Broody Guinea Fowl

[NickiV]

If I'm not especially interested in my guineas hatching their own eggs, is there any reason why I can't just chase a broody guinea off the nest and remove the eggs? Will she go back to the coop? I'm really more invested in keeping them alive then letting them reproduce.

 

[red horse ranch]

If she is not in a safe place then you can take the eggs and she will abandon that nest. It will make the hen angry but they get over it.
Most of the time! Right now I have a guinea hen sitting on 3 fake chicken eggs. I wont let her spend the night on the fake eggs but every morning she goes back to that nest and sets all day. But I don't need eggs from her and at least I know where she is.

 

[R2elk]

If I'm not especially interested in my guineas hatching their own eggs, is there any reason why I can't just chase a broody guinea off the nest and remove the eggs? Will she go back to the coop? I'm really more invested in keeping them alive then letting them reproduce.

Don't chase a guinea hen off of her nest. What she will do is abandon the nest and find a more hidden spot to lay.

What I did was to collect their eggs after I had herded them in to the coop for the night. I found that leaving at least 3 fake eggs in the nest worked the best for getting them to return to nest the next day.

It is a whole lot better to collect their eggs from a known nest location than to have to keep hunting for their new nests.

To keep them alive, make sure that you have them shut in, in a secure coop for the night. You can do so by training them to go into the coop with treats or training them to be herded into the coop.

 

[Gill-b]

If I'm not especially interested in my guineas hatching their own eggs, is there any reason why I can't just chase a broody guinea off the nest and remove the eggs? Will she go back to the coop? I'm really more invested in keeping them alive then letting them reproduce.

Welcome to Backyard Chickens.

 

[fowltemptress]

She will find a new, better hidden nest site. Better hidden from you, that is - no guarantees on predators. If you know your guinea's nest site is unsafe you can get her to abandon it in the hopes she'll choose somewhere safer, but safer is not a guarantee - or even anywhere near probable.

This year I managed to convince two guineas to nest inside the coop by collecting eggs from guinea nests I found that I deemed unsafe and moving the eggs into a quiet corner of the coop that I partially obscured with straw bales. So that's two hens I can be fairly certain of surviving this year. Mind you, I've tried this strategy three years now, and this is the first time it's worked, so this isn't something I'd suggest as a solution. More like an experiment to try.

 

[NickiV]

Don't chase a guinea hen off of her nest. What she will do is abandon the nest and find a more hidden spot to lay.

What I did was to collect their eggs after I had herded them in to the coop for the night. I found that leaving at least 3 fake eggs in the nest worked the best for getting them to return to nest the next day.

It is a whole lot better to collect their eggs from a known nest location than to have to keep hunting for their new nests.

To keep them alive, make sure that you have them shut in, in a secure coop for the night. You can do so by training them to go into the coop with treats or training them to be herded into the coop.

I know about leaving a few eggs to keep them laying the same spot I'm mostly concerned about a guinea that has already laid enough unfound eggs to go broody and is no longer coming in at night. At that point I'd rather have her abandon the nest than refuse to go in the coop.

Can you tell me more about the fake eggs though? If I do find a nest in time to leave some decoy eggs, where is a good place to source fake eggs? Does something need to be done to clean them so they don't smell tampered with?

 

[R2elk]

I know about leaving a few eggs to keep them laying the same spot I'm mostly concerned about a guinea that has already laid enough unfound eggs to go broody and is no longer coming in at night. At that point I'd rather have her abandon the nest than refuse to go in the coop.

Can you tell me more about the fake eggs though? If I do find a nest in time to leave some decoy eggs, where is a good place to source fake eggs? Does something need to be done to clean them so they don't smell tampered with?

The wooden bantam eggs available from many online suppliers are the closest in size to guinea eggs.

I made my own fake guinea eggs using Sculpey oven bake clay.

Some people have gotten away with using golf balls and I suspect you could get away with using fake ceramic eggs available through many online suppliers and TSC.

I did have one hen that hid her nest so good that I did not find it. She spent the night on the nest. The next day I spotted her when she went into the coop for food. I caught her and moved her to my grow out pen with a lone guinea keet that I had.

Without her sitting on the eggs, I was able to find the nest. I returned her and the keet to the flock once the keet was old enough. By that time her broodiness had long been broken.

 

[NickiV]

The wooden bantam eggs available from many online suppliers are the closest in size to guinea eggs.

I made my own fake guinea eggs using Sculpey oven bake clay.

Some people have gotten away with using golf balls and I suspect you could get away with using fake ceramic eggs available through many online suppliers and TSC.

I did have one hen that hid her nest so good that I did not find it. She spent the night on the nest. The next day I spotted her when she went into the coop for food. I caught her and mover her to my grow out pen with a lone guinea keet that I had.

Without her sitting on the eggs, I was able to find the nest. I returned her and the keet to the flock once the keet was old enough. By that time her broodiness had long been broken.

Thanks! I'll try the decoy eggs with the nests I can find. I didn't really like the idea of leaving live eggs laying around.

 

[Sydney65]

Lol- @R2elk Himself was so proud when he made the sculpty eggs, and they do draw the hens to the nest. Then they promptly kick them out of the nest.
Everyone gets to come out during the winter & early spring, as long as I'm out there with them. But when it's nesting time, the girls go on lockdown in the run until they establish nesting routines. I have a.m. & p.m. layers. Once lockdown is over, the a.m. layers will opt not to come out until later in the morning, though the door is open. In the afternoon, the pm layers come running for the coop. Once they've layed an egg, they can come back out if they want. We have our afternoon quiet time when they'll find a sun spot and clean up before taking a nap, & the boys join them for this. This is my favorite time of day, working in the garden or just reading a book, surrounded by quiet chattering and nest songs instead of the loud clammer that goes on the rest of the day.
I've had wild nests before; one was in my garden and very successful. She's the only one who survived doing so. There's always that one that slips by me and starts a nest in the garden. I found one the other day, removed the eggs, she came back, looked at the nest, looked at me, plopped back on it and deposited another egg. Yeah...she's going to need a little longer in lock down.

Thanks! I'll try the decoy eggs with the nests I can find. I didn't really like the idea of leaving live eggs laying around.

 

[R2elk]

Then they promptly kick them out of the nest.

My hens never kicked the Sculpey eggs out of the nest. Skunks did try to eat them.