Hatching Guineas for the first time! It's Day 26!

[TarheelBirdy]

We just wanted a couple of Guineas, so we talked to our hay man, who has over 300 of them. We thought they would help with ticks and black widows. So, he brought us four of them. Didn't take us long to learn to love these pretty, funny Guineas!

Then we found THIS. And one thing led to another!

I plopped those babies in an incubator (all except those big ole chicken eggs - we ate those for breakfast). I'm hoping that Guinea eggs aren't like a "watched pot." If so, they'll never hatch. Here's the object of my attention most of the time now, lol:

Six of those little eggs in there are due to hatch any time now. I'm not seeing much, just a little jumping around once in a while. My husband peep-peeped at them this morning to help them along - it was cute.

Just thought I'd start a thread to document how it goes, I'm just so darn excited.

 

[faykokoWV]

good luck

 

[PeepsCA]

Is this your first hatch?

 

[weimarmama]

Good luck. Hope you have a great hatch

 

[TarheelBirdy]

Yes, first hatch.

 

[TarheelBirdy]

Day 27. Nothing happening.

 

[Blue Hill Farm]

Exciting! I hope they start popping soon for you. Good luck!

 

[PeepsCA]

Hmm ok, your first hatch...

You have eggs that are due to hatch any day that need higher humidity for the last 3 days in the same incubator with eggs that are still being turned and do not need high humidity until their last 3 days

What's your humidity level at? If you go higher than 65% you run the risk of drowning/suffocating the eggs that are still developing, and even at 65% there is still that risk. If you go lower, the 6 eggs that are due to hatch may not have enough moisture to hatch. You might get lucky and find the happy medium for both batches of eggs and everything goes fine, but chances are you might mess up either batch

And just to caution you, as the first eggs hatch the keets can crawl under the egg turner trays and get squished... maybe you can put a piece of hardware cloth in there as a wall to contain the keets?

I do not at all mean to rain on your parade, and I do sincerely hope everything goes fine for you, I just wanted to make sure you are aware of things that can spoil a hatch. If things don't go well, I suggest only setting one batch of eggs on the same day that all require the same humidity level throughout the entire incubation and hatch period.

 

[TarheelBirdy]

Thanks for that post - don't feel badly for saying what was awkward to say, I'm sure. I started the two batches without it ever crossing my mind that the change in the humidity level on the last three days for the first batch would have any impact on the second batch. It wasn't until I was a week in to the second batch that I read that bit of info. So, I am doing what I can for the ones that are due to hatch now, and hoping for the best. I have the humidity level at 80%.

As far as the turning rails - I have, since taking that picture, made a wall so the hatching keets will not get caught under the rails.

Thanks again, I'll keep you all posted.

 

[PeepsCA]

Glad you didn't take offense to my post. Some people are very sensitive and don't always take friendly advice in a positive way. I've hatched a lot of keets, and so I've ran the gamut of all things good and bad that can go on with a hatch.

Good to read about the wall... I had an early keet hatch on day 23 in my incubator (eggs were still in the turner), didn't know it until I went to take eggs out and move them to the hatcher, he was all tangled up in the egg turner, lol. He was fine tho, but ugh close call!

80% humidity is great for the 6 hatching eggs, but pretty high for the 2nd batch of eggs... they may be ok tho if it's just for a few days, not sure, I've only read that high humidity can harm incubating eggs, so I've avoided it.

Anyway, good luck with your hatch