Guinea hen left her nest...

[schuey]

I woke up this morning to my guinea cock (in the coop yet) and guinea hen going nuts; went to check it out and found the hen on the other side of my fence and this is obviously is not where her nest is. I don't know how long she was off the nest ( I am only guessing at 2 hours) until I was able to herd her back into my yard (that was fun). Why would she do this? I can only guess, we had thunderstorms all day and into the evening last night with a lot of rain and this her first year laying. Should I take her eggs since they are probably dead now? I have some fertile chicken eggs I can try to replace them with and see if she will sit on them. What do you guys think?

Thanks

 

[PeepsCA]

How far along is she into brooding her eggs? 2 hours might not have hurt the eggs, overnight more than likely would, but 2 hours isn't that likely to kill the eggs. The eggs in the center could have stayed warm enough to not have any ill effects from the time she was off the nest.

I think I'd leave them there if she is back on them, candle them when she gets off the nest for a snack (if you can) and see if you can see any movement in them, and then candle them again in another week (if you can) to see if they have stopped developing and are goners for sure. Obviously if you see movement when you candle the first time, they aren't goners, but I wouldn't toss them out if you don't see any movement at this point, I'd just check again later for further development.

If you decide to leave the the Guinea eggs, I would not put chicken eggs under her, because if even a couple keets hatch she may get up and leave rest of the eggs in the nest after she feels her clutch is done hatching (even tho the chicken eggs are still developing).

Best of luck!

 

[schuey]

She started sitting on the nest on May 4th, so she is about 11 days into it. I will see if I can get a chance to candle them. I was going to put the chicken eggs under her if her eggs were goners.

Thank you.

 

[melroseladi]

Quote:
I am between Melrose and Keystone and that storm wreaked havoc with my guineas as well. I had 3 that refused to go back in their pen and hit the trees and stayed there all night through the storm, even Rocky who rarely flies at all. My hen that is sitting stayed in her dogloo on her nest though, thankfully. She started sitting about the same time as yours did. I am not sure how many eggs are still in her nest since we are having snake issues, (four more eggs missing from the nest of the other hen), but when she got off her nest and came out of the dogloo to eat last evening it looked like between 15 and 20 eggs still in her nest.

 

[schuey]

Hi Melroseladi-my hen (Dotty) is all natural, meaning no cover for her unfortunately. So I can see why she may have gotten off her nest. I hope the eggs are still ok. What do you do with your keets when they are born?

 

[melroseladi]

Quote:
This is my first experience with guineas. I was given 3 adults, 1 hen and 2 males, so I bought another hen so they would be paired up. My first 3 were hutch raised but the new hen was completely free ranged, roosting in trees, and she has taught my original 3 some of those habits.

I have my first hen, Sophia, sitting on eggs in the bottom of a dog crate inside a dogloo doghouse, inside a dog run. I had my new hen, Lacey, on the other end of the dog run, it has a divider gate, because they would not accept her into the flock, they have since accepted her. She had started laying in a cage inside of her pen, enter snakes, eggs all gone. I now have them all confined to the front portion of the run until I can catch the next snake, I caught one in the process of egg eating and dispatched it. Yesterday Lacey went into the dogloo and laid an egg in the hay next to Sophia's nest. Not sure how I am going to handle that if Sophia decides she doesn't want Lacey going in and out of her nesting area.

Sophia is sitting on about 15 eggs, maybe a few more, but I am not sure how many are actually viable or if any will hatch. If they do I plan on keeping a couple of them to expand my flock and selling off the rest.

They certainly have challenged me since breeding season but I love them and they are so funny to watch.

 

[schuey]

Do you plan on puting your keets in a brooder, or just let your hens do the work for you?

You're right, they are fun to watch!

 

[melroseladi]

I haven't made a final decision on that yet. I think it will depend on how many, if any, actually hatch and how she does with them. I would love to be able to have her brood them since I can keep them penned. The dogloo should be plenty warm enough for them, especially by the time they hatch, and the dogloo is big enough for me to put food and water in until they come out.

I spend a lot of time out side with them since I work from home so I would be able to keep a close eye on them.

I brooded 4 chicks in the house, they are about 10 weeks old now, and I swore I would never do that again. I am about done with the hen house so I could brood them in there if I need to.

Are you going to let Dotty brood hers? I think our eggs are about on the same time frame so hopefully we will both have some little additions pretty soon.

 

[schuey]

I don't have a brooder; so I pretty much have to let her give it a try. If they hatch I want to get them into my brooding pen at least. It has cover and will protect them from predators and also has a small run attached to it. I don't know it she will go crazy in there or not. Good luck with your nest of eggs!

 

[melroseladi]

Quote:
Oh she will go crazy, or at least you will think she is going crazy, LOL. Mine pace all the time when they are penned up but with this being her first time trying to hatch eggs I wanted to do everything I could to protect her. She is pretty mellow compared to the other 3 and doesn't seem to pay much attention when predators are in the area, even when the males are alerting, she just keep shuffling along looking for bugs.

I saw an CL ad for a dogloo in NW G'ville for 10.00. in the general section. That might be something you could use. Mine was given to me and so far it has worked out good for Sophia to nest in.

Good luck with your hatch as well and keep us posted.