Guess what showed up in the field today?

[Wickedchicken6]

That's fantastic! I'm really happy to hear how well (is well the right word when you were planning to downsize?) they did. You're positively overrun now....lol!

Thank you so much for updating on all the hatching results!

 

[BlueShadow]

That's fantastic! I'm really happy to hear how well (is well the right word when you were planning to downsize?) they did. You're positively overrun now....lol!

Thank you so much for updating on all the hatching results!

Eh... I am not trying to be irresponsible. I do have ideas for what to do with all the keets, and I honestly expect that I will kick at least one of the remaining 2 hens off her nest, because she is on the north side of our place, and we catch 1-2 coons on the north side each week. She is very likely to be attacked by a predator.

I am not upset at all by the ones that didn't make it, but I simply HAD to give them all a chance when I realized they were still alive. If they hadn't survived, that would have been okay too. But they needed the chance.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Eh... I am not trying to be irresponsible. I do have ideas for what to do with all the keets, and I honestly expect that I will kick at least one of the remaining 2 hens off her nest, because she is on the north side of our place, and we catch 1-2 coons on the north side each week. She is very likely to be attacked by a predator.

I am not upset at all by the ones that didn't make it, but I simply HAD to give them all a chance when I realized they were still alive. If they hadn't survived, that would have been okay too. But they needed the chance.

Oh gosh...I wasn't meaning anything negative by my post. I'm very happy that everything has went so well with the hatches and that your females were fine. I'm sure that you do have everything under control with your keets.
(I was going more for the humor you displayed earlier in your post. I think I failed in that attempt.)

I had hoped my females would have the success your guinea hen did when I first read your post. Unfortunately mine did not and it's clear that they were predated. I had considered selling my keets. I'm thankful I didn't.

 

[BlueShadow]

No hurt feelings here! I just thought I should clarify my intent. You are right, I have asked myself numerous times just WHY I am keeping all these keets when I talked about getting rid of the guineas altogether... truth is I do like the opinionated little featherbrains.

To be honest, I am absolutely shocked by the hatching success my hens have had this year. Last year, 6 of the 7 nests I let hens stay on got attacked by predators. This year, our first nest was attacked. Yet we had one night where 4 of our roosting guineas were attacked, but none of the brooding guineas were attacked. I promise the nesting guineas were the easier prey!!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

No hurt feelings here! I just thought I should clarify my intent. You are right, I have asked myself numerous times just WHY I am keeping all these keets when I talked about getting rid of the guineas altogether... truth is I do like the opinionated little featherbrains.

To be honest, I am absolutely shocked by the hatching success my hens have had this year. Last year, 6 of the 7 nests I let hens stay on got attacked by predators. This year, our first nest was attacked. Yet we had one night where 4 of our roosting guineas were attacked, but none of the brooding guineas were attacked. I promise the nesting guineas were the easier prey!!

I feel the same way, such crazy birds...yet the longer I have the guineas, the more I'm liking them.

Perhaps your success this year averages out the losses you had last year. I'm impressed with how many keets they brood! Wow! I wish I lived within driving distance...I would definitely buy those eggs that you plan on removing the female from.
I require unrelated guineas for breeding.

 

[BlueShadow]

Predator losses are extraordinarily common while the guineas are nesting. I believe the setting hen doesn't leave much scent to make it harder for a predator to find the nest, but the other guineas in the flock do have a tendency to hang out near the nest, and I am sure they leave plenty of scent, so predators nose around the area and eventually find the nest.

What they DO when they find the nest is unpredictable, however. We had one hen on a nest this year, and that nest was raided by a raccoon every night for a week straight. The coon showed up, the mama left, the coon took 5 or 6 eggs, each one at a time, and took each egg about 10-15 feet away from the nest before he broke it open to eat. Then in the morning, mama returned to the nest. It took several nights of this before I finally figured out why there were so many eggshells in the yard, and set up the game cam to figure it out. But why didn't the coon go after mama??

 

[andreanar]

I am still laughing at your first post! It taught me to never get guineas. Guinea math is wayyy worse than chicken math! Good luck with all those birds.

Maybe coon didn't go after mama because it was so much less work to just eat the eggs?

 

[BlueShadow]

I am still laughing at your first post! It taught me to never get guineas. Guinea math is wayyy worse than chicken math! Good luck with all those birds.

Maybe coon didn't go after mama because it was so much less work to just eat the eggs?

HAHAHA

Chicken math mistake = "Oops, my broody hen hid a clutch. Here are 6 more chicks!"

Guinea math msitake = "Oops, my broody hen hid a clutch. Hereare 30 more keets!"

 

[andreanar]

HAHAHA

Chicken math mistake = "Oops, my broody hen hid a clutch. Here are 6 more chicks!"

Guinea math msitake = "Oops, my broody hen hid a clutch. Hereare 30 more keets!"

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Without having a broody hen of some sort, putting them in an incubator or creating a make-shift incubator are the only viable options. There have been many threads over the years of people getting eggs to hatch without using an actual incubator. Some of the methods have been to use a heat lamp, a heating pad or even some women have hatched an egg by carrying it around in their breast area. Those threads can be found in the Incubating and Hatching Eggs forum.

Good luck!

I cannot imagine keeping an egg in my bra for weeks. How do these ladies sleep?