Hatching guineas

[Anniejak72]

I’ve been using this forum forever and never posted until now. I am on my third set of eggs from my guineas. Of the first 25 I got one successful hatch. He died within 3 days. Second go round. First 25 eggs nothing. Gave away next 25. They hatched 24. Next 25 I had 2 hatch. One (white) I believe is blind. Both are alive and doing well but turkey (blind white) is isolated and lives in my back porch with his friend peanut. This time I’m at 50 eggs. First two rounds I just stuck them in an incubator and checked it daily for temp and humidity. This time I’ve been so much better at monitoring and candeling and being careful. Even bought a second incubator for lockdown mode at day 25. I talked to a friend who told me I was essentially killing them by shrink wrapping them every time I opened and closed the lid. I panicked. Came onto the site to see my humidity was not near high enough. (45-51% on a good day). Went to add water and check them in their beds. As I pulled one out it stuck to the carton and the shell was broken. I went and woke up my BF who got him out. He’s running around clumsily and doesn’t seem to be drying and has membrane stuck to his back. Questions:

1. Was it bad that we broke him out of his shell?
2. How long should it take for him to dry? He’s in the incubator now screaming but doesn’t seem to be drying.
3. What can I do to raise the humidity and how high should it be?

I have about 45 fertilized eggs in there one day apart each. Not sure what to do with them now. Two incubators.

 

[R2elk]

I’ve been using this forum forever and never posted until now. I am on my third set of eggs from my guineas. Of the first 25 I got one successful hatch. He died within 3 days. Second go round. First 25 eggs nothing. Gave away next 25. They hatched 24. Next 25 I had 2 hatch. One (white) I believe is blind. Both are alive and doing well but turkey (blind white) is isolated and lives in my back porch with his friend peanut. This time I’m at 50 eggs. First two rounds I just stuck them in an incubator and checked it daily for temp and humidity. This time I’ve been so much better at monitoring and candling and being careful. Even bought a second incubator for lockdown mode at day 25. I talked to a friend who told me I was essentially killing them by shrink wrapping them every time I opened and closed the lid. I panicked. Came onto the site to see my humidity was not near high enough. (45-51% on a good day). Went to add water and check them in their beds. As I pulled one out it stuck to the carton and the shell was broken. I went and woke up my BF who got him out. He’s running around clumsily and doesn’t seem to be drying and has membrane stuck to his back. Questions:

1. Was it bad that we broke him out of his shell?
2. How long should it take for him to dry? He’s in the incubator now screaming but doesn’t seem to be drying.
3. What can I do to raise the humidity and how high should it be?

I have about 45 fertilized eggs in there one day apart each. Not sure what to do with them now. Two incubators.

The way to increase the humidity is to increase the surface area of the water. One of the ways people do this is by adding sponges to the water. The humidity pads sold by major hatcheries do an excellent job in increasing the surface area of the water. Porous sponges will work much better than will dense sponges.

I would use a paper towel wet with lukewarm water to gently moisten and work the membrane off of the keet's back.

Good luck.

 

[red horse ranch]

Another tip is to have a humidifier in the room you are hatching in. I use sponges inside the incubator and keep them wet even tho it means opening the incubator a couple of inches. A few seconds to add water doesn't hurt if the room humidity is in the 60% range. I incubate at 45 to 55% and increase that to 55 to 65% for hatching.