My Guineas were laying in their coop, which I was happy about. I knew one of them was sitting on a lot of eggs, so I expected lots of keets.
Yesterday was hatch day, and she was in the run with keets. She only had seven. I checked the nest and there were 34 un-hatched eggs! I started opening them to see what happened. One looked like maybe a weeks development, one was unfertile, and then, one had a living, moving keet in it. I tried giving it to the Guinea, but she didn't seem interested, so I gave it to a Silkie which hd hatched chicks the same day.
I candled the rest of the eggs and found them in all stages of development with 3 more potentially hatchable eggs and put them under the Silkie with her chicks. This morning all 3 had hatched!
Is is common for a Guinea hen to abandon her eggs after a few hatch? She was sitting on 41 eggs. Is that too many to incubate, leading to different stages of development and a poor hatch?
My plan for ensuring the survival of the seven keets with the Guinea hen is to let all the others out in the morning, keeping her and the keets in the covered run. Then before dark I'll let the other adults back in to roost for the night. After about two weeks of keeping them confined I'll let mama and babies out to range.
Yesterday was hatch day, and she was in the run with keets. She only had seven. I checked the nest and there were 34 un-hatched eggs! I started opening them to see what happened. One looked like maybe a weeks development, one was unfertile, and then, one had a living, moving keet in it. I tried giving it to the Guinea, but she didn't seem interested, so I gave it to a Silkie which hd hatched chicks the same day.
I candled the rest of the eggs and found them in all stages of development with 3 more potentially hatchable eggs and put them under the Silkie with her chicks. This morning all 3 had hatched!
Is is common for a Guinea hen to abandon her eggs after a few hatch? She was sitting on 41 eggs. Is that too many to incubate, leading to different stages of development and a poor hatch?
My plan for ensuring the survival of the seven keets with the Guinea hen is to let all the others out in the morning, keeping her and the keets in the covered run. Then before dark I'll let the other adults back in to roost for the night. After about two weeks of keeping them confined I'll let mama and babies out to range.