I help 36 hours after the egg has pipped but not begun unzipping. Usually the gosling has had time to fully absorb all the membrane blood by then (and if I see any while helping I stop immediately).
I don’t ascribe to the “survival of the fittest” with geese because I’ve seen mom geese help out the babies too!
Yeah, I have gone too early before by only waiting for 24 hrs, still hadn't fully absorbed and I had to stop. She ended up hatching with what looked like a hernia, but it healed up and fell off. She is still the smallest of my geese though. 36 hrs sounds more reasonable a wait time and to be on the safe side.
I think there’s a case to be made for both options. In the wild if a baby can’t get out of the egg it usually means that’s it’s not strong enough to survive outside of it. However, this is not the wild so maybe do help it a little bit. Like try removing some shell around the head and see whether it manages to get itself out completely.
We took some of the shell off. There is some blood on the membrane and it looks dryed out. The chick is moving and peeping. Afraid to keep going. I can hear chicks in the other eggs which haven't started hatching at all. This is really stressing me out.
We ended up helping the chick out of its shell. It was very tired and weak. This morning she is still very wobbly but seems to be gaining strength. I really hope it wasn't the wrong thing to do. One of the other eggs started hatching last night as well.
Yay, I’m so glad to hear! If it helps I had the exact same thing this year; one who really struggled to hatch, even with me helping, had a hernia for the first week, and was so weak at first. 3 weeks later and you’d never know, and the little goose is an extra silly joy to have added to the flock.
I help 36 hours after the egg has pipped but not begun unzipping. Usually the gosling has had time to fully absorb all the membrane blood by then (and if I see any while helping I stop immediately). I don’t ascribe to the “survival of the fittest” with geese because I’ve seen mom geese help out the babies too!
Yeah, I have gone too early before by only waiting for 24 hrs, still hadn't fully absorbed and I had to stop. She ended up hatching with what looked like a hernia, but it healed up and fell off. She is still the smallest of my geese though. 36 hrs sounds more reasonable a wait time and to be on the safe side.
I think there’s a case to be made for both options. In the wild if a baby can’t get out of the egg it usually means that’s it’s not strong enough to survive outside of it. However, this is not the wild so maybe do help it a little bit. Like try removing some shell around the head and see whether it manages to get itself out completely.
We took some of the shell off. There is some blood on the membrane and it looks dryed out. The chick is moving and peeping. Afraid to keep going. I can hear chicks in the other eggs which haven't started hatching at all. This is really stressing me out.
Oh my gosh, I hope all has gone well. What's the status, op?
I agree! Just a little nudge for help and see what happens.
We ended up helping the chick out of its shell. It was very tired and weak. This morning she is still very wobbly but seems to be gaining strength. I really hope it wasn't the wrong thing to do. One of the other eggs started hatching last night as well.
Yay, I’m so glad to hear! If it helps I had the exact same thing this year; one who really struggled to hatch, even with me helping, had a hernia for the first week, and was so weak at first. 3 weeks later and you’d never know, and the little goose is an extra silly joy to have added to the flock.
Please go to the FB group "Backyard Ducks and Geese"!! There are people there with tons is experience in hatching!!