Help!!! Found an abandoned goose egg!!! Most likely Canadian, I'm going to try to hatch it!

[Rubysword]

Hey there all!
So today during school, my AP Bio class went outside to look for pill bugs for a project. Some of them found and were playing with an abandoned goose egg! There was no nest, and it was cold! I already have an incubator running(hatching button quail) at 99.5-100 degrees. I'm looking for tips on how to incubate it. I can't find consistent numbers for how long they need to be incubated, nor when lockdown is. The air cell seems really small, around the size of a quarter. I'll post pics when I get home!

 

[Rubysword]

@Pyxis

 

[Pyxis]

Hi!

So bad news first. It's illegal for you to hatch that egg. Canada geese are covered under the Migratory Bird Act. It's illegal to take them or their eggs out of the wild. If you're caught with the egg or the resulting gosling, you could face fines or even jail time under the law.

To compound matters, you couldn't hatch it, raise it to adulthood, and then let it go, because Canada geese need to learn the migration routes from their parents. Without parents to teach it the migration routes, if you let it go, it would not be able to migrate in the winter and would starve to death.

So, if you did hatch it, you'd be stuck with an illegal bird for possibly upwards of 20 years, and all that time there would be the risk you would be caught and face those fines or time in jail.

You might be able to hatch it and then immediately turn it over to a wildlife rehabber as a solution to all this. This isn't like hatching mallards where there are domestic mallards so you could get away with hatching one and no one would probably know. To even own Canada geese, even those hatched from domestic parents, you need a permit.

So, all that said, if you want to hatch it and think you can find a rehabber to take it as soon as it hatches, this guide will tell you all you need to know:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=491013

 

[casportpony]

I never incubated them in an incubator, but I did hatch two under a chicken .

 

[Rubysword]

So even though the egg would die on it's own, it's illegal to hatch it??? We have a zoo nearby who takes abandoned goslings, bu they aren't equipped with incubators.

 

[casportpony]

Hi!

So bad news first. It's illegal for you to hatch that egg. Canada geese are covered under the Migratory Bird Act. It's illegal to take them or their eggs out of the wild. If you're caught with the egg or the resulting gosling, you could face fines or even jail time under the law.

To compound matters, you couldn't hatch it, raise it to adulthood, and then let it go, because Canada geese need to learn the migration routes from their parents. Without parents to teach it the migration routes, if you let it go, it would not be able to migrate in the winter and would starve to death.

So, if you did hatch it, you'd be stuck with an illegal bird for possibly upwards of 20 years, and all that time there would be the risk you would be caught and face those fines or time in jail.

You might be able to hatch it and then immediately turn it over to a wildlife rehabber as a solution to all this. This isn't like hatching mallards where there are domestic mallards so you could get away with hatching one and no one would probably know. To even own Canada geese, even those hatched from domestic parents, you need a permit.

So, all that said, if you want to hatch it and think you can find a rehabber to take it as soon as it hatches, this guide will tell you all you need to know:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=491013

 

[casportpony]

So even though the egg would die on it's own, it's illegal to hatch it??? We have a zoo nearby who takes abandoned goslings, bu they aren't equipped with incubators.

Yes.

 

[casportpony]

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it illegal for anyone to take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, purchase, or barter, any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs of such a bird except under the terms of a valid permit issued pursuant to Federal regulations.
https://www.fws.gov/birds/policies-and-regulations/laws-legislations/migratory-bird-treaty-act.php

 

[Pyxis]

So even though the egg would die on it's own, it's illegal to hatch it??? We have a zoo nearby who takes abandoned goslings, bu they aren't equipped with incubators.

Yes, unfortunately. The zoo seems like a good solution - maybe you could incubate this egg and then if it hatches turn the baby over to the zoo. There's very little chance you would be caught with an illegal egg, lol.

 

[Rubysword]

Thank you so much! I'll keep this thread posted on the process.