brooding with a substitute

[prairie]

Hope you all can give me some advice! I did see a thread about 'old fashioned brooding' but can't seem to find it again.

However, my question is this. I have guineas but want a chicken to brood the eggs. I don't need any more chickens so therefore don't have a rooster but I do have 5 guineas (male and female). Two of the guinea hens have been terrible in sticking with their clutch --so I bought a Cornish banty. The man I bought her from said she just hatched out 13 chicks.

So I brought her home and she is in the chicken house in a large dog carrier. Was planning on keeping her there for a couple of days until all get to know each other ( I have 6 hen chickens and 5 guineas and 2 ducks) then let her loose with the others. My birds free range but am keeping them locked up in the large run at the moment.

So what would be the best course of action to get her to set on guinea eggs. There is a nest of guinea eggs in the chicken house but the mama doesn't stay with the eggs at night. Do you think the Cornish will eventually start a nest that I can add guinea eggs to??

Anyone have ideas on how to help her go broody once again? Would love to have more guineas. Here is a pic of my little Cornish Banty.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Den in Penn]

She may well go broody again. But it may not be for a couple of months. She was just broody and she was just moved to a new home, that's a lot of stress to recover from.

 

[prairie]

Should I save guinea eggs in case she goes broody? How long can eggs be kept and should they be kept in fridge?

Thanks for your help!

Kare

 

[aprille218]

Don't keep the eggs in the fridge. A cool location (55-60 degrees) out of direct sunlight and frequent turning is best. You can keep them 10-14 days easy and still hatch out well.
Aprille

 

[prairie]

Thanks so much Aprille,

My guineas haven't started laying again after having left their nests. Hoping they start soon so I can collect the eggs and keep them in case one of the hens go broody.

appreciate your help!
Kare

 

[azygous]

Collecting eggs for much longer than ten to twelve days prior to incubation is not advisable.

A hen can't be made to go broody. Either it's in their nature or not. And if they've gone broody and hatched a clutch, it doesn't necessarily mean they will go broody again. In fact, it's been my experience that sitting on eggs for a month has cured a few of not going broody again.

Your best bet is to wait until you have a hen go broody, break her, then mark the calendar to expect her to possibly go broody again in a month from when she went broody the first time. Begin saving eggs around halfway to the next expected broody date. This is what I recently did, and I have a broody now sitting on eggs.

Or, if you have fertile eggs available all the time, it ought to be no problem to collect enough to put under the next hen that goes broody.

 

[sourland]

Don't keep the eggs in the fridge. A cool location (55-60 degrees) out of direct sunlight and frequent turning is best. You can keep them 10-14 days easy and still hatch out well.
Aprille

Good advice. Using this regimen I have been able to maintain viability in hatching eggs beyond the generally accepted 2 week period.

 

[prairie]

Thanks for the great advice! Guess I will be patient!