Imprinting

Imprinting is a process that helps ducks and geese identify themselves. They will consider the first being they see as their mother, then the others as their siblings. If they are hatched from an incubator, and handled by humans, they will think they are humans, and will not mate with other geese. They will also seek human company.
IMPRINTING
To avoid this, I limited eye contact with the gosling, who is still in the brooder, on his third day now.
This morning while I was feeding the goats, the mother hen got out of the nest. I took advantage of this to take one of the eggs from the incubator and set it into the nest. There are now 5 eggs in the nest, and three in the incubator. I also ran a power cord from the barn to the geese shed. The next time the hen gets out, I will try to set a second brooder there, then I will set the gosling in there for a day or two, so that the hen will get used to his chirping. After that, I can try to set him in the nest, in hope she will recognize him.
The next weeks should be interesting as far as the geese.

First Gosling

Our first live gosling hatched today. Sadly, a second gosling died at hatching. Out of the 5 first eggs, two eggs were bad, two were dead at hatching, and one only survived. So far the gosling is still alive tonight, has dried up, and it now eating and drinking.
I understand better why the two others died. I had to help this gosling to hatch, and realize that the egg shell is way too dry. The incubator doesn't have enough moisture in it. I also need to get a goose egg turner, which will make the incubation process a lot easier.

Here is a pic of our gosling, about 12 hours after hatching:


The next hatch is due 5 to 6 days from now.