Incubation - Raising Poultry - page 286

Geese , from day one, require the most cautious humidity regulation. These eggs also
respond best if they are cooled down daily. To do this you must try to replicate the pro-
cess of the mother goose. She gets off the nest each day for close to an hour to bathe,
then returns with wet feathers. Thus, beginning one week into the incubation process, al-
low the eggs to cool down to room temperature — 65 to 75°F (18-24°C) — for roughly
30 minutes each day. Once they've cooled, gently spray them with water before turning
the incubator back on.
The last few days of incubation, place the eggs into the hatcher and spray them with
water. Be sure all water pans in the incubator are full and try to not open it until the birds
have hatched. Keep humidity levels on the high side, as geese take several days from the
first evidence of pipping until they are fully free of their shells. Geese hatching periods
are variable; some breeds take a day or so longer than others. Most hatch within the 28-
to 30-day range.
To Help or Not to Help?
Resist the temptation to try and help birds out of the shell when they're hatching. Until
you have experience enough to know when help is needed, be patient and let nature take
its course. You may wish to speed up the process, but intervention can be disastrous. For
example, if you start pulling back the shell too quickly, it will dry out and stick to the
unhatched chick, causing the little one trouble. In a normal hatch, the bird pulls in the
yolk sac as it starts to peck its way out. When it leaves the shell the last of the yolk is
pulled in and the navel starts to heal. But if the chick exits the egg too soon, it may not
have fully pulled in the yolk sac. This will mean death within a few days.
Once you have a little experience under your belt, you'll learn that you can some-
times help a young bird out a bit without causing problems. In cases when the humidity
level is not proper, an examination of the shell after a day of pipping can indicate wheth-
er or not it's safe to peel a bit of shell off. If the membrane under the shell has no blood
vessels with flowing blood in it, you can pull the membrane back gradually to help un-
stick the bird.
Don't rush things; if it appears things are not progressing, you can slowly, gently take
off small dime-size bits of shell a little bit at a time. But be cautious! Don't touch the
membrane containing blood vessels. This type of living membrane looks bright white,
with reddish and spiderweblike blood vessels visible beneath upon closer inspection.
Older membrane that can be pulled back safely appears dull and discolored, no longer
bright white.
Some breeders argue that helping a chick emerge is wrong and should never be done
because it allows weaker stock to enter into the population and eventual gene pool. Per-
haps that statement is true to some extent, but anybody who has ever watched a chick