Help - Incubating guinea eggs

[reynolds73]

We have 2 guinea hens that were sharing a nest in the edge of our woods. We ended up with approximately 36 eggs, but they're hatching at different intervals because the first hen went broody before the second finished laying. Long story short, we allowed them to hatch out their babies and the first hen left the nest after hers were hatched. One day there were 9 eggs left, the next only 7 and we only found one of the keets. Then today there were only 3 eggs and we couldn't find any keets. It looks like the mother may have fought with something because there were a lot of feathers all over the nest site this afternoon. We took the last 3 eggs and are trying to incubate them now, but I'm not sure how many days they have left or even where to begin. I've never incubated any eggs before. Any help would be appreciated!!

 

[PeepsCA]

Have you candled them to see if they are even alive? If you see movement in them then I'd just keep the humidity at about 50% until you see that a keet has pipped it's shell... then raise it to 65%. The temp for a still air incubator needs to be 101.5-102 degrees measured on top of the eggs, the temp for a circulated air incubator needs to be 99.5 degrees.

More than likely the Hens will not accept any keets you hatch in the incubator... so you might want to have a brooder set up and ready.

Best of luck.

 

[reynolds73]

I tried candling, but I'm not sure I'm doing it right. I couldn't see anything inside, but when I turned the egg to put it over the light, I felt something slide inside the egg. I'm assuming it's a keet. So far all the other eggs hatched under their mothers. We have all the other keets in a brooder. I've taken them out a couple times for the first hen and she accepts them, she's just not very good at keeping track of them so I'm afraid to leave them with her. I have the eggs in a still air incubator at about 100 degrees, but I don't have a way to measure humidity. We have water in the bottom, is there a way to measure the humidity without any special equipment? I don't have a way to go buy anything. Another things is that I don't know how many days until they hatch and the instructions for the incubator say not to turn the eggs when there's only 3 days left. Should I keep turning them or just leave them alone?

 

[PeepsCA]

You couldn't see anything at all when you candled? As in the egg was dark, or you could see light thru it? It helps to be in complete darkness when you candle, and make sure all of the light shines into the egg so you can see the contents of the egg. Depending on what you see when you candle determines what you should or should not do at this stage... so without knowing exactly what you see, it's hard to offer any precise/helpful advice...

There's really no way that I know of to measure humidity without a hygrometer... so in your situation I'd just fill all the troughs full and leave the vents open. Bump up the temp a degree or 2, 100 is too low if they are not ready to hatch. Turning them 3-5 times a day until they pip won't hurt them, assuming they are alive and viable.

Are you using a still air Little Giant?

 

[reynolds73]

The egg was dark, but I'll try again. I think the eggs have been set for at least 20 days before we put them in the incubator. And yes I'm using a little giant still air incubator. We have the bottom full of water and the two vents open

 

[PeepsCA]

Sounds to me you've done just about everything you can do then... if they were meant to hatch they will. A dark egg usually means it's full of a keet that's fairly close to hatching (if it hasn't died). You may hear some peeping coming from the incubator before the keets pip the shells. Keep your fingers crossed

 

[reynolds73]

One hatched so far!!! So excited! Hope the other two hatch soon as well

 

[PeepsCA]

Hope you get at least 1 more for a buddy for the one that hatched.