Anyone got any magic Guinea hatching tips?

[Tevian]

I’ve tried for a couple of years now to hatch my own guineas. Incubator, under chickens, or letting the Guinea hens actually sit on their clutches (when they choose a safe spot, which… doesn’t seem to be often), and every time my success is abysmal. I have successfully raised a grand total of three to adulthood. Out of about 25-30 that have hatched.

When I put them in the incubator they stop developing halfway through, or the one or two that do hatch then die a day or two later. My most successful incubator hatch left me with 80% of the keets with spraddle leg, before I put non slip lining in it, so I had to euthanise them. (I know spraddle leg can be treatable but I have very poor hand dexterity so it wasn’t feasible). I know my incubator works fine cause I hatch chickens no problem.

One of my Wyandotte hens has been way more successful than me, she has raised the three to adulthood. But she is no longer laying or going broody and tbh I think she’s sick of the Guineas.

My Guinea hens are, if possible, worse than I am. I had one try to nest on flat ground out in the open on my driveway once. One nested in the cattle grid and all her eggs got drowned in a storm. Their eggs get eaten by goannas. Stomped by cows. Found by the dogs before I even know anyones sitting. Two hens have hatched chicks; one squashed all her chicks, and the other vanished presumed eaten along with all her babies.

At this point I only have one hen left, and 8 males. I had a flock of 14 at one point. Terrible things seem to happen to them. I do plan to buy more but I’d like to have semi self-sustaining population. They keep the snakes and ticks away so effectively.
Everyone else seems to breed them so easily, are you guys magic? What spells do I need to cast to appease the Guinea gods lol.
Any tips/tricks/advice??? TIA

 

[SmiYa0126]

Hello! What temperature do you have your incubator at?

What do you feed your adult guineas? Where are your adult guineas housed?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/incubating-and-hatching-guinea-fowl.67507/

 

[R2elk]

I’ve tried for a couple of years now to hatch my own guineas. Incubator, under chickens, or letting the Guinea hens actually sit on their clutches (when they choose a safe spot, which… doesn’t seem to be often), and every time my success is abysmal. I have successfully raised a grand total of three to adulthood. Out of about 25-30 that have hatched.

When I put them in the incubator they stop developing halfway through, or the one or two that do hatch then die a day or two later. My most successful incubator hatch left me with 80% of the keets with spraddle leg, before I put non slip lining in it, so I had to euthanise them. (I know spraddle leg can be treatable but I have very poor hand dexterity so it wasn’t feasible). I know my incubator works fine cause I hatch chickens no problem.

One of my Wyandotte hens has been way more successful than me, she has raised the three to adulthood. But she is no longer laying or going broody and tbh I think she’s sick of the Guineas.

My Guinea hens are, if possible, worse than I am. I had one try to nest on flat ground out in the open on my driveway once. One nested in the cattle grid and all her eggs got drowned in a storm. Their eggs get eaten by goannas. Stomped by cows. Found by the dogs before I even know anyones sitting. Two hens have hatched chicks; one squashed all her chicks, and the other vanished presumed eaten along with all her babies.

At this point I only have one hen left, and 8 males. I had a flock of 14 at one point. Terrible things seem to happen to them. I do plan to buy more but I’d like to have semi self-sustaining population. They keep the snakes and ticks away so effectively.
Everyone else seems to breed them so easily, are you guys magic? What spells do I need to cast to appease the Guinea gods lol.
Any tips/tricks/advice??? TIA

One of the major issues can be a flock that is too closely related.

 

[Isadora]

I don't have a ton of experience but I'll share it.
I had my broody hen a guinea egg and she hatched and raised the keet just like her other chicks.
I wouldnt let a guinea hatch out her own unless she had her nest in a secure place, due to the reasons you mentioned. I've heard they are decent sitters but are not careful about the keets once they hatch.
I've only hatched a few in the incubator. Didn't have a high rate but most were not even fertile because I only had a few males at the time. 3 hatched and one we killed the second day due to neurological type issues and the other developed slipped tendons that didn't respond to treatment so ended up culling that one as well.

 

[Tevian]

Hello! What temperature do you have your incubator at?

What do you feed your adult guineas? Where are your adult guineas housed?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/incubating-and-hatching-guinea-fowl.67507/

My incubator is on 37.7°C until lockdown, then on 37.2°C with increased humidity (sorry don’t know the F translations to that!)
My adults free range and roost in the trees. Sometimes they come and eat a bit of the grain mix I feed my hens but not always.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Hmmm, everything looks ok. You may need to get some keets to introduce a more diverse gene pool.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

My incubator is on 37.7°C until lockdown, then on 37.2°C with increased humidity (sorry don’t know the F translations to that!)
My adults free range and roost in the trees. Sometimes they come and eat a bit of the grain mix I feed my hens but not always.

My own recent hatching experience has been variable and frustrating, but I think it’s incubator conditions and letting multiple hens share a nest. If your hen would go broody in your coop, she would have a decent shot of hatching them, then you could consider raising the keets in a brooder if need be. As for your incubator, what humidity are you incubator bating with? I recently bumped up my incubation humidity to about 45% until lockdown, then 65%. This seemed to improve my hatch rate.

 

[Tevian]

My own recent hatching experience has been variable and frustrating, but I think it’s incubator conditions and letting multiple hens share a nest. If your hen would go broody in your coop, she would have a decent shot of hatching them, then you could consider raising the keets in a brooder if need be. As for your incubator, what humidity are you incubator bating with? I recently bumped up my incubation humidity to about 45% until lockdown, then 65%. This seemed to improve my hatch rate.

I really wish the hens would try to nest in the chicken run! Or somewhere where I could sneak a cage on top of them lol.

I’m not sure what the humidity setting is on my incubator, it’s set automatically and the display only reads the temp. The way it’s set up is it only has two humidity settings sort of. You put water in these special inlets and the humidity is set from there. (It’s a borotto Lumia 8 incubator)

 

[R2elk]

I really wish the hens would try to nest in the chicken run! Or somewhere where I could sneak a cage on top of them lol.

I’m not sure what the humidity setting is on my incubator, it’s set automatically and the display only reads the temp. The way it’s set up is it only has two humidity settings sort of. You put water in these special inlets and the humidity is set from there. (It’s a borotto Lumia 8 incubator)

Get a hygrometer. Calibrate it with the salt method. @WVduckchick has a link to her information on hygrometers in her signature.

You should not trust either the temperature or humidity gauges that come with incubators. You should have a thermometer that is reliable to double check the incubator's temperature and a salt calibrated hygrometer to check the humidity.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Get a hygrometer. Calibrate it with the salt method. @WVduckchick has a link to her information on hygrometers in her signature.

You should not trust either the temperature or humidity gauges that come with incubators. You should have a thermometer that is reliable to double check the incubator's temperature and a salt calibrated hygrometer to check the humidity.

Yes - definitely!