Color

[JLeigh]

Do you have a Royal Purple male? If so, and you have one that shows at least little bronzing on his wings that would be my choice to match up with your Bronze Hen.
Sometimes The Guinea Farm in Iowa sells adult birds... but I don't think they ship adult birds and only allow local pick ups. Another breeder to contact would be Shady Hollow Farms, they are in Maine. Not sure where you are located.

No eggs right now from my flocks. My Hens usually stop laying mid or late Sept... after a couple months of 100+ degree temps. The males no longer bother breeding and the Hens decide to give up on laying eggs because it's just too miserably hot. My 1st timer pullets start laying in early January tho, with the older Hens kicking it into gear a month or 2 later, so I still have a decently long laying season.

Do you find that the eggs you get from a guineas first laying season are fertile and hatch out healthy keets? I would think so....maybe....or do they need more time to mate frequently/reliably?

I need to hatch something!

 

[PeepsCA]

Eggs from my young, first timers do pretty good for me, and the young birds always start breeding/laying in January (here). There's not always 100% fertility when I first start setting their eggs, but the more the birds get to free range the better the fertility gets as the season progresses. (IME, my breeding flocks that are kept in a coop/pen situation with more than one male there has been too much aggression between the males and not enough breeding of the Hens, resulting in low fertility rates... but free ranging them as much as possible helped correct that. Most of my birds prefer to breed while out free ranging rather than in their pen).

 

[JLeigh]

Thanks, Peeps. I wish I could free-range mine, but I don't think that's going to happen in the first year. Too much training required, and like you wrote before, it will take a while for me do it. But that's not to say it won't happen, and I'm likely going to have only one male. He should be happy........enough.....

 

[guineaguy]

Did the separation thing think my 2 bronzes are male and female. Have one opaline roo and one purple and maybe of the two blondes one is a hen other don't know yet. I have one buff dundotte who seems to make the hen noise but it is so deep and has big cupped wattles sometimes I think it's only one tone just repeated fast? Wish I could down load a video on here for advise. Sure is noisy like the other young new hens(this years hatch).

 

[JLeigh]

guineaguy, if you haven't already, you can hear lots of guinea calls online that should help you determine who's who.

 

[guineaguy]

Thanks none of mine make any calls other than the female call those I think are males make no noise except perp and scream nothing in between. Can guineas eggs be the same shape as Banty chicken eggs. I have a trio of Cochin bantams in with them. And I have gotten two eggs but they are not the right shape for guineas and I probably wrong but I remembered Cochin eggs being white. Any thoughts ?

 

[guineaguy]

Plus buff dundotte feathers in nest

 

[PeepsCA]

Hmm, that doesn't look like a Guinea egg to me... do you have chickens in your coop with your Guineas? because that's not the normal shape for a Guinea egg.... the shape should be fat and round at one end and narrow and very pointed at the small end.


I have other egg pics on another computer, but here's a small Pullet egg (from a first timer 16-18 wk old Guinea Hen from my early 2012 hatches), that I collected sometime this past late Summer/early Fall. The larger egg is a medium sized store bought brown chicken egg... just used for comparison
Pretty obvious shape difference, which is what makes me question your egg

 

[guineaguy]

Have Cochin bantams in with them but like I mentioned earlier I remember them laying white eggs not beige

 

[guineaguy]

So either deformed guinea or Banty egg