HatchAHolics Advice Needed - My first hatch

[PeepsCA]

3 days of high humidity for the lock-down is best, but like I said, I have had keets hatch early in the turner, with only 45-50% humidity (determined lil buggers). Had I not raised the humidity for the others right then, I doubt they all would have hatched successfully tho. IMO, locking down a day early is safer/less harmful than locking down a day late... at least with my hatches. The keets need the extra moisture so they can spin around in the shell zipping the top off, and stay moist enough to get out of the shell.

Candling really is a learning experience, looking at pics (most;y of chicken egg candling) definitely helped me, but candling my eggs in the incubator and then comparing them to what I saw when I candled a non incubated egg also helped me see the early development, each time I candled. Towards the end of incubation, once the keets has fully formed enough to fill the egg you don't see much other than a dark mass filled egg and an air cell...and then the air cell changes shape and starts getting bigger, with the size increasing at a slant, not just up at the top of the egg when it's getting close to hatching. I've tried and tried and TRIED to take some decent candling pics, with no luck. My crappy cameras just can't handle it.

 

[samahoga1989]

We're in the process of lock-down, as I type, with our Guineas. We got 21 eggs on-line and on day 25 we stopped turning and candled them for the last time and are left with 9. The Guineas have been much more unpredictable then the Silkie eggs we're used to hatching out. It's also not been easy finding definitive information for hatching the little buggers! We just checked not too long ago and have one hatched out! Looks like a Pearl Grey and at least one other has pipped. Going to check the humidity again before going to bed and hopefully we'll have more in the morning!

 

[jbirds2012]

our guineas are only 10 weeks old, so we'll have to wait till next spring but gosh i can't wait good luck

 

[samahoga1989]

We still just have one, which is downright annoying... even though the first hatched almost two days early haha. Wednesday is their 28th day. Do you think they will breed and lay next Spring even though they're being born this Fall?

 

[PeepsCA]

Yes they will breed and lay next Spring... It may be in early Feb or March, or it may be late in April, but if you have a Hen she'll definitely lay for ya (with or without a male actually). Be sure to raise whatever keets hatch out on high protein Turkey or Game Bird starter feed, not chick starter so that they grow/mature at the normal rate (quickly).

What kind of incubator are you using, and where's your temp and humidity at? My keets always hatch a day or 2 early... rarely do any wait until day 28 unless they have some sort of congenital issue or other problem. If your incubator settings are right on the money and have been stable then with it being this late in the season that may have some effect on the quality of the eggs the Hen laid, and then of course shipping usually takes it toll on the eggs as well... which can all contribute to a late hatch, even if everything's been perfect for the entire incubation.

Good luck with the rest of your hatch, and FYI... that noisy first keet helps stimulate the others to hatch, so keep it close to the hatcher if you can so the others can hear it!

 

[samahoga1989]

Thank-you! so much for the advice! With our first chicks we used to play a cell phone ring tone of a chick peeping to get them going... not sure how much was the phone and how much was just the right time haha. We have three pipped now for sure, but beyond that it's hard to tell since the eggs' color is varied unlike the chick eggs we have hatched out. Do guinea eggs draw more moisture than chick eggs? We had a hard time keeping the humidity up for awhile, but they were shipped and most likely had to draw in a bunch of moisture to recover? We do have the high protein feed and were going to use hay, but opted for paper towels for now.

 

[PeepsCA]

I haven't tried hatching any shipped Guinea eggs before, just fresh from my own flocks or fresh eggs from a friend that lives close by... so I can't answer the question about the eggs drawing moisture (generally eggs lose moisture while incubating, but need the humidity higher just for hatching). It may have more to do with what the ambient relative humidity in your house (or the room that the incubator's set up in) is this time of year... if the room humidity was low then that may have been what was pulling so much moisture from the incubator, not the eggs.

That's great you have a few pipped eggs, hope they zip and hatch for you (and for the other keet that needs company, lol). I find that keeping the humidity up around 70% or a little higher for Guinea eggs during lock-down helps them hatch a lot easier.

 

[KrisH]

so, how did the hatch go?

RobertH