Broody hens, more than 4 weeks

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esavvymom

esavvymom

Songster
8 Years
Jun 18, 2013
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I have four broody guinea hens sitting on a "group clutch" of eggs....I think one acts more of the guard than anything.

My question is that I think they are passed the 28 day mark, by a few. They started sitting early June. I didnt note which day, but I remember calculating that it would be around first week of July when they could be hatched. We are now a few days passed that period. And we havent seen any keets emerge (although we stay out of the coop becuase of the "guard guinea"! In and ou quickly as needed). So if the eggs are not viable, NOW what?? Will they give up on their own soon? They are sitting just inside one of the coop doors that normally is always closed. Should I open that door and encourage them to move along (maybe cool off)??
 
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I would probably take all the eggs, candle them, and put live ones in the incubator. That's what I plan to do with one of my hens who was due yesterday and shows no signs of having keets yet. I'll give her until tomorrow and then shoo her off the nest.
If that is not an option for you then give them another week or so. Chances are, some of the eggs were laid after they started brooding and may be later in hatching.
smile.png
 
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Update: We let a little more time lapse, and as expected, nothing. So finally, we devised a plan to move the birds safely. They were located in a corner of their coop right by the doors. We opened it up, and used a water hose to squirt water at them a little at a time. It irritated them enough they moved out of the coop where we locked them into their confined run. My son and I removed 45 eggs!!! Boy, am I glad they didn't hatch! wow! We didnt' bother candling since it had been more than 6 weeks. They just got dumped.

it took a few more squirts to get the hens from going back into their corner once we let them back into the coop. But by the next morning, all seemed to be forgotten, and after nearly a week, they are "back to normal" free ranging.


So if you ever have guineas go broody, but nothing produces (our males aren't the most "active", if you know what I mean), you can safely move a broody hen, or two, or three, or four! They were fine, and so were we.
 

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