Did they kill it?

[My2butterflies]

I caught the girls off the nest so I ran in to check the eggs.
There are a lot more then the 7 eggs I saw before she refused to leave them.

As you can see it wasn’t really dark in there, but I used my phone light to check the eggs. 10 look like they are 1-2wks behind the eggs I have in the incubator right now. The others I couldn’t see anything. They might be duds or just not far enough along for me to see anything yet.

I marked the eggs I saw development in.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I caught the girls off the nest so I ran in to check the eggs.
There are a lot more then the 7 eggs I saw before she refused to leave them. View attachment 2169203
As you can see it wasn’t really dark in there, but I used my phone light to check the eggs. 10 look like they are 1-2wks behind the eggs I have in the incubator right now. The others I couldn’t see anything. They might be duds or just not far enough along for me to see anything yet.

I marked the eggs I saw development in.
View attachment 2169202

That sounds familiar! Yes, that’s how I ended up with a massive staggered hatch!

 

[BuckeyeAmy69]

Only the guineas know~

 

[My2butterflies]

That sounds familiar! Yes, that’s how I ended up with a massive staggered hatch!

Haha. Yep.
So..... once the incubator is free what should I do? What would you guys do?
Remove only the ones that show noticeable development?
Or take them all?

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Haha. Yep.
So..... once the incubator is free what should I do? What would you guys do?
Remove only the ones that show noticeable development?
Or take them all?

Depends on what you want. I’d you want to hatch all that you can, you could set them all in the incubator. If you have a second incubator, it would be easy to candle to tell when they are nearly ready to hatch then transfer to your hatcher. I was too stubborn to buy a second incubator (at first, I eventually caved) so I would crank up humidity when I saw an egg ready to hatch, remove the keet immediately to a warm, confined area to dry, then brought the humidity back down for the rest of the eggs.

If you take all their eggs, they may be reluctant to nest there again, so you’ll have the wild nest hunt. You could possibly leave marked steamed eggs (Only need one minute on steamer) behind or some such, or Sculpey eggs or whatever. They lose a lot of weight being broody, however, so in that scenario, I’m not sure how your broody breaks. That’s why I left real eggs with Viceroy, so she would stop being broody when they hatch. I’m hoping that other guineas will continue to view that coop nest as a safe place to nest.

 

[My2butterflies]

Oh dear! I’m so caught off guard. Three eggs have pipped!
Only one I can see (without opening the incubator) that it clearly pipped in the air cell. The other have cracks but no obvious pip. I haven’t traced air cells since they were 14 days. Now I’m excited and worried.

 

[R2elk]

Oh dear! I’m so caught off guard. Three eggs have pipped!
Only one I can see (without opening the incubator) that it clearly pipped in the air cell. The other have cracks but no obvious pip. I haven’t traced air cells since they were 14 days. Now I’m excited and worried. View attachment 2170691

The crack is a normal pip for my guinea eggs. Good luck. I think mine are due in about 2 1/2 weeks.

 

[My2butterflies]

The crack is a normal pip for my guinea eggs. Good luck. I think mine are due in about 2 1/2 weeks.

So far this is good right? I opened it quick to add water once I saw cracks. Humidity was 44% So it should go up now.
I only went to look at them because I was going to take the egg turner out and remove all the eggs that were duds. None of this is going as planned.

 

[R2elk]

So far this is good right? I opened it quick to add water once I saw cracks. Humidity was 44% So it should go up now.
I only went to look at them because I was going to take the egg turner out and remove all the eggs that were duds. None of this is going as planned.

You should be fine.

 

[My2butterflies]

You should be fine.

Ok. I’ll sit on my hands and just check them every hour or two.