Guinea egg hatching now!

[HarmonyHen]

Questions...help please...X-post with incubating & hatching forum...

Hi all,

I have 3 female guineas who have been tag-brooding a nest for over a month now. I noticed that all were outside together a little bit ago and decided to go inside to investigate since i haven't been able to get at the nest in weeks...wanted to candle a couple to see if any were developed/developing. Much to my surprise, one egg was cracked and I could see movement inside. When mama squawked, it answered back with chirps! Several more appear to be developed. So...now what? I have brooded chickens before but they were already hatched...do I take the eggs in anticipation of them hatching and bring them into a brooder box inside? Let the mamas take care of them? I know they are notoriously poor mums. I don't really have a set up to keep a mom and the littles separate. I had suspected that they were going to be duds based on my one opportunity to check them and the brooding seemed to be going on far longer than a month.

I can raise the keets, its just a matter of taking the eggs now or waiting until they hatch.

Can they be outside in the coop 24/7? Its high 70s low 80s during the day and 60s-70s at night...the coop stays warmer at night.

At what rate (# per day) might they hatch? The hens laid anywhere from 1-3 eggs per day when I was "stealing" them initially. I have a clutch of approx. 25 eggs.

 

[mommaguinea]

One of the problems with guineas is the propensity to share a nest, creating eggs that develop at different rates. I have had little success with natural keet raising and ended up putting bales around a nest to keep mom from taking the babies out too early. She ended up hatching 5 over a two week period. One was not doing well so I put it with my incubator hatched babies. She has successfully raised tow keets so far- about 5 weeks old.
so- they can and will leave the nest while others are developing,but probably not while they hear responses.

It really depends on your preference. I took about 20 eggs off the nest of one hen and put them in an incubator, hatching about 12. She continued to try and set and others were still dumping eggs, getting so many that the originals did not get properly incubated and died. If she has hatched them, she will go back to the nest and keep them warm at night for a while, but I do not know your predator situation. If that is OK, I might suggest you let her hatch them and candle the rest when you can to see what is happening. If you want to guarantee their survival, pull the keets.

 

[floodc]

I had 2 guineas sharing a nest. They had a problem with a few early hatching keets. 3 hatched before the rest and we lost 2. I can't say for sure what happened - stepped on by a chicken or the mamas didn't know what to do with them before the rest hatched....

The rest hatched within a 24 hour period. (I panicked after the first keets died and brought the eggs into an incubator.)

My guinea mamas turned out to be great mothers once they got off the nest (after I took the eggs). I ended up giving them back all the keets - 2 the first night they hatched in the incubator, then the rest over the next nights.

Now, the keets are 3 weeks old. I do have to keep them in the coop when it's wet out, but the mothers are doing a great job of keeping them warm, safe, and together.

One problem we did have was the new keets didn't understand the ladder to the coop.... It's hard wrangling 10 keets and upset guinea mamas, so if your coop is raised, you may have to get creative to help the keets go up!

I'd say let the guinea mothers raise the keets, but if you do incubate the eggs and raise the keets yourself, you'll have to give them a heat source (a light or heater), like chicks. They need to be 95 degrees the first week, then 5 degrees cooler each week until they reach the outside temp.

I wouldn't put the keets out in an open coop right away unless you're planning to let the mothers raise them. They run all over the place. Mine are fine with their mothers in our coop with the chickens. The chickens pretty much leave the guineas and keets alone.

Just careful about keeping the keets dry and don't let them out until the dew is off the grass, especially for the first 2 weeks. (Wet keets catch respiratory illnesses and die and they're so short that running through wet grass, they just breath in the water.)

If your's don't turn out to be great mothers, take the keets. If yours are like mine, you'll be laughing at the keets antics during "roosting practice" with their mothers.

Good luck!

 

[HarmonyHen]

Well, the keet from Monday hatched all the way out by Tuesday @ 6 AM and is happily eating, drinking, and exploring his/her brooder box. I've had several batches of chicks so it was easy to set up quickly for the little guy. However, none of the rest of the eggs in my DIY 'bator are showing any signs of new hatches. I'm hopeful that we'll get a couple more. I'm going to raise them inside like my chicks until we determine how many we're likely to have...I cannot keep 40 keets...and I plan to sell them if we end up with more than 5. There's a pretty good market for them here in western PA as we have an awful tick problem.