Broody guineas

[My2butterflies]

I have at least 5 girls contributing to a communal nest, but I only ever find 1-3 sitting on the eggs at a time. I’m getting anywhere from 5-7 eggs a day from my girls. I do have some eggs in an incubator right now, but we also eat their eggs so I don’t have to buy any from the store.

My question is will I regret it if I stop collecting and let the girls continue sitting?
I worry that with all the girls laying in the one nest I could end up with a disaster and no keets in the end. And in that case I’d rather eat the eggs. Lol
Is it better to let them continue since they at least chose to lay in their predator proof coop?

I didn’t really think much of it when they first started laying eggs in March, but now the girls have pulled/broke off their chest feathers. And one hen in particular hasn’t left the coop in a couple days. I didn’t get to collect eggs yesterday because she was on them every time I went in there.
This is from last month, but these are the three I normally find in there.

And this was from yesterday

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I’m struggling with the same things. I had a horrific huge nest last year (see pic) of five hens sitting on 150 eggs. They broke eggs, so the whole nest smelled like carrion. Then when babies started to hatch, they killed the keets as they hatched. Later in the summer, I let two broodies keep a few eggs, and they did hatch one keet. They took care of the keet for a few days then abandoned it. I’ve gotten them to nest in the coop again, and it’s another communal nest. I was trying to keep 10 marked eggs on it as I thought that would be too few to go broody - wrong! Viceroy, the abandoned baby, is broody on it! I was able to collect unmarked eggs when she left the first day, but on the second day, she didn’t leave. So, I used my herding stick to gently nudge her off amd out of the coop, closed the coop door so she could see me, and removed the eggs, replacing with fresh marked eggs. I’ve blown out guinea eggs and am slowly filling them with glue- these will be my more permanent “marked eggs”. She returned to the nest when I opened the coop door. I am worried about how long she will sit on the nest and if she will break her broodiness herself in a month? I was thinking about posting this question to see what other broody guineas have done when their eggs don’t hatch...

 

[My2butterflies]

@Mixed flock enthusiast
Thank you for your reply. It was a previous comment I read of yours that made me concerned about this. Haha. So I really appreciate you chiming in
I may try the fake egg route to keep them laying in the same spot. If I haven’t already messed things up. My girls finally left the coop this morning so I took the eggs out. We have freezing overnight temps and temps in the 50’s coming so I figured I was better off just taking the eggs.

I have eggs in my incubator right now that will get candled on Sunday. They will be 10 days at that point. If for some reason they are all duds I’ll keep these new eggs to put in there and try again. Unless candling guinea eggs at 10 days is too soon?

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

@Mixed flock enthusiast
Thank you for your reply. It was a previous comment I read of yours that made me concerned about this. Haha. So I really appreciate you chiming in
I may try the fake egg route to keep them laying in the same spot. If I haven’t already messed things up. My girls finally left the coop this morning so I took the eggs out. We have freezing overnight temps and temps in the 50’s coming so I figured I was better off just taking the eggs.

I have eggs in my incubator right now that will get candled on Sunday. They will be 10 days at that point. If for some reason they are all duds I’ll keep these new eggs to put in there and try again. Unless candling guinea eggs at 10 days is too soon?

You can candle then, but I don’t make decisions until 14 days as guinea eggs can be harder to see as compared to chicken eggs.

 

[My2butterflies]

You can candle then, but I don’t make decisions until 14 days as guinea eggs can be harder to see as compared to chicken eggs.

I’ll just wait till day 14 then I’m sure I’ll be posting pictures asking for help again since this is all new to me.