Infertile goose eggs--or just nonviable?

[Anonymous]

My broody goose just gave up sitting on a clutch of ~30 eggs, after 40+ days of conscientious sitting. I never saw her leave the nest for more than ~5 minutes before she finally and definitively abandoned the eggs. Curious about the problem, I collected the eggs and cracked them. Nearly all exploded after a gentle tap, and the stinky contents resembled a thick, semi-solid, fairly uniformly yellow custard. A few were all or partly dark green. Only two eggs looked like a regular raw egg, with a discrete yolk surrounded by runny albumen. None of the eggs had a recognizable partially developed fetal chick inside.

I have two female geese and two ganders. Only one goose sat on the nest, and although I assume both geese contributed eggs to the nest, I was never present to see one actually laying. As none of the eggs hatched, I wonder if my ganders had ever done their jobs and mated with the girls. I have never seen them mating at all, although I see that all the time with my ducks and chickens.

My questions: Does it sound to you like any of these eggs were ever fertilized? What does a rotten unfertilized egg look like? What does a rotten fertilized and partially developed egg look like? Any suggestions on what to try next year?

 

[Anonymous]

if they were fertile i would of thought you would have seen veins and development when you cracked them open. sounds like he hasnt been doing the do! dissapointing when you are expecting babies though.

 

[LITTLENELL]

So frustrating isn't it?! Our goose sat on a clutch of 10, but one exploded, so I candled the others and a few had stopped developing. I put those I was not sure about back in, she carried on sitting. Another exploded and this time I could see remains of a very small gosling, so they all stopped growing some time ago. Shame as we only hatched a couple before she started to sit. I have 2 geese/2 ganders as well. You can tell if they are doing their thing by checking a cracked egg and looking at the litle white dot, which should resemble a little donut if it is fertile. This is what I did before I incubated or let her sit.