Dmontgomery
Songster
Gertrude the Guinea started laying her eggs for the Spring on April 8. Since “rescuing” her and her mate, Gary, two years ago, she has had nothing but bad luck trying to hatch out keets. Hopefully, this year will be different.
Her first attempt in the fall of 2016 was in some DEEP underbrush on the side of a seldom used oil well service road on the edge of our property. I found the nest after the oil company came through and cleared the land on each side of the road so their trucks could pass. We were fortunate that the bush hog mower was set high enough to just miss her eggs. We were also fortunate that we found the nest before she started setting or the coyotes would have gotten her.
In 2017 her first nest was in a mall ravine in the woods. After a couple weeks we got 14 inches of rain and the nest was gone. Again fortunate because of the coyote problem. In the summer she actually made a nest in a pile of hay inside the coop! When she got the clutch up to 15, the snakes showed up and got them all in just a couple days. In the fall she again made her nest in the coop and proudly started to sit on a total of 25 eggs. Unfortunately, we had a long stretch of days with the temperatures over 100*. Then Tropical Storm Harvey dumped 32” of rain on us in 3 days. I assume the combination of extreme heat and humidity ruined all the eggs. A couple actually exploded in the nest causing a stinky mess. We ended up tossing all of them out when she finally abandoned the nest. I kinda feel bad for her. Nearly 100 eggs and no reward. But then I read how bad they are about protecting their babies. We live in an area where the ground is wet every morning from the humidity, so some wouldn’t have survived anyway.
I wanted an incubator for Christmas but got a pair of really nice pair of Duluth Trading work pants instead. I built a new brooder last fall to handle up to 20 chicks or 25 keets. So this year we are hoping for better.
Anyway, back to the original purpose of this thread! Gertrude layed 6 eggs, and then a Buff Orpington went broody. We put a few chicken eggs under the Orpington and waited a couple days to make sure she was serious about setting. She was! By then Gertrude had 8, so we put them all under the Orpington and put her eggs back in Gertrude’s nest so she would keep laying.
The next day Gertrude went to the nest to lay but a Black Jersey Giant was there pretending to lay an egg. Gertrude and Gary paced back and forth for most of the afternoon waiting. Finally, Gertrude gave up and got in a regular honest to God nesting box and layed her egg! Yesterday she layed in the nesting box again!
So now we have 8 guinea eggs under one hen and a guinea starting a new clutch in a real nesting box. We decided to let Gertrude go and see what happens. It would be great if she quit hiding nests and used on the boxes from now on. I can easily build a wood frame with wire in front of the box to keep newly hatched keets from getting out to wet grass and then scoop them up to place in the brooder after they are ready.
If you’ve stuck with me this long and read all the way to the end, thank you. You must really love guineas. Any ideas/suggestions you have to help me with this experiment would be greatly appreciated.
Her first attempt in the fall of 2016 was in some DEEP underbrush on the side of a seldom used oil well service road on the edge of our property. I found the nest after the oil company came through and cleared the land on each side of the road so their trucks could pass. We were fortunate that the bush hog mower was set high enough to just miss her eggs. We were also fortunate that we found the nest before she started setting or the coyotes would have gotten her.
In 2017 her first nest was in a mall ravine in the woods. After a couple weeks we got 14 inches of rain and the nest was gone. Again fortunate because of the coyote problem. In the summer she actually made a nest in a pile of hay inside the coop! When she got the clutch up to 15, the snakes showed up and got them all in just a couple days. In the fall she again made her nest in the coop and proudly started to sit on a total of 25 eggs. Unfortunately, we had a long stretch of days with the temperatures over 100*. Then Tropical Storm Harvey dumped 32” of rain on us in 3 days. I assume the combination of extreme heat and humidity ruined all the eggs. A couple actually exploded in the nest causing a stinky mess. We ended up tossing all of them out when she finally abandoned the nest. I kinda feel bad for her. Nearly 100 eggs and no reward. But then I read how bad they are about protecting their babies. We live in an area where the ground is wet every morning from the humidity, so some wouldn’t have survived anyway.
I wanted an incubator for Christmas but got a pair of really nice pair of Duluth Trading work pants instead. I built a new brooder last fall to handle up to 20 chicks or 25 keets. So this year we are hoping for better.
Anyway, back to the original purpose of this thread! Gertrude layed 6 eggs, and then a Buff Orpington went broody. We put a few chicken eggs under the Orpington and waited a couple days to make sure she was serious about setting. She was! By then Gertrude had 8, so we put them all under the Orpington and put her eggs back in Gertrude’s nest so she would keep laying.
The next day Gertrude went to the nest to lay but a Black Jersey Giant was there pretending to lay an egg. Gertrude and Gary paced back and forth for most of the afternoon waiting. Finally, Gertrude gave up and got in a regular honest to God nesting box and layed her egg! Yesterday she layed in the nesting box again!
So now we have 8 guinea eggs under one hen and a guinea starting a new clutch in a real nesting box. We decided to let Gertrude go and see what happens. It would be great if she quit hiding nests and used on the boxes from now on. I can easily build a wood frame with wire in front of the box to keep newly hatched keets from getting out to wet grass and then scoop them up to place in the brooder after they are ready.
If you’ve stuck with me this long and read all the way to the end, thank you. You must really love guineas. Any ideas/suggestions you have to help me with this experiment would be greatly appreciated.
