guinea eggs this early...

[critters]

found an egg this morning from one of my guinea "babies"...they are youngish at 10 months....
they are penned up with peafowl...

could they really be starting to lay or is this a fluke????

 

[Kevin565]

Congrats on the Egg!

 

[GuineaLady93]

Where do you live?

 

[PeepsCA]

If you are having a mild winter like I am out here in CA, and your coop is pretty warm... your Hens could be starting their laying season (they are old enough to lay by around 15-16 wks of age, and some young Hens if hatched in the Spring can even start laying by late summer or early Fall of the same year they are hatched). I have 5 first timer Hens laying for me right now, regularly. It started with one egg, then I found 2 eggs for a couple days, then it jumped up to 5 and stayed there so far. I would have a couple more eggs each day from another coop/pen, but I've sold a lot of Hens recently. (I still have at least 55 Hens tho... can't wait til they are all laying for me

lol).

Congrats on the egg !

 

[critters]

I live in Virginia and can't wait to see if I get more eggs tomorrow!!

I had lost a guinea yesterday to illness/seizure so to find this egg is like the cycle continues anyway....
also wormed the entire pen yesterday.....will this affect the egg? PeepCA you might know about this?.........

well, I can always plug in the incubator a few month earlier that expected if not affect from the worming meds...hehehehe

 

[PeepsCA]

...also wormed the entire pen yesterday.....will this affect the egg? PeepCA you might know about this?.........

well, I can always plug in the incubator a few month earlier that expected if not affect from the worming meds...hehehehe

I've read that worming does effect the fertility of the eggs, and that there is a 14 day withdrawal time for consumption of the eggs... but because of my worming routine I am not sure from my own experiences if it effects the eggs' fertility for the full 14 days or not (or if it even effects fertility at all). I've always wormed late Fall when my Hens stop laying and early Spring before they start laying (so I wasn't tossing any eggs) and have never had fertility issues I could blame on worming, but they got the jump on me this year and started laying right after I wormed them

. I've recently been collecting eggs from a few Hens for my first batch of the season (starting at 14 days after worming), but since this is a young flock I am collecting eggs from... if I end up with a lot of clears when I candle I won't know if it's theor age, the worming or a lack of breeding that caused low fertility rates... (if I have any). The first few dozen eggs I collected during the withdrawal period (and fed to my dogs) were a mix of around 50/50 fertiles and infertiles

Maybe others will chime in...

 

[Cowgirl75446]

Mine have started laying early in the past. I had some of mine start laying in February at 4 - 5 months old before. You just never know, they lay when they want to.

 

[critters]

Found that second egg today//.........

 

[PeepsCA]

I live in Virginia and can't wait to see if I get more eggs tomorrow!!

I had lost a guinea yesterday to illness/seizure so to find this egg is like the cycle continues anyway....
also wormed the entire pen yesterday.....will this affect the egg? PeepCA you might know about this?.........

well, I can always plug in the incubator a few month earlier that expected if not affect from the worming meds...hehehehe

Ooooh maybe your laying season is kickin' off! Now crack it open and look for the bullseye

 

[GuineaLady93]

That just seems so early! Mine don't start until late March early April.