Hatching guineas

[netguru]

We had a keet hatch last night. I just wanted to double check what we are doing b/c only one has hatched. We have a still air incubator and the temperature at the top of the eggs is 98 degrees and the humidity is a little over 80%. The vents are closed right now. Is all this okay? This is our first time hatching anything. Is the keet ok in the incubator for the time being? Thanks.

 

[PeepsCA]

What was your incubation temp, before the hatch/lock-down? For still air it should have been 101.5-102 degrees for incubation (measured on top of the eggs... warm air rises, cool air sinks, so you are aiming to get a temp of 99.-100 degrees at the center of the egg). You can drop the 1 degree for the hatch/lock-down, but it's not entirely necessary. The relative humidity needs to be around 45-50% for the first 25 days of incubation (with 1 of the vents open or part way open for a little fresh air), then it should bumped up to 70% relative humidity for the hatch (80 is fine too, but JUST for the hatch, it's not a good idea to have it that high for the entire incubation), and both vents should be open for plenty of fresh air.

It's best to leave the keet in the incubator until it's completely fluffed and dried. It will be peeping like mad, calling to the others (stimulating them to hatch), but I'd still leave it in there. They can go 48 hrs w/o food or water after hatching, no problem, they've just absorbed the remaining yolk. You really should not open the incubator until the entire hatch is finished, because you risk shrink wrapping the unhatched keets with the rush of cold dry air that rushes in when you open the incubator... that can shrink the membrane down over the unhatched keets and make it difficult or impossible for them to hatch.

 

[netguru]

Thanks. I opened the vents. We had it about 102 for the incubation period and the humidity was about 40-45%. The keet is still in the incubator but keeps moving around. The one hatched about 12 hours ago. I would have thought that more than one would have hatched by now out of the 12 eggs.

 

[PeepsCA]

What day into the incubation is it? Sometimes there's 1 or 2 keets that will hatch early, then the rest start hatching a day or so later. They don't always all hatch at the same time. You may want to get the temp back up closer to 100 degrees... having them locked down at 98 degrees may be slowing things down a little. Good luck, keep us posted.

 

[netguru]

We actually started them 4 weeks ago last Saturday but the temp was only 99.5. Didn't realize that the still air was supposed a higher temp. The directions didn't say that. Realized the following Monday and got it to 102 degrees. So it is 4 weeks today at 102 degrees. I did bump up the temp back to 100. I thought you were supposed to decrease for the lockdown. Thanks for responding.

 

[PeepsCA]

We actually started them 4 weeks ago last Saturday but the temp was only 99.5. Didn't realize that the still air was supposed a higher temp. The directions didn't say that. Realized the following Monday and got it to 102 degrees. So it is 4 weeks today at 102 degrees. I did bump up the temp back to 100. I thought you were supposed to decrease for the lockdown. Thanks for responding.

Yah... those dang instructions that come with the LG incubators (I'm guessing that's what you're using?) are written like they assume everyone just automatically installs the fan kit for that model (that they sell separately), and so the instructions included with that model apply to circulated air incubation. They really need to correct that, it would save a lot of people a lot of grief over bad and/or late hatches and lost eggs/money spent on eggs.

And of course you can lower the temp for the hatch/lock-down, but normally it's just 1 degree... since your incubating temp was 102ish, then 100-101ish would be where you'd want to drop it to. IME, the 1 degree lower temp for the hatch makes no difference in my hatch rates tho.

I don't think a week at the lower temp hurt your hatch any, since you corrected it fairly quickly, but it may have slowed their development by a couple days. So stay positive that your keets will hatch fine within the next couple of days... the early one must have been in a warmer spot in the incubator so he was ready to hatch on day 28, regardless.