Day Zero for Goose Eggs, Again.
Apr. 17th, 2013 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crazychicknladyI realized late last night that it had been 31 days since I put two goose eggs under broody chickens in our first day zero for goose eggs experiment.
When I went to check on them I fully expected to find dead birds. Instead they showed evidence of having broken through the membrane into the air pocket, and there was movement.
I brought them inside and tried to help by breaking a hole through the shell to give them more air (last year we determined the goslings can't get through the shell on their own). It took my breath away when I heard a cheep as soon as I broke through on the first egg.
We lost a lot of sleep monitoring the goslings. I picked at the shell to help them, but I may have done too much. I helped the first one hatch around 5am this morning. It survived another 5 or 6 hours. The second one (I interfered less with this one, hoping the different handling would give it a better likelihood of survival) I helped half hatch a little while before we lost the first one. I really thought it had a chance, but it died about an hour later.
Apparently I like smashing my head against a block wall over and over, because I put two more eggs under our chickens today.
Then I buried the dead goslings under C's fruit tree. They were with us for about twelve hours, long enough for me to have enough hope to feel pretty rotten when that hope was dashed.
I'm including photos behind a
Little beaks poking out, both still alive.
First hatched, still alive, opening an eye to look at me.
First hatched laying near the not yet hatched gosling, both still alive.
Second hatched, right after hatching, still alive.
When I went to check on them I fully expected to find dead birds. Instead they showed evidence of having broken through the membrane into the air pocket, and there was movement.
I brought them inside and tried to help by breaking a hole through the shell to give them more air (last year we determined the goslings can't get through the shell on their own). It took my breath away when I heard a cheep as soon as I broke through on the first egg.
We lost a lot of sleep monitoring the goslings. I picked at the shell to help them, but I may have done too much. I helped the first one hatch around 5am this morning. It survived another 5 or 6 hours. The second one (I interfered less with this one, hoping the different handling would give it a better likelihood of survival) I helped half hatch a little while before we lost the first one. I really thought it had a chance, but it died about an hour later.
Apparently I like smashing my head against a block wall over and over, because I put two more eggs under our chickens today.
Then I buried the dead goslings under C's fruit tree. They were with us for about twelve hours, long enough for me to have enough hope to feel pretty rotten when that hope was dashed.
I'm including photos behind a
Little beaks poking out, both still alive.
First hatched, still alive, opening an eye to look at me.
First hatched laying near the not yet hatched gosling, both still alive.
Second hatched, right after hatching, still alive.
