I found a nest of guinea eggs!

[R2elk]

They are community nests, and one hen will eventually pull the short straw and be stuck on the nest for three weeks

Guinea eggs take 26 to 28 days to hatch.

Communal nests are often shared by multiple hens even during the broody phase.

 

[DrFyl]

28 days for Guinea eggs to hatch.

Thanks. It's been so long since I hatched any. 21 days sticks in my mind, but maybe that is for chickens.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

My Guinea hens LOVE nests in thickets of brambles! I like to raise keets from within the flock to assist integration. I use triangular wooden nest boxes but am currently working on a different design. In order to encourage hens to lay in the coop, I lock them in most of the day or all day for a few days until they set up a nest in the coop. I have such broody, broody girls and they will go broody after a certain period of time, even if I take most of the eggs. I usually leave about six eggs behind, R2elk’s clay Sculpey eggs if I have them, old eggs I’ve saved from last year, or fresh eggs I’ve steamed for one minute. Once the hen goes broody on the nest, I replace the fake eggs (12 if I want her to go broody, six if I don’t want her to go broody) with 12 desired eggs.

I have used both broody chicken and Guinea hens to incubate and brood their babies (or the eggs I swap). I don’t think that guineas are necessarily bad moms, but they are more challenging than chicken hens. Some of our challenges: Guinea moms are flighty and can run over keets in a panic, Guinea moms desperately want to rejoin the flock asap and will lead the keets to follow them all over the place if allowed to, Guinea flocks (and fathers) can attack keets. Chicken hens have their flock and rooster issues too so I keep my hens/chicks in a separate brooding box for two weeks, then slowly reintroduce to the flock (look don’t touch method) over another week or so. I’ve had Guinea nests not separated from the flock for several years but had more problems last year so I’m trying a new idea this year to keep keet and mom separated from flock. I know from others that some cocks are wonderful dads, but I doubt I’ll ever trust another cock with tiny keets. Some pics:

Sculpey eggs next to real Guinea eggs:

Sculpey and real eggs in an outdoor nest that I used to collect eggs but won’t let them set on overnight for fear of predators:

Guinea hen in coop nest with just hatched keets:

Outsode view of coop nest with hen’s mate standing nearby. He was very interested and seemed like he would be a good dad, but instead he turned keeticidal.

 

[Sydney65]

My Guinea hens LOVE nests in thickets of brambles! I like to raise keets from within the flock to assist integration. I use triangular wooden nest boxes but am currently working on a different design. In order to encourage hens to lay in the coop, I lock them in most of the day or all day for a few days until they set up a nest in the coop. I have such broody, broody girls and they will go broody after a certain period of time, even if I take most of the eggs. I usually leave about six eggs behind, R2elk’s clay Sculpey eggs if I have them, old eggs I’ve saved from last year, or fresh eggs I’ve steamed for one minute. Once the hen goes broody on the nest, I replace the fake eggs (12 if I want her to go broody, six if I don’t want her to go broody) with 12 desired eggs.

I have used both broody chicken and Guinea hens to incubate and brood their babies (or the eggs I swap). I don’t think that guineas are necessarily bad moms, but they are more challenging than chicken hens. Some of our challenges: Guinea moms are flighty and can run over keets in a panic, Guinea moms desperately want to rejoin the flock asap and will lead the keets to follow them all over the place if allowed to, Guinea flocks (and fathers) can attack keets. Chicken hens have their flock and rooster issues too so I keep my hens/chicks in a separate brooding box for two weeks, then slowly reintroduce to the flock (look don’t touch method) over another week or so. I’ve had Guinea nests not separated from the flock for several years but had more problems last year so I’m trying a new idea this year to keep keet and mom separated from flock. I know from others that some cocks are wonderful dads, but I doubt I’ll ever trust another cock with tiny keets. Some pics:

Sculpey eggs next to real Guinea eggs:
View attachment 3050566

Sculpey and real eggs in an outdoor nest that I used to collect eggs but won’t let them set on overnight for fear of predators:
View attachment 3050567

Guinea hen in coop nest with just hatched keets:
View attachment 3050570

Outsode view of coop nest with hen’s mate standing nearby. He was very interested and seemed like he would be a good dad, but instead he turned keeticidal.

View attachment 3050571

To be fair, he does look a bit frazzled. lol

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

To be fair, he does look a bit frazzled. lol

Oh totally! I need to take a picture of him right now while he has all of his white feathers and is gorgeous! Hamlet was odd last year. When spring rolled around, he seemed a bit behind on development, not really doing the cock chasing and posturing. He picked a mate late in spring and just was calmer than the other guys, but also lowest in rank and got chased off a lot. Then at about mid summer, he suddenly started the chasing and posturing stuff. It was 100+F out and that fool bird was running and running in those cock sprinting competitions until he finally developed a limp, plus he was pulling feathers from the other cocks and getting his pulled as well. If you zoom in on the pic above near the nest box you can actually see his dislocated toe! It’s like he was sparring with no quit to him - none of my other cocks has fought as consistently with a total unwillingness to quit as he did for about two months.

