling might be stuck, ummm probably not! if it is, there is probably a reason why, you can either let nature take its course or help, first place the egg in a bowl of warm water to help soften the shell, DO NOT allow any water into the egg, you will drown the gosling :( you can then place the egg back in the incubator and see if that helps, if their is still no sign of the gosling trying to get out, gently start to peel the shell off, if you see any blood STOP if you continue the gosling will bleed to death :( leave for several hours then try again. Good Luck.
Hatching Chart
This is the chart I devised so I could keep up with what day and where I was up to with each egg. The day from day one to thirty five (when all the eggs should have hatched or started hatching) The temperature and humidity I would record morning and evening (I would also keep an eye on it when I turned the eggs durring the day) this helps show up any problems with the incubator, as well as relying on the thermometer in the incubator I also put in a digital thermometer which also gave the humidity as well, as this is crucial for hatching goose eggs. (please ignore the temperature etc. as its not in an incubator at the moment!)
I would tick the spray box to indicate I had done it for that day, after a week or two it can get hard to remember what you have done if you are busy!
The X/O was a record of what side the egg was left on on the last turn.
E1: E2: etc. is the number of each egg (so add as many as you need, my last clutch was eight)
(if you right click the larger image (not the thumbnail) and do 'save image as...' it will pownload as a ping image which you can the print and use)
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