The Guinea hatching thread

[SunHwaKwon]

I did a search and only found random threads concerning guinea egg incubation, so I thought I would start a thread for people to ask questions, share their tips and tricks, share pics of recent hatches, and so on.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I have 13 eggs scheduled for the 23rd, 10 for the 26th, 6 for the 30th, 22 for the 2nd, 12 for the 11th, and more collected every day. These will be added to the 13 keets I have from last weeks hatches. A few I am keeping and a few are going to a neighbor and the rest will be sold.

Anyway, I went to lockdown my eggs due on the 23rd this morning and almost all of them had internally pipped already! I meant to do it last night but forgot, and didn't expect them to have pipped so soon. My last batch hatched on late day 26 - early day 28. My candling also revealed a dead one that I opened up. It looked healthy, membrane was soft and moist, no excess liquid, no internal pip, so I'm not sure what happened there. It was a pied one, too

My last two hatches I have had trouble, mainly with shrink wrap but also a couple too wet. I was using the dry hatch method but decided this time to bump humidity up slightly to ~40% (about 10% higher than my last hatch). My fingers are crossed that this hatch goes smooth because only three of my keets made it out unassisted last time. I also had one with splay leg and one with something similar to flip over syndrome. Both are fine now thanks to BYC!

 

[neesieb]

I tried to incubate the first batch of eggs my guineas laid. Only one made it past the first week of incubation. I was very excited for this one little guy and i only candled him twice. I saw him moving on day 25. On day 28 with no signs of pipping i noticed an air pocket on both ends of the egg and no movement of the embryo at all. I poked a hole in the blunt end air sac and there was no movement at all. I cracked him open and he slid right out. I've attached a picture. What do you think went wrong? His face was facing upward into the correct air sac but had not poked through the membrane. I had read that guinea eggs incubated at 98.5 degrees and my incubator stayed right at that. I only opened it to add more water to the bottom trays for humidity... and twice for candling. I do not have a humidity reader. I'm at 7200 ft elevation. Any help is appreciated! I have a new batch of eggs ready to go in tomorrow. Thank you!

 

[Choco Maran]

I'm no expert but the yolk sack looks a little green may have been some bacteria that got in some how.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I tried to incubate the first batch of eggs my guineas laid. Only one made it past the first week of incubation. I was very excited for this one little guy and i only candled him twice. I saw him moving on day 25. On day 28 with no signs of pipping i noticed an air pocket on both ends of the egg and no movement of the embryo at all. I poked a hole in the blunt end air sac and there was no movement at all. I cracked him open and he slid right out. I've attached a picture. What do you think went wrong? His face was facing upward into the correct air sac but had not poked through the membrane. I had read that guinea eggs incubated at 98.5 degrees and my incubator stayed right at that. I only opened it to add more water to the bottom trays for humidity... and twice for candling. I do not have a humidity reader. I'm at 7200 ft elevation. Any help is appreciated! I have a new batch of eggs ready to go in tomorrow. Thank you!

It does look a bit watery as well, though I don't think it would have drowned if it hadn't pipped yet. I might be wrong. What kind of incubator are you using? From what I have read, 98.5 is just for hatching. Incubating is at the normal temp.

Based on my limited experience, that looks like a lot of yolk and a very small bird if it developed at least to day 25.

Since you are at high altitude, here is something you might want to read: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/2908/incubating-eggs-at-high-altitudes/

It does mention adaptations of the eggshell porosity for high altitude flocks. Considering this is your flocks first batch, maybe they have not achieved that adaptation yet, so that could be one thing. It looks like your altitude puts you at a disadvantage though.