Goose hatching help

[Platinumsky]

I have a few goose eggs incubating and they started pipping yesterday morning. One of them opened up their shell by about a half inch by one inch "window" then stopped, another one pipped a little bit and another hatched already. There's a fourth egg with movement inside it but no external pipping yet. My main concern is the "windowed" egg, the little guy hasn't moved at all since he opened his window yesterday morning but we can see him breathing and "gulping" periodically. My local vet said to "help" by opening up the top of the shell for it and I noticed that the membrane around the little guy was very dry despite a constant 70% humidity during lockdown and hatching. I was worried the membrane might be too dry and "hard" for him to move around and finish hatching so I called the vet back who said to just let it die, I googled a bunch and found this forum. I followed the advice in an "assisted hatching" thread about putting clean warm coconut oil on the membrane to keep it hydrated, but some of the membrane, especially a thin thread of it pressed against the beak is still really tough, stiff and leathery. Does anyone have any advice on what to do? I don't want to keep stumbling along and mess things up worse.


Also, the hatched gosling has some pretty matted dry feathers looking like they're caked in fluid from the egg, it's taking longer than any of our ducklings ever did to dry and fluff up, is that something I should be worried about and do something to fix?

 

[Goosebaby]

How long ago did the hatched gosling hatch out?


@BirdsBeesTrees @Pyxis @JRies @oldhenlikesdogs @Miss Lydia

 

[Platinumsky]

The hatched one came out about 4 or 5 hours ago now completely unassisted. The one in the picture in my original post sadly stopped breathing, there's one more egg that's pipped but hasn't made progress since yesterday afternoon, and one more egg with movement but no external pipping and the shadows in the egg don't look like there's much if any internal pipping yet. The hatched one still looks a little matted, I included a pic of the hatched one and the pipped egg that still has breathing.

It really feels kind of helpless since we've never had this kind of trouble hatching ducklings before. I really hope something can be done to keep these last ones healthy.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

When I let a chicken incubate some goose eggs it was 3 days between pip and hatching. They aren't very fast at it. You can help as long as there's no blood veins. It's always a hard decision to help or not.

 

[Platinumsky]

When I let a chicken incubate some eggs was 3 days between pip and hatching. They aren't very fast at it. You can help as long as there's no blood veins. It's always a hard decision to help or not.

I did my best to be careful to stay away from any blood vessels in the membrane, I'm just concerned that everything seems so "sticky dry" compared to our duck eggs. We just had a small batch of Anconas that took three days to fully finish hatching and they seemed much more active than this and the membrane and fluids from hatching didn't have this same "stickiness" as the goslings if that makes sense. I'm just concerned as to why since we've been keeping a careful eye on the humidity levels since I was always told geese were far more sensitive to hatching conditions than even ducks are.

 

[Goosebaby]

You could carefully dip the little one in warm water to loosen up the crust. Goslings are weak and very wobbly for the first day or two so what you’re seeing may be normal.

 

[Platinumsky]

You could carefully dip the little one in warm water to loosen up the crust. Goslings are weak and very wobbly for the first day or two so what you’re seeing may be normal.

Thank you, any suggestions for the remaining eggs? The membrane around the bill of the one that didn't make it was as tough as leather, so I'm assuming that's part of why I'd couldn't continue to unzip itself from its egg, I just don't want that to happen to the last two.

 

[JRies]

There is no real answer in how or when to assist. But Iv learned if there not going to finish the hatch sometimes there just not. Goslings can internally pip and not do a exterior pip for 48 hours. I usually panic at 48 and create a tiny breathing hole. then sit on it for another 24 hours. The mistake is even when babies have internally piped if they have not finished there absorb and still don't need to breath. My hatcher is a pain when I remove the first day hatch it creates a vacuum when I open the door and takes all the moister out of it. I add a hot soaked wet terry bath towel to the bottom the min I open it it helps to keep the others from shrink wrapping but not always.
Had 2 severely shrink wrap this year. Your babies dose not look to bad.
The one that you opened the top of the shell looks like it is at least 24 to 48 hours away from being ready to think about hatch.
Geese are really hard to judge. Your older eggs 7 day eggs can hatch 3 days later then the first one out which is usually the freshest egg.
This weeks hatch will start on Saturday night and may not be done till Tuesday night. sometimes even Wend. All the same breed. I do loose babies from my young girls during lock down its kinda normal. Not all babies were meant to hatch.
Out of 36 eggs last hatch I had 7 that did not finish. and 2 that hatched 3 days latter, 2 scouts who had to come out and greet the world a day early.

 

[Platinumsky]

Quick update, the surviving two eggs still have movement but no more progress on pipping or zipping. The hatched one has a bit more energy stumbling around, but s/he has a hardened "chunk" of what looks like membrane (the wishbone shape in the picture by my fingertip, and yes I normally keep my hands much cleaner handling the eggs and babies but was in a bit of a rush today ) holding down its wing at a funny angle. Going to use a warm wet paper towel to try and clean up that side but I'll keep it minimal for now and let the little one grow on its own unless something else concerning comes up. Humidity spiked to 74% after putting them back, it jumps right back up to its normal levels less than a minute after closing the incubator each time, so hoping we won't have another saran wrapping incident. I'll keep everyone updated, fingers crossed.

 

[Platinumsky]

Good news is the hatched goose is doing better, the membrane stuck to it had hardened pretty bad into a "shell" if sorts but the warm water dip idea worked great to get it cleaned up and it's moving around a lot more. The pipped egg is looking about the same, peeking inside it I can't see much membrane over the gosling and he's still breathing but hasn't moved yet, it's been about 48ish hours but I'll give them some more time to finish hatching on its own. The other egg finally pipped it's outer shell a little. Keeping the humidity up, and it's still staying around 70-75% even shortly after opening the incubator.