Hamlet finally knocked his brother Splash off his pedestal with all his challenges, so then both Splash and Hamlet were bedraggled messes of broken feathers. Splash is still in last ranking of the older cocks, but they were back to being gorgeous after their fall molt. I’ve been meaning to get a picture of Splash because he has the most impressively tall casque! I have a few poor quality pics of these guys- white Hamlet who seems to be taking up with his “daughter” Cocoa. How does that flirtation work? “Hey Baby, sorry I tried to kill you and your siblings when you hatched last year. C’mon over and let me make it up to you.”!Other pics are of Splash when I was trying (poorly) to capture his lovely casque. Oh and I included one of poor Surplice, the purple pinto or pied girl that is also a bit underdeveloped for her age and getting so bullied!

 

[Moonbeam Guineas]

Well I have searched and,searched since finding the original nest and my bad that I removed every egg before coming back reading this thread. I have seen a few spots where they go so I follow and I have to stop myself and my dog because we are being over taken by thorns.. I can see them (right now being early spring) deep down in the thorn patch, but can't see eggs.. My guineas are really 100% free range.. They wake up at Sun rise and put themselves to bed at Sun set, they do go in their coop..sometimes but mostly sleep on the barn rafters.. So I cant lock them up in their coop to lay their eggs.. I feed them once a day, as much as they will eat in their feeding with a little left over for the stragglers to eat too. So I hope to see some keets? I hope its dry weather when they are hatched!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Well I have searched and,searched since finding the original nest and my bad that I removed every egg before coming back reading this thread. I have seen a few spots where they go so I follow and I have to stop myself and my dog because we are being over taken by thorns.. I can see them (right now being early spring) deep down in the thorn patch, but can't see eggs.. My guineas are really 100% free range.. They wake up at Sun rise and put themselves to bed at Sun set, they do go in their coop..sometimes but mostly sleep on the barn rafters.. So I cant lock them up in their coop to lay their eggs.. I feed them once a day, as much as they will eat in their feeding with a little left over for the stragglers to eat too. So I hope to see some keets? I hope its dry weather when they are hatched!

Hoping that things go smoothly for your birds and you do get keets. Unfortunately, predators tend to be very good at getting hens sitting on outdoor nests.

 

[Moonbeam Guineas]

Hoping that things go smoothly for your birds and you do get keets. Unfortunately, predators tend to be very good at getting hens sitting on outdoor nests.

That is the worst. I don't want her to get killed.

 

[Moonbeam Guineas]

My Guinea hens LOVE nests in thickets of brambles! I like to raise keets from within the flock to assist integration. I use triangular wooden nest boxes but am currently working on a different design. In order to encourage hens to lay in the coop, I lock them in most of the day or all day for a few days until they set up a nest in the coop. I have such broody, broody girls and they will go broody after a certain period of time, even if I take most of the eggs. I usually leave about six eggs behind, R2elk’s clay Sculpey eggs if I have them, old eggs I’ve saved from last year, or fresh eggs I’ve steamed for one minute. Once the hen goes broody on the nest, I replace the fake eggs (12 if I want her to go broody, six if I don’t want her to go broody) with 12 desired eggs.

I have used both broody chicken and Guinea hens to incubate and brood their babies (or the eggs I swap). I don’t think that guineas are necessarily bad moms, but they are more challenging than chicken hens. Some of our challenges: Guinea moms are flighty and can run over keets in a panic, Guinea moms desperately want to rejoin the flock asap and will lead the keets to follow them all over the place if allowed to, Guinea flocks (and fathers) can attack keets. Chicken hens have their flock and rooster issues too so I keep my hens/chicks in a separate brooding box for two weeks, then slowly reintroduce to the flock (look don’t touch method) over another week or so. I’ve had Guinea nests not separated from the flock for several years but had more problems last year so I’m trying a new idea this year to keep keet and mom separated from flock. I know from others that some cocks are wonderful dads, but I doubt I’ll ever trust another cock with tiny keets. Some pics:

Sculpey eggs next to real Guinea eggs:
View attachment 3050566

Sculpey and real eggs in an outdoor nest that I used to collect eggs but won’t let them set on overnight for fear of predators:
View attachment 3050567

Guinea hen in coop nest with just hatched keets:
View attachment 3050570

Outsode view of coop nest with hen’s mate standing nearby. He was very interested and seemed like he would be a good dad, but instead he turned keeticidal.

View attachment 3050571

Your guinea hen and her keets are adorable.. What a journey for a keet.. If your mom isnt killed and you do get to hatch,then the dew will get you..but if youre lucky that you dont freeze from a little bit of water, then your dad is going to get ya. ...poor keets, if I see any I think I have a plan On how to catch them.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Your guinea hen and her keets are adorable.. What a journey for a keet.. If your mom isnt killed and you do get to hatch,then the dew will get you..but if youre lucky that you dont freeze from a little bit of water, then your dad is going to get ya. ...poor keets, if I see any I think I have a plan On how to catch them.

Yeah for me the whole nesting thing is the single biggest PIA part about guineas. Nesting leads them to wander (across the road at my place) and causes them to get picked off by predators. When the hen fails to come back at night I angst over whether a predator caught her or if she’s on a nest waiting to get picked off. Where I am the keets don’t freeze so much but babies have a hard time keeping up with the flock. Others have posted here about their great Guinea dads so Hamlet is something of an outlier, I hope! Other Guinea cocks have been better with the babies than Hamlet was, but none have been a real partner. In my hen heavy flock, other hens seem to take an “auntie” role in helping to raise the keets instead of the cocks. Keep us updated!