How to tell if eggs are fertile...

[MtWashFam]

i have one pair of Guineas, Gwen and Gustav, they sure are loud. Our neighbors said that the Guineas are keeping our side of the street predator free so far. The pair wander from our land to theirs and now their small dog is safer from the bigger birds that have been harrassing it.

I was wondering, how do you know if your eggs are fertile? I have yet to see them "clucking" as we call it. (I also have chickens and the kids hear them clucking when they "cluck" hence "clucking".) I would love to add to the herd, but I would hate to spend all this time in trying to hatch them for them not to do anything. They are very free range, every once in a while roosting down with the chickens. I collect an egg every day depending on if i can find her nest, she moves it almost every day to every other day. Once i found her nest with 7 eggs in it.

If it is just a try to hatch and see thing, well I will just have to keep trying. I have tried her eggs several times in the incubator and by day 10 there isn't anything, just a very clear egg. I am pretty sure i have a male and female.

http://photobucket.com/MtWashFam

this is a pic of my pair.

 

[PeepsCA]

Unless you are willing to open a few eggs and inspect the germinal disc to see if the eggs are fertile or not, the only other way to reliably know if your Hen is laying fertile eggs or not is to continue to incubate batches of her eggs and candle them at 10 days.

Also, how old are the eggs before you set them? After10 days they tend to lose viability pretty quick, so try to set the freshest eggs possible.

I can't tell from your pic if you have a male and female guineas, or 2 females. Have you heard them both making the "buck-wheat" call? Only females make that 2 syllable call, but both sexes will make the chi chi chi chi alarm scream.

 

[racuda]

The reason she moves her nest so often is because you are taking all of the eggs. Mark one or two and leave them in the nest and she will continue to lay there.

 

[MtWashFam]

I only keep the eggs for seven days, max. rotate/turn three times a day and don't let them get over 60 degrees. i do the same for the chicken eggs.

this will be the third time i try to incubate. gonna do a run starting this saturday.

i will try the marking of an egg and leaving it there. as of right now, i still have yet to find the new nest. searched the whole three acres and the neighbors yards too.

Thank you for giving this advice.