Help Guinea had an egg in January.

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I hope your guinea hen will use the nest boxes - mine initially used their nest boxes, then decided to just hide them wherever it struck their fancy. Including in places where they got exposed to the elements....and they seemed to really enjoy burying them. Commence the treasure hunt!

Enjoy that wonderful egg! Like @red horse ranch said, guinea eggs are delicious (arguably tastier than chicken or duck), with a tough shell.

I agree! Guinea eggs are my favorite, followed by duck, then chicken...

 

[R2elk]

I agree! Guinea eggs are my favorite, followed by duck, then chicken...

Turkey eggs are really good too.

 

[DonnaScott]

Everything I googled says Guinea Hens do not lay eggs in the Winter...curious to see if I find another when I get home from work. Lol. I swear she did.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Turkey eggs are really good too.

Oooh! I’d love to try turkey eggs!!!

 

[R2elk]

Everything I googled says Guinea Hens do not lay eggs in the Winter...curious to see if I find another when I get home from work. Lol. I swear she did.

There are plenty of posts about guinea hens that have laid eggs late in the year in more southern areas right here in this forum. @Cedar Creek Farm Lady currently has guinea eggs incubating from her own flock and she is in Oklahoma.

 

[Pennys Mama]

There are plenty of posts about guinea hens that have laid eggs late in the year in more southern areas right here in this forum. @Cedar Creek Farm Lady currently has guinea eggs incubating from her own flock and she is in Oklahoma.

Indeed they do lay in the winter. I've got some of my father's guinea eggs in the incubator as we speak. 1 is pipped!!!! He has a couple that are laying everyday, they were early summer hatchlings this last year. They started laying in November I think. This was a staggered hatch for me, I set quail, guinea & chicken eggs, and it's finally time for the guinea & chickens!!!

 

[DonnaScott]

Is it hard to incubate them? I heard they die if you just look at them wrong.

 

[Pennys Mama]

Is it hard to incubate them? I heard they die if you just look at them wrong.

Well, I just have kept my fingers crossed the whole time!!! I think I started with 12, 4 ended up not being fertile. I had 8 go into lockdown but I think there may've been an early quitter or two, it's hard to tell when they fill up the eggs so completely. I'll be happy with any hatch, I'll consider that a success. I dry hatch up until lockdown and then raise the humidity for the last 3 days. That's how I've had the best results with my quail & chicken eggs here in Oklahoma.

Add: oh, and don't look at them! Lol

 

[red horse ranch]

Is it hard to incubate them? I heard they die if you just look at them wrong.

Guinea eggs take 26 to 28 days to hatch but otherwise the incubation isn't really different from chicken eggs. I've hatched hundreds of both. Guinea keets are REALLY tiny when they hatch and they are adorable!

 

[R2elk]

Is it hard to incubate them? I heard they die if you just look at them wrong.

The only issues that I have with hatching guinea eggs are the same issues that I have with hatching any eggs which is that hatching at higher elevations can be problematic due to insufficient oxygen available at hatch time or rather too much CO2 in the hatcher.

When I was researching how to incubate guinea eggs, many of the sites I checked claimed that guinea eggs were the easiest to hatch.