Guinea Fowl eggs for eating and hatching question.

[PAK2]

Hello...

I am a newbie to raising guinea fowl...and this will be our first year with mature guinea fowl, which have started laying eggs. The guinea fowl are cooped and I was curious...if you remove all of the eggs, will the hen stop laying? I would like to leave some so they can hatch them, but would like to take some for eating as well. Any advice you can give me would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[bargain]

Yes, do leave a few, mark with big marker the ones you leave and have glove on so the human scent will not touch her eggs... And guinea eggs are delicious!

 

[R2elk]

Yes, do leave a few, mark with big marker the ones you leave and have glove on so the human scent will not touch her eggs... And guinea eggs are delicious!

There is no need to be concerned over human scent being left on the guinea eggs. Most birds have superb eyesight and surprisingly great hearing but their sense of smell is not that good. I have handled eggs of many types and have never had the hens show any concern about them having been handled by a human.

The only time that I ever get any reaction about handling an egg is when reaching under a broody turkey hen for eggs, my arm often comes back bloody on those occasions.

 

[bargain]

There is no need to be concerned over human scent being left on the guinea eggs. Most birds have superb eyesight and surprisingly great hearing but their sense of smell is not that good. I have handled eggs of many types and have never had the hens show any concern about them having been handled by a human.

The only time that I ever get any reaction about handling an egg is when reaching under a broody turkey hen for eggs, my arm often comes back bloody on those occasions.

I think it is because our guineas "run wild" and therefore they have some sense of danger although we loose a lot of them to predators when they finally are broody. Or it might just be that we are not "sneaky" enough, because if we fail to carefully cover our tracks or pick up with either gloved hands or with a slotted spoon, they will not go back and lay in the same spot !!! And so the egg hunt continues We tried to coop several of my fav color up and they just are absolutely determined to be free even when faced with 5 sided pens Happy Easter!

 

[PAK2]

Thank you both for your replies and advice...it is very appreciated.

Another question I had was...will they lay a whole bunch of eggs before they start the brooding process and has anyone had good success with letting a guinea fowl hen hatch her own eggs?

Thanks again!

 

[bargain]

Since yours are cooped, I will say them hatch them out but be very careful and make smaller wiring around the pen in case you end up having "absent minded mothers like ours are". We have let ours hatch the babies but please be aware that babies are very prone to infectious bronchitis they pick up from the wet soil and grass. The mothers also take off so quickly , that the little ones have a hard time keeping up with them. So, if it appears that I find a nest, I will snatch the little ones because otherwise I will see that over time, the mother losses right about 75 to 80% of the babies which just breaks my heart....Here in the South, the soil and grass are normally wet and damp for the them if they are left along. I have had great success in letting my chickens brood them out though and they have been very protective mothers..........I do love the guineas for how they are great alarms, tick and bug control on our farm!!!!

 

[PAK2]

Thank you, bargain. Yes, when we initially bought and raised the guinea fowl it was for that very reason. We are semi-rural and the ticks are terrible. We tried to let them free range...but unfortunately, they were attracted to the neighbor's car...and kept trying to take it out for a drive. The neighbor wasn't too happy with the idea, so we had to coop them to keep them in the yard.

 

[bargain]

I know that they are hard to keep in a given area..... My husband will run and corral them. I try but just impossible..... Last year they had to be kept apart from the strawberries. They loved them just about as much as I did. LOL!!

 

[PAK2]

Also, we have just installed nesting boxes in the coop...but they still decide that they want to lay them on the floor. At this point we aren't exactly sure how many are females or males. They just lay eggs randomly, here and there. Not sure which eggs belong to who. Are they community brooders? What I mean by that...will they sit on each other's eggs?

 

[R2elk]

Quote: I suspect that you are being observed since guineas do not like their nests being messed with. As long as I take eggs without being watched, and do not take all of the eggs (leave at least one marked egg) I don't have a problem with the guineas abandoning the nest.