Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Does anybody have special procedures for hatching geese?
I followed some very particular incubation methods last year with great results! 2, 10 egg hatches at 100%
But this year I have the incubator full of Cornish eggs and can't follow those guidelines!

So I guess my question is has anybody had much luck hatching geese under chicken egg incubation guidelines ?

Really want to hatch out some goslings this year but don't want to waste my time or incubator space if it doesn't work well under chicken egg settings?

clawton wrote:QR_BBPOST
So I guess my question is has anybody had much luck hatching geese under chicken egg incubation guidelines ?

Yes :) Last year I incubated chicken and goose eggs together successfully (3/4 hatched last March and 5/6 in June) and also have hatched geese under a hen. Turned by hand twice a day, no turner, still air. No water added, ever, even at lockdown, because relative humidity in the house was always around 50% which is fine. Over that for long and I got wet hatches and dead-in-shells in the chickens, and even around 50% I got some goopy ones in chickens, ducks and muscovies, so worried about the goose eggs as well. I suspect it would be different with a fan and auto turner though, and you'd have to add some water at some point. The only 'cooling off' period I ever gave the eggs was a couple minutes every few days while I candled them. Oh, and Muscovy ducks are pretty pro at hatching goose eggs too, I find the hatch rate is the same for chickens or ducks, around 50 %, and slightly higher in an incubator.
I incubated all sorts of eggs together last year, and the only thing that didn't hatch the greatest was the turkeys...until I followed a tip from, I think, WLLady? Ontariochick?, to turn the incubator down one degree at lockdown. After I started doing that, EVERYTHING started hatching better than it already was, as if they were in a hurry to get out LOL

clawton wrote:QR_BBPOST don't want to waste my time or incubator space

says the man with a sportsman incubator

poultry_admin wrote:QR_BBPOST

clawton wrote:QR_BBPOST don't want to waste my time or incubator space

says the man with a sportsman incubator

Come on you have to leave a little empty space cause you never know what opportunities might arise out of the blue??