Guinea laying patterns

[mommaguinea]

All of the guinea lovers- I have a question. My girls have been pretty steady but suddenly have fewer eggs and sometimes a soft shell. They are on a turkey grower for protein and calcium. Do they have up and down cycles over the laying season?

 

[R2elk]

All of the guinea lovers- I have a question. My girls have been pretty steady but suddenly have fewer eggs and sometimes a soft shell. They are on a turkey grower for protein and calcium. Do they have up and down cycles over the laying season?

Since your guineas are laying, that means they are adults. As adults they do not need turkey grower, any good quality poultry feed with at least 16% protein is sufficient. A soft shell egg may mean that they are not getting sufficient calcium or it may mean that their bodies are not properly using the calcium that is available. You may want to consider feeding them a quality lay mix to see if it will stop the soft shell eggs.

They are a seasonal layer and depending when your guineas started laying, it may be time for them to be tapering off. I have turkeys also and they are also seasonal layers. Sometimes turkeys nearing the end of the laying cycle would lay soft shell eggs even though they had plenty of calcium available to them. I do not know why this happens but it did happen.