Guinea sitting on nest in chicken coop!

Hi there! I'm new here and have a few questions.
I've got 3 guineas (I think 1 male and 2 females) - they always used to stick together like glue in the day and at night roosting in the tree by the chicken coop - but now 2 of them wander around together and one stays on its own (don't even know where it roosts!) I think the loner is the male. Anyone else have that kind of behavior?
I noticed the 2 girls laying eggs behind a tree a month or so ago and moved the eggs onto a pile of hay in the chicken coop, where amazingly they laid their eggs the very next day and have done every since...................I removed a whole load, and left a load there over the past 2 weeks, and now I have a guinea sitting on them, all day and night. Sometimes the other guinea sits on the nest with her - LOL.

So my real question is right now, if she's going to try and hatch some keets out (and I have no idea if the eggs are fertile or not!) will she leave the nest to eat, there is chicken food and water in the coop. And the coop door is open in the day so that the 3 chicken girls can free range.

I'm kind of excited about the prospect of having some home hatched keets - and want to make sure I am doing the right things!

Any advice is really welcome - thanks!

I've only let a few of my Hens brood a clutch of eggs a half a dozen times or so (they never chose very safe places, so I collect all eggs for incubation and consumption now), but they usually got up for a short break to eat, drink and go potty, then they ran right back to the nest... sometimes they did this twice a day (because I called all of the Guineas up to the driveway and fed everybody twice a day), but usually one break a day was more the norm towards the end of the brooding period.

If your Hen, or Hens are serious about brooding the eggs, they will still eat and drink (a little) and get right back on the nest, especially if food and water is close by in the coop.

LOL PeepsCA - your list of animals is ever crazier than mine - I love your 4 and a half horses We also have 4 horses and a variety of cats and dogs.............not to mention the chickens (Rosie has her own facebook page with friends worldwide!) and guineas.

Sorry if I didn't make it clear, one of the guineas is sitting on the nest, not a hen. I just spied her out having a wander with her friend, but she has scuttled back to the nest to resume sitting again!

I'm just going to have to wait and see what happens I guess!

Good to know I'm not the only half looped person with a long list of animals, lol My mini mare is 31 inches tall and can pretty much walk under the bellies of all the full sized horses, lol. She holds her own tho, and gives the Donkey a butt kickin' if he gets hear her feeder at feeding time, lol. Her name is Sassy and it fits!

Just to clarify on my end... I did mean Guinea Hens, not Chicken Hens. I don't own any Chickens, just Guineas, so I refer to all of my female Guineas as *Hens*

Anyway, congrats on the broody Guinea, hope you get some cute little keets in a few weeks! (We need a guinea hatching emoticon!)

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The next time you see her out on a wander, you could do a quick candle and see if anything is developing...

So......................tonight when the 3 chickens are back in the coop and I go to shut them up - both the female guineas are in there sitting on their nest! This is getting really interesting now! The guinea that I think is a male stopped by today for a good old eat of food in the coop and then disappeared again - so very weird, he appears from nowhere and then goes....................I try and keep an eye on where he goes, take my eyes off him for one second and he is gone, just disappears into thin air, I have no idea where he is roosting at night! The dynamics of my guineas has changed so much over the past few weeks, its fascinating.

I did start out 2 years ago with 12 one day old 'hens' but Geraldine and Betty turned into Roosters, I gave 4 hens away as we were getting too many eggs, then I had a bit of disaster when I adopted a chocolate labrador who attacked 2 hens, then Ruby (Rhode Island Red) was killed by a truck when the girls were wandering away from home which I warned them about!

So now I have Rosie Chicken, Cyndi Lauper and Cilla Black, my 3 faithful chickens........................who are sharing their coop with 2 broody guineas! I got the guineas last year in a moment of utter madness when they were just a day old!

I'm not even sure I want anymore screeching guineas, but boy oh boy do they keep me amused (as do my 3 chickens!), we sit on the deck every afternoon discussing the day...............ok, I probably need to get a life - LOL.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002169229063

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Hmm... sounds like the Guinea that you think is a male might actually be a Guinea Hen with a hidden nest somewhere instead. Usually the males stay close to their Hens, and in my flocks the Hens are most often the ones that show up for a quick bite to eat and then run back to their nest. Is it possibly that one of the 2 Guineas you saw sitting on the nest in the coop could be the male? Or maybe you have all 3 female Guineas and they are all trying to brood infertile eggs. I'd go looking for that mystery Guinea.. you might be surprised and find a big clutch of eggs somewhere!

Peeps, I think you may be right! I'm pretty sure that the 2 sitters are female as I was getting 2 eggs a day in the nest in the coop, I've never seen the loner/wanderer on the nest. After watching a few youtube vids of male and female calls, I've got a funny feeling I've got 3 females!

My 3 creeps are in this clip I made last year when they were more vocal, the one making the noise on the left is the loner.............perhaps you can give me your opinion on whether its a he or a she? I'm soooooooooooooo confused!


Thanks!

I was only able to hear/see 2 of them making the female call in that video (and that's how I 100% positively ID/sex the females, the males will not make that call, ever).

The Pied Pearl Grey on the left is definitely a Hen, so is the light colored bird (a Lavender?), both are squawking their heads off, lol. The plain Pearl Grey Guinea is the only one I did not see/hear making the female call.

Besides squawking I see they all 3 have similar posture, small flat wattles, and looking at the shape shape of their back sides... they all 3 seem to have a "bustle", a hump/raised area above their tail, between the tips of their wings. Hens have the bustle, males don't.

I captured a couple shots from your video to show you what I mean:
Bustles on all 3:


This shows the 2 that made the female call, and a good example of a bustle on the plain Pearl Grey Hen:


If I were you I'd try calling them for treats/food a few times a day and watch to see where that sneaky 3rd bird goes after it has a snack. I'd be willing to bet that she does have a pile of eggs hidden somewhere. If she does not come running for treats then you may have to start egg hunting, lol. Guineas are flock oriented, and the only time my Guineas go off alone is when a Hen is camping out on a nest.

Hope you figure it out, and find a pile off eggs before something nabs her, if she is indeed sitting on eggs! Good luck!!

Oh wow! PeepsCA, you are a complete superstar - thank you SO much for your help and all the info!

I'll try and follow the sneaky one and see what she is up to, and where she is hiding out.

And always a sucker for punishment, I just found a pair of male guineas for sale on craigslist locally, but they have already sold, but the kind lady gave me a telephone number for another local person she knows who has some for sale.....................so I'll give him a call later and see what he's got! Now my girls are laying, I want home grown keets!

Thank you sooooooooo much once again!