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Moose Manor Farms

Candling Goose Eggs

3/18/2012

4 Comments

 
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It's been nearly a fortnight, so this evening I candled my goose eggs for the second time since setting them in the incubator.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, "candling" is a method which bird breeders use to verify that eggs incubated for hatching are fertile. To candle an egg, a very bright light is held behind it to illuminate the shape of the embryo inside the shell. Fertility is determined based on the color, shape, and opacity of the contents. When no veining is present and the egg is very bright inside, we call this a "clear" egg, meaning it's unfertilized or otherwise not viable.  It all usually starts with a dark spot, which grows veins, then the little baby inside begins to take shape and you can often see it moving when you shine your light on it.

Here are pictures of the eggs.  These are not my best work, I haven't gotten the hang of ultra low light photography.  At least they're not blurry, which requires a lot of steadiness and holding of breath for such a dark room.

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Sebastopol Goose (bonus egg): you can see the faint but sure "spidering" and the large dark spot indicating fertility
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American Blue Goose: This one looks "clear"
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American Blue Goose: This one also looks clear but darker, you can see the definition here between the large mass and a much brighter back-side. Another scramble? :-/
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Sebastopol Goose (bonus egg): This egg also has all the signs of a developing embryo
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American Blue Goose: Looks clear but darker, there's a large mass but no spidering... scrambled perhaps??
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American Blue Goose: This one looks pretty clear also
Shipping is very hard on hatching eggs.  The post office is fairly rough with the boxes and no matter how well you pack them, sometimes you end up with broken eggs or detached air-sacks, or otherwise "scrambled" eggs on the delivery side.  Plus, it's impossible to tell whether an egg is fertile until it's been incubated for about a week. 

The right temperature and humidity conditions must be reached before all the eggs in a clutch sort of "click on" and begin growing.  This ensures that when the hen finally lays her last egg for a clutch that they all hatch within 24 hours of each other.  An egg laid 6 days prior to her setting the nest begins growing at exactly the same time as the one she just laid.  Right up until those perfect conditions are met, a fertile egg looks exactly like an infertile egg.  Many people believe that a blood spot on the yolk is an indication, that only means that a bit of blood was trapped inside the egg when it was being formed... hens with no male to fertilize eggs lay those just as often as the ladies who have a man around.

I'm crossing my fingers on those two questionable American Blues.  I've never hatched goose eggs before so I'm going off of past experience with chicken, duck and Muscovy eggs.

Speaking of which, that Muscovy girl that looked and sounded like she was considering setting a nest is a confirmed broody.  She's been keeping a couple of wooden eggs warmed up and has created a beautiful nest for them, lined with downy feathers pulled from her own chest.  Tonight I took these goose eggs out of the incubator and put them under her warm bottom.  If they're gonna hatch at all, they'll do it under her expert care.  Then she can raise those babies instead of me.  I love babies but everyone will benefit from this pretty little Muscovy doing what she does best.
4 Comments
Kim
3/19/2012 12:21:31 am

Bummer Dana! If the goose keeps laying, I'll send you more eggs. Congrats on the sebbies!
Kim

Reply
Dana Kee link
3/19/2012 01:13:21 am

Thanks, Kim! That's sweet of you... it's impossible to guarantee fertility on shipped hatching eggs for about a million reasons. Perhaps we can swap if there are duck eggs that you'd like to hatch? Everyone's going into their breeding runs this week...

Reply
Flash link
2/18/2018 06:08:34 pm

Very Good

tnk

Reply
Gayle Strack
4/23/2020 09:49:31 pm

This is my first time incubating eggs ever. And mine are Debbie's too. My mated pair hatched out 4 of 13 eggs last spring. Most were fertile but the goslings couldn't make their way out of the eggshell. I have 9 eggs in incubator and anxiously awaiting. I can't see any veining...but my eyesight isn't the best. Thanks for your postings of candeled eggs. Its helpful. I have 12 to 14 days left I guess before they start hatching...if they are fertile. Thanks!

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    Dana

    About Farmrgirl

    Small town Calif. farm-girl leaves the ranch behind for many years of adventure at sea, travels the world, then moves to Washington DC in 2007 where she finds the perfect homestead to settle down: acres of secluded Southern Maryland woods where she goes granola by raising her quality of life, Mastiffs, ducks, chickens, and tomatoes {& one Bengal kitty}... sustainably.


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