Anyone's banty ever hatched out guineas?

[Remudamom]

I don't know if these guinea eggs are even fertile, how could I tell? And then how do you keep the eggs until the hen goes broody? She's thinking about it, but not quite ready yet.

Of course, if my other guinea isn't a male, it's all moot. I can't tell.

 

[dancingbear]

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Chickens are good at hatching guineas. Doesn't matter if they bantam or large fowl. I have a chicken mom with keets right now.

How to tell the boys guineas from the girls: Two ways, 1st is the wattles on the side of the face. This is not 100% reliable, but probably at least 90%. On the females, the wattles lay back against the face, pointing down at an angle toward the wing. Males, the wattles stick out, like if you put your hands up beside your face, palms out, and cup your hands. Like a little scoop, scoop side forward.

Now That I've carefully explained this, I'll tell you how I know it's not 100%: I have a purple female with wattles like a male, and I used to have a female that have one wattle of each type, one looked male, the other female.

Which brings me to the other, more certain way to tell, but hard unless you have time to observe and see for sure who's doing what.

Females make a two syllable call. Males never do. Both genders can do that annoying machine-gun noise, but only the girls call "er-ERK! er-ERK! er-ERK! er-ERK!" The boys say "ERK! ERK! ERK! ERK! ERK!"

Many say females sound like "Buckwheat! Buckwheat!", but it doesn't sound that way to me.

 

[James Hudson]

I hadn't had that experience

 

[Remudamom]

I've heard the female do the buckwheat and the one syllable call. The other I've just heard do the one.

As of this afternoon I'm pretty sure the other is male.

What do I do with the eggs until my hen goes broody??

 

[Marlinchaser]

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eat them same as any other egg. just dont try to crack them on the edge of your good china.

 

[Marlinchaser]

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You can save them for about 2 weeks, and still have good fertility, remember if they were in the wild they lay till there are enough eggs for them to think it is enough to sit on, so you can gather eggs for a while, but if putting under a banty, you really wont want much more than a weeks worth anyhow. And yes a banty will hatch them if given the chance.

 

[dancingbear]

Females can do both calls, males never do the 2 syllable call. So, yeah, it sounds like you have one of each.

When your banty goes broody, make sure her nest is not where the guinea laid the eggs. And have a place to separate her and her babies for a few weeks. Guineas will sometime try to take the keets from the hen, even though they didn't hatch them. They know which ones are baby guineas, and they want them! Chickens make great parents for keets, and once they're big enough to be ok without mom, they'll eventually start hanging out with the adult guineas, at least in the daytime. They'll probably follow mom around as long as she'll let them.