Hey gang. So lots of goose happenings here. First, we have 4 eggs that seem to be progressing nicely in the incubator. And my girl goose is still on her eggs but I'm thinking that she's going to be disappointed. Geese can take up to 36 days to hatch so I'm still holding out a little hope for her. I'll keep you posted.
I do have 2 sets of eggs incubating right now though that I'm stoked about. I was looking for Sebastapol eggs and found some! More than I planned even! I found a very nice woman in Lebanon, MO who raises them AND put me on her waiting list. Most folks that I contacted have very long waiting lists. BUT - my name came up and, serendipitously, my darling sister was in the neighborhood. So 6 there. I tucked those under some grumpy broody hens who, usually, I would try to convince to stop sitting on eggs. Now, though, I'm giving them pep talks (or peep talks...hee..hee...) about staying put. Doesn't she look good and grumpy? Won't even make eye contact.
As a reminder to those of you following along at home, the Sebastapol geese are a smaller, supposedly friendlier good breed.
They look pretend, right? This photo is courtesy of Mother Goose's Farmstead, the lovely folks where we got 10 more goose eggs! 5 of these Sebastapols and 5 Dewlap Toulouse. Ready?
For real. They look like beautiful battleships. I'm stoked to see what we get from the hatch. A reminder to all that geese are a little tricky to hatch. We've had ok hatches but we're going to be very, very attentive surrogates this time around.
The eggs are massive. My incubator holds 42 or so chicken eggs. Here it is with these 10 goose eggs.
You're supposed to leave them dirty, if that's how you found them, to keep the bloom on the egg from the mother goose. Once you wash them, all sorts of germy stuff can creep in.
So wish us luck! I'll keep you posted. These 4 that I have in right now are scheduled to hatch April 23rd or so. Have a great weekend! Best - HP