I found their nest!!!!!

[sunnie7]

I believe my guineas are pretty domesticated. They will follow me around all the time, they don’t “sound the alarm” when people drive up our driveway way or go crazy. They literally lead me straight to their nest. I watched them and found the right area and then they took me right to it. Here’s just a for fun picture I took the other evening. They cats stalk and play with them all the time but have never tried to hurt one.

I just put the eggs in the incubator....20! Is this one normal?! I have a few kinda different colored like this but this one is the more prominent.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I believe my guineas are pretty domesticated. They will follow me around all the time, they don’t “sound the alarm” when people drive up our driveway way or go crazy. They literally lead me straight to their nest. I watched them and found the right area and then they took me right to it. Here’s just a for fun picture I took the other evening. They cats stalk and play with them all the time but have never tried to hurt one.
View attachment 2091869View attachment 2091870
I just put the eggs in the incubator....20! Is this one normal?! I have a few kinda different colored like this but this one is the more prominent.
View attachment 2091872

Cool that your guineas are so tame! I don’t think that the odd “dipped” coloration of your egg will be a problem. Hope you’ll update us on how incubation goes!

 

[sunnie7]

Cool that your guineas are so tame! I don’t think that the odd “dipped” coloration of your egg will be a problem. Hope you’ll update us on how incubation goes!

I sure will!!!

 

[Don 27]

Yes, dang raccoon. View attachment 2091847

first sight I thought it was a groundhog . But It's a racoon.

As for the guineas, what are your goals? Free ranging? You could try putting a dog crate over the nest and locking it at night. That's what I do for my free ranging game fowl. I'm trying to establish and build up a flock of birds that are as self sufficient as possible.

You can kill the coon but something else will eventually come around and always be trying to get to those eggs.

 

[sunnie7]

first sight I thought it was a groundhog . But It's a racoon.

As for the guineas, what are your goals? Free ranging? You could try putting a dog crate over the nest and locking it at night. That's what I do for my free ranging game fowl. I'm trying to establish and build up a flock of birds that are as self sufficient as possible.

You can kill the coon but something else will eventually come around and always be trying to get to those eggs.

When building our house my husband got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and was hospitalized for 10 days. We live next to a forestry so ticks, and predators are bad! My chickens and goats stay in a fenced in area with my Great Pyrenees but I want my guineas strictly for tick control. I started out last summer with 15 and down to 6 but I put 20 eggs in the incubator last night! The dog kennel is a great idea!!! So you just leave it open and since they have already been laying there they will go in and still lay in it? How often do you collect the eggs? What do you do with your eggs are you saving to incubate? I don’t really want incubate anymore if most of mine hatch.

 

[Don 27]

When building our house my husband got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and was hospitalized for 10 days. We live next to a forestry so ticks, and predators are bad! My chickens and goats stay in a fenced in area with my Great Pyrenees but I want my guineas strictly for tick control. I started out last summer with 15 and down to 6 but I put 20 eggs in the incubator last night! The dog kennel is a great idea!!! So you just leave it open and since they have already been laying there they will go in and still lay in it? How often do you collect the eggs? What do you do with your eggs are you saving to incubate? I don’t really want incubate anymore if most of mine hatch.

Sorry about your husband.


Yes, just put the dog kennel over the nest and leave some eggs for a few day so they know it's a good spot. After that You can collect them as often as You want. If they start a nest somewhere else just get another dog kennel. My game fowl eggs are strictly for hatching so I leave all eggs to the mother hens. My game fowl hens have a breeding season so they only lay eggs during the that time and what ever they lay they hatch just like a wild bird. My place is in a farm land area and I have cleared up all the brush and cultivated the fields surrounding my house. I don't have to worry about predators as much as you do but theirs always that stray possum that comes around.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

When building our house my husband got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and was hospitalized for 10 days. We live next to a forestry so ticks, and predators are bad! My chickens and goats stay in a fenced in area with my Great Pyrenees but I want my guineas strictly for tick control. I started out last summer with 15 and down to 6 but I put 20 eggs in the incubator last night! The dog kennel is a great idea!!! So you just leave it open and since they have already been laying there they will go in and still lay in it? How often do you collect the eggs? What do you do with your eggs are you saving to incubate? I don’t really want incubate anymore if most of mine hatch.

If you have extra guinea eggs, you can sell as fertile hatching eggs, or you can eat them. Free range guinea eggs are so delicious!

 

[R2elk]

If you have extra guinea eggs, you can sell as fertile hatching eggs, or you can eat them. Free range guinea eggs are so delicious!

Or hatch them out. I never have any problem selling keets.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Or hatch them out. I never have any problem selling keets.

Yes! I’m not up for running around and meeting people with keets, but my daughter has a poultry business to save for college. She hatches and sells the keets on Craigslist, and I go along for “security” (as if!). I bring a bag of game feed to give them, as no one gives them anything but chick starter. At least they get a week or two of game starter feed this way. I’ve learned not to talk to the buyers though, as I get too sad hearing stories about why they buy 30 keets every year for replacement... I just tell myself that our keets have brief but happy lives, eating Oklahoma’s incredibly abundant ticks.

 

[R2elk]

Yes! I’m not up for running around and meeting people with keets, but my daughter has a poultry