found guinea nest...what to do now?

[Nikkatime]

Hi everyone, We have guineas on our farm and found our first guinea nest last weekend. At that time there were 5 eggs and now there are 11. I am wondering if I should remove the eggs, carefully with a spoon, and incubate or if I should watch to see if mama guinea hatches them and then remove the keets right away? Mama guinea has been sitting on the eggs a couple of times when I went to check but at other times she has been gone. I appreciate any info!

 

[JLeigh]

I'd get the eggs and incubate them. A couple of things are against you if you let a hen incubate, and you want keets. First, guineas are notoriously bad mothers and the keets don't stand a good chance of making it back to the flock alive. Plus, if a hen goes broody, the odds of her and the eggs being taken by a predator are very high. If you want more eggs, mark a few in the nest with a pencil so you can leave them there and take the rest. Then collect unmarked eggs every day for the next five days or so. Eggs are best to incubate if they're 10 days old, or less. I think 14 days is the oldest for eggs to be viable, but experts who gather eggs from nests can confirm or correct that.

You may have some duds because you have five eggs that are at least a week old or older, but no big deal. Leaving eggs in the nest will keep the hen/s coming back to that spot to lay every day. Odds are they won't go broody with only a few eggs in the nest.

Get the eggs at a time when the guineas are nowhere around, though. They don't like to have their nests disturbed and might start laying somewhere else, meaning you have to go through the trouble of finding a new nest. I don't know about you, but I had a wonderful time traipsing through poison ivy and brambles, sticker bushes and vines, mud and bugs, covered in stinky insect repellent, in a wicked-hot and humid spring trying to find my guinea's nest for the first time. (Gee, I hope I get to do that AGAIN.

)

 

[Nikkatime]

Thanks so much for your input! I will go and get the eggs right away. Great idea to mark the eggs with a pencil. Actually, we found this next by chance when cutting grass and were so excited as we would love to have more guineas. I have high hopes for them to be able to handle squash bugs, but haven't tried it out so far. I have been reluctant to even plant squash because the bugs have been so bad in past years.

 

[JLeigh]

That's great Nikkatime. Good luck gathering and hatching. It's a real thrill. Keep us posted on how it goes. Have you hatched guineas before?

The idea to mark the guinea eggs comes from PeepsCA, who taught me just about everything I know about guineas, and I'm still learning.