Hen on eggs

[amberngwin]

I relocated an outdoor nest to inside my coop and while the original hen rejected it another hen took it over! She's been setting for about 48 hours now and her partner sticks to the perches above her.

Should I keep her penned inside the coop by herself or let her mate stay in there with her? Or should I wait until like day 16+ to confine her?

Also she has about 40 eggs, I assume (um pray) that only a handful would hatch but should I even bother to candle or discard any bad eggs or just let nature run its course?

My preference is to do nothing and let the hen take care of it - but I don't mind penning them inside until the keets are old enough to venture outdoors safely.
Thanks in advance

 

[FrogRaku]

My keets hatched about 2 weeks ago. I had 1 guinea go broody in a nest box with about 32 eggs in the coop. My other guinea hen decided to help her out in the nest box and went broody about a week later. They were fine in the coop with the chickens. The coop door was open during the day and the guinea hens were able to leave the coop when they wanted. (They did get off the nest once a day for 10-15 minutes depending on the weather to eat and dust bathe.) I did partition a section off the nest box for them about a week before the keets were due to hatch, just so the keets would be safe from the chickens, but the guinea hens were able to jump over the little wall and get out.

We did have a problem with some early hatching keets. I don't think the mamas knew what to do with the keets while sitting on the nest, so we lost 2 out of 3. After that, we took most of the eggs to incubate for the last few days. The fertility ratio of our eggs was a little over 50% probably because we lost our male 2 weeks before the guinea hen went broody. Of the fertile eggs, all but 2 hatched. As for candling, at about 10 days, I snuck couple out while they were dust bathing, because I was curious. And then when we took the eggs at day 25, I candled them. The unfertilized eggs didn't appear rotten. The 2 dead fertilized ones were rotten.

Once the keets hatched, the mamas had kept their remaining keet alive, so we decided to give them back 3. They did great with them, so we decided to give them back the remaining 9. A note on transferring 1-3 day old keet to their mamas: it's not as easy as people/sites say it is on chickens. Guinea mamas are VERY light sleepers. So, there was a lot of hissing, banging, and near blind in the dark guinea panic. So, my advice is to turn on a night light and just put the keets near the mamas. They'll figure it out. Just check back in 10 minutes to make sure there is no more peeping/calling.

The guineas are great mamas now that they're no longer brooding. We do have to keep them inside the coop until the dew is off the ground wrangle them in if it starts to rain, but they're fine and so adorable running around with the mamas.

Good luck with yours!

 

[amberngwin]

Thanks. I don't have an incubator so I guess I will just let nature run its course

The babies are due to hatch the day after I leave for a 2 week vacation so I guess when I get home I will be either pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised!

 

[FrogRaku]

I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised!!