25 eggs..4 pips.. will they drown in the water?

[georgia531]

i should have left them in the incubator i guess, but it is really wet in there, and i hatched in cartons, and one was stuck upside down in an empty space and screaming, so i opened the top window and grabbed them. i helped 3 that were pipped since yesterday with no progress, i really felt it was time.. there was no blood and the shells were really hard. but now they are pretty weak and 2 are not holding their head up yet, so im on the fence about helping 2 that are not making progress.. their is one hatched in there im leaving him in there. the first one that hatched is lavender pied, its a beauty.. one i helped looks pearl pied, its even prettier.. the rest look pearl. i had a buff hen was hoping for one of those, but not yet.. their are 9 eggs left in there, and today is day 27. i have to get batterys for my camera so later today i will have pictures... love you peeps.

 

[PeepsCA]

While you are out getting batteries, pick up some poultry electrolytes or at least some clear pedialyte and quickly dip the weak keets' beaks in it a few times, make sure they get a few swallows each time. Hopefully that will help perk them up

It's hard to know when/if to help or not... I used to help a lot too, but usually 9 times out of 10 it's the wrong thing to do.

Hope at least one of the 9 remaining eggs turns out to be a buff keet for you! Good luck

 

[georgia531]

i always have save-a-chick on hand.. they are doing good. they've all had water and alot of them are eating and drinking.. the one does not look good at all. its real big, it was the first one to pip..i will be real surprised if he makes it.. the other 2 i helped are doing good and moving around alot. i learned alot this time. there are 4 laying in the incubator that i also helped the shells were too hard. they were making NO progress.. and that was my fault i think for opening the incubator this morning to get the others out.. it was too crowded in there and too wet. i went through the window but it still made a difference in a bad way. next time i am filling the troughs with paper towels, using the shelf stuff and going away the day of the hatch so i cant mess with it... 8 eggs still in there no pips... will let you know how it all turns out... with pictures. thank you so much. how long should i leave the 8 eggs in there?

 

[PeepsCA]

Guinea shells are super hard and thick compared to chicken eggs, so that is normal (thin Guinea egg shells are not normal). If the keets can pip the shell... and they have enough humidity (which it sounds like yours did), then they can continue to zip and eventually get out if they were meant to. They don't always pip and then hatch a short time later... they pip, rest, zip a little, rest some more, zip some more, rest again, etc. With my hatches sometimes it takes 2 to 2 1/2 days for some of them to go from pip to hatch.

I open my incubators all the time (quickly of course), I usually just make sure to give the remaining eggs a quick mist with a fine spray mister bottle then close the lid. I don't think you messed up your hatch by opening your incubator, so don't beat yourself up thinking it's your fault.

There are lots of reasons why hatch rates can be low... still air incubators (especially the Little Giant brand) are less reliable and less stable than circulated air incubators, so maybe for your next batch you can get the fan kit for that incubator? I added a cheapo PC fan to my 2 LG still air incubators and use one as a designated hatcher only, the other I do use as an incubator when I need it, but I don't put any eggs in it that I'm really counting on hatching, lol. I have 3 better quality incubators (2 Hovabator 1588s, and 1 made by Fall Harvest Products) that are circulated air, with fans already in them and I get really decent hatch rates out of all 3 of those.

As far as it being too wet in the incubator... as long as the keets were kept at 98.5-99.5 degrees I doubt it would be an issue. Drying off in the brooder may have gotten them chilled tho... but it's hard to say. If you are concerned about the other eggs being too wet, you could open the viewing window, drop in some paper towels to soak up some extra water, close the wondow then reach in and grab the paper towels a while later after they are saturated.

Regarding how long to leave the last 8 eggs in there... I would wait until after the end of day 28, re-candle them and if you see movement put them back in and give them another day or so. I'd make sure for certain that they are early deaths before giving up on them, otherwise you risk tossing live keets that are just a couple days behind everybody else. I've found that there are warmer and cooler areas in incubators, so it is not at all uncommon for some eggs to develop faster or slower than the others. I usually rotate my eggs in the incubator each time I candle them so they are more evenly heated throughout incubation.

Good job on already having the Save-A-Chick, if you loose one at least you know you tried.

Hope you get at least a few more keets. Hang in there and good luck.

 

[georgia531]

im not good at seeing movement in candled eggs, but i will try tonight when it gets dark... the incubator is a new hovabator, just plugged it in for this hatch.. still air. i do have an old computor... hmmm

 

[georgia531]

Well the one i thought i would loose for sure is up and eating and drinking.. he looks kinda funny though.. like he's too big. his eyes look small. will have to wait it out and see what happens.. so i have 18 at this point.. the one i thought was a pearl pied i was told is a royal purple. it has white wings and pearl strip down its back.. there is a lavender one like that too. i promise pictures tomorrow. thanks for the encouragement. i will be sure to not make the mistakes i made today next time.. (august 6th)

 

[PeepsCA]

Broken or squiggly stripes on the head, and white wings all the way to the shoulders indicate the keet will feather out as a partially pearled adult (ie; Royal Purple, Chocolate, Buff, Coral Blue, etc depending on the color of the broken or squiggly stripes on the head and the color of the body stripes). Sounds like you might have a Coral Blue (my FAV!).

The big keet that pulled thru could be a hybrid if you have a chicken Rooster or Turkey Tom that free ranges with your Guineas

Or it could look weird because it has some genetic defects

Take a pic of that one too if you can.

I think for your first Guinea hatch it turned out pretty good... 6 keets would have been what I'd consider a bad hatch, but you have 18! Well maybe 17, but still, that's a nice little addition to your flock!

Congrats!

 

[georgia531]

well i never made it out to get the batterys.. woke up at 4:15 to check the temp in the temporary brooder and they were a little cold. not making noise but all piled together.. so i hooked up the heat bulb and waited 20 minutes and it was too hot.. so now i raised the bulb and am waiting to check the temp so i can go back to bed and try to get 2 more hours sleep... fat chance probably. so while i am waiting i looked up on the guinea fowl international color chart and found this picture of royal purple keets... i have 2 that look exactly like this... i will get the pictures on here of my own today.. all 18 are doing good. me, im a little bleary.

 

[georgia531]

after looking at that picture again, i was wondering, how soon can they go on wire floor? and any tips for keeping the food from being all throw away? as always, thank you in advance.

 

[PeepsCA]

Personally I'd wait until they are at least 2 weeks old to be on wire, long enough to let them grow plenty of feathers. They may still need a heat source at night depending on your weather and night time temps. Wire floored cages/brooders are pretty drafty, so making sure they stay warm enough all night long would be a concern. You'll want to provide an area for them to get off of the wire (like a large piece of plywood and/or some straw) and some low perches so they can give their feet a rest. You'll want to watch and make sure that the wire isn't causing any sores on their feet.

Keets are messy eaters, and if given the opportunity they will scratch and kick starter feed everywhere, lol (and poop in it!). Reel top feeders work pretty good, (long narrow feeders with a rotating rod on top that doesn't allow them to perch on top of it) but I mostly use the round metal base feeders (with 8 holes in the top) and then I have those sitting in small rubber feed dishes so that if they do scratch it out, they can't waste much. I use the version that the mason jars screw into for larger batches of keets, and then later on as they grow I move on to using hanging feeders, hanging them at about shoulder height to the birds. Hanging waterers are nice too, keeps them clean. Maybe other's have better suggestions, this is just what works for me and all the keets I hatch and raise.

Hope ya got some sleep