Guinea laying behavior HELP!!

[bbelflower]

I'm a first time guinea having crazy chicken lady and these guineas have me going even more crazy. I have 4 guineas, 3 hens and 1 cock, 2 of hens have here recently went MIA but can be heard at a distant 'calling' on occasion. I'm sure she is nested in the neighbors enormous junk pile but I can't seem to find her hideout. Is it normal for them to stay gone the entire incubation period? Thanks for any advice!!

 

[Texas4T]

I'm a first time guinea having crazy chicken lady and these guineas have me going even more crazy. I have 4 guineas, 3 hens and 1 cock, 2 of hens have here recently went MIA but can be heard at a distant 'calling' on occasion. I'm sure she is nested in the neighbors enormous junk pile but I can't seem to find her hideout. Is it normal for them to stay gone the entire incubation period? Thanks for any advice!!

Yes, it is normal if you have them free-ranging. Mine are willful and free-spirited! They disappear for weeks and then march a seething mass of babies back to the barn to hand over for me to raise (they aren't that good at it themselves!). Nothing like our "civilized" hens, are they? I feed mine a treat of wheat berries each evening in front of the barn so they will come back home (eventually), but have been doing that since they were babies so it is a habit. Only one out of 20 guinea hens of mine will lay and brood in my "guinea house".
Hope yours brings the babies home for you!

 

[bbelflower]

Well yesterday evening one hen came in for a quick bite and my husband followed her back to her hideout and she was sitting on them (I'm hoping) and then we heard the other one calling soooo they are alive for sure! Thank you so much for your feedback and confirmation. I'm so EGG-cited

. Hope to see my babies soon! She's been out for about 14 days. Is their incubation period 27 days approx??

 

[bbelflower]

Awwww!! I just followed the one hen that comes out and went to eat to see her nest. SHE HAS 28 eggs!!!!!!!

 

[Texas4T]

I give mine at least 28 days to hatch, but a bit more or less is not unusual. 28 eggs is a huge clutch, but depending on your weather, which is probably fairly close to what we have been having here, then she might hatch them all--especially if the days stay as warm and humid as they have been. Be sure you are ready for the keets. Decide now if you are going to raise them yourself or pen the mama or just let her roam. I have never had them do well roaming by themselves (too many predators that can eat keets...snakes, turtles, rats, cats). My friends who were raised in a missionary family in Africa said the guineas there would bring their babies to the chicken coop and then leave them for the chickens to raise! I know other people raise them in pens, but that never worked for me. The adult guineas always got too upset because they were used to free-range. I just put my keets in a brooder and raise them up the same way I did the first time I bought guineas. Then I release them to range when they are old enough (one or two at a time over a period of days so that they don't all fly off to the neighbor's never to return).
I am so happy you got to see the nest! Have a happy hatch!

 

[bbelflower]

 

[bbelflower]

We finally found the second hens hideout with just as many eggs SO we are gonna have lots of babies!!!

 

[Texas4T]

YAY!!!! You may be covered in guineas before you know it!

 

[Percheron chick]

If you have a broody chicken hen, keep her broody. She will take the keets and happily raise them. They will be somewhat tamer than if their momma raised them.

 

[bbelflower]

Looks like we are going to have a BUNCH of guineas before long!! I have 20 sold if they all hatch out. My brother in Ft. Worth has a grasshopper infestation and they will be in hog heaven there!!