Egg Stash???

[Scott2k]

My four guineas free range but return to the coop at night. I found this under the bushes in the front yard.

Obviously they are laying eggs, but not setting on them, at least at night. It's been dropping into the 40's at night. Is there any chance that these eggs are viable?

Not sure if I have a male, although one looks a bit different, I've not seen any mating behavior or heard a second type of sound. Will guinea hens lay if there is no male?

Should I just remove the eggs before they draw pests?

-Scott

 

[enola]

The hens will lay with out a male for mating. 40º is a little chilly. If you have an incubator you could try incubating the eggs.

 

[ChickiesNSA]

Yes they will lay without a male. By viable do you mean able to hatch? We recently found a large stash like this under our deck which leads to under the house our girls were obviously not broody so we removed it to avoid attracting any predators and blocked the space the girls were getting through. I brought them inside and gave them all the floater test, turns out they were all good eggs! Deviled eggs it was! Although looks like you found a lot more then we did.
Whats funny is they were still laying in their nest boxes every other day so we didn't even notice, till we saw one of the girls exit from under the deck.

 

[rubyredder]

My guinea hens will lay until that have quite the stash and then start setting on them. I agree with above, you could try incubating them to see if they're viable/fertilized. I've used and eaten the eggs from my guineas that have been outside for almost a week. They have pretty thick shells are are tough. In my experience, my guineas are horrible mothers so I haven't let them set since. It usually ended up in wasted eggs or dead keets, so I don't trust them anymore. If you're not seeing definite male and female behaviors you might not have a male guinea. It's pretty easy to tell the difference. Best of luck!

 

[Percheron chick]

I have been looking for a big old stash like that for a month and haven't found it yet. My hens (6) have been going through the motions for about 6 weeks but only have 8 eggs to show for it. One of my pearl hens went missing yesterday and I'm hoping she's sitting on them. You wouldn't think it would be that hard to find her or the eggs.

Males are pretty easy to identify. They are bigger, noisier, they have longer handlebar wattles, they spend a lot of their time chasing the others (both hens and other cocks). Mine also tend to "puff" up their wings (not slick against their body like the hens) when they are wandering around.

 

[goatee]

I too have found an egg stash however I know that I do have males and that the eggs are fertile (assuming the bullseye of cells always means that). I too am curious if they will hatch. I am borrowing an incubator that does 8 at a time so I may swipe some of these and try them. I have no idea how long they have been there. I lost 3 birds about 3 weeks ago so I'm guessing some of these may even belong to them. I currently have 3 females and 2 males or the other way around. They free range during the day and coop at night.
Thoughts anyone? A couple of the females are at least staying around it, this afternoon they were sitting right by the eggs, not on them but next to the pile.

 

[goatee]

After doing some reading here is what I have done with my stash. I went through them and found any that were obviously old and any that looked likely to be old. I left any of the dark colored brown ones because I believe they are fairly "fresh". I left around 5 eggs. I don't mind if they lay there and some naturally hatched keets would be awesome. I also took a few of the good looking ones back to the coop and setup a sort of egg corner hut with some plywood and straw/feathers. I marked these eggs. I'm going to keep the birds shut in for a couple days until I have 8 fresh eggs for the incubator then they can go back about their business. I am down to five birds and I don't think that's nearly enough to eat all my ticks.

 

[malinois]

Because of my work schedule, and the sporadic egg laying process my 6 hens have, I have adopted the following pattern: all birds are in Mon, Tues, and Thursday days/nights. they free range the other days, and all are cooped up at night. My girls are young, 10 months, and are just laying eggs wherever they feel right now. I have one male guinea running with them. My HOPES are that if they are starting a nest somewhere, some predator will clean it out during their cooped up days, and so if they return to the area-it is empty. I have kept several, dated eggs in their coop. Each week I change out those eggs for some fresh ones on Sunday. On the days they are kept cooped up, I can easily collect the eggs. Their free range time still seems to control the tick and bug population. This way I can HOPE to keep these set of birds alive, through their first year, I am not interested in hatching more, just controlling the ticks/bugs. I will let you all know how this goes. Since raising up these birds and "training" them to get into the routine is the hardest part, I would REALLY like to keep these "trained" adults around now................love these bird but gees, they are difficult!

 

[shellybelly]

I was surprised to find this little gal in the coop hissing at me! She's protecting about six eggs than she leaves during the day, I'm hoping shell mommy up and hatch some keets out. Will the other guienas leave her alone while she sits ? Or will their presence in the coop cause her to never hatch any out?

 

[Percheron chick]

Mine that lay in the coop are more stressed by me coming into the coop when they are there than the hens. Try putting up a board or something else to shield her and give her something to hide behind.