Our latest goslings have been hatching over the last 48 hours and it looks as though we have four from five fertile eggs, with three eggs not being fertile at all. We had to help two of them out and one, a female, doesn’t look great in that she has a very twisted neck. When she is totally dry we will have to see how she looks. The other three, a second female and two males all seem fine and all four are now ensconced in the upstairs shower room as it makes am ideal broody area – and one that is dead easy to clean afterwards! So, current goose count: 27 eggs set, 20 fertile, 15 hatched and 11 still with us - we lost two shortly after hatching, one at 2 weeks and then one at four. These last two were disappearances so sadly, they were probaly got by predators!!!
We have ONE fertile egg under a chicken from a batch of 10 and then Guinevere is still laying the odd one although since Gloria died we have not seen any mating going on at all.
They certainly are proving challenging to raise these West of Englands!!!