Guinea Laying Season...Third time is the charm?

[TexasTurkeyMama]

Flock of 12 guinea fowl, and here are today's eggs.

Does this mean we will have more fertile eggs this year?

 

[R2elk]

Flock of 12 guinea fowl, and here are today's eggs.

Does this mean we will have more fertile eggs this year?

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If you have males to go with those hens you should have fertile eggs.

 

[TexasTurkeyMama]

Twelve guinea fowl minus six female guineas equals six males, no?

 

[R2elk]

Twelve guinea fowl minus six female guineas equals six males, no?

Maybe, maybe not.

Six eggs in one day means at least 6 hens. It is possible that not all of the hens laid that day. It is possible that there are only 6 hens.

 

[TexasTurkeyMama]

Year one fertile guinea flock: 7males, 3 females. We had some hatched eggs, and we rescued 4 from the fire ants.

Year two: The 4 female keets from the previous year join the three females, but we ignorantly retained only one male. Very poor fertility and lesson learned. We bought keets from the store and tucked them under a broody hen.

Year three: Twelve surviving guineas, and from listening to the calls and picking up eggs (from the chickens' elevated nests and from the dark, shadowy ground nest) I believe the demographics are evenly divided.

 

[R2elk]

Year one fertile guinea flock: 7males, 3 females. We had some hatched eggs, and we rescued 4 from the fire ants.

Year two: The 4 female keets from the previous year join the three females, but we ignorantly retained only one male. Very poor fertility and lesson learned. We bought keets from the store and tucked them under a broody hen.

Year three: Twelve surviving guineas, and from listening to the calls and picking up eggs (from the chickens' elevated nests and from the dark, shadowy ground nest) I believe the demographics are evenly divided.

When guinea hens are laying, they will have a raised bustle during laying season. Male guineas never have a raised bustle.

If you have more than 6 of your guineas with raised bustles, you have more than 6 hens.

 

[Tex452]

I have 61 guinea eggs set, my cousin gets them from his neighbor, last year we both tried hatching some of his eggs with very poor hatch rates, there just wasn’t that many fertile eggs.
This year the eggs look a bit larger, I’m thinking maybe there was a bunch of young ones.
I have my fingers crossed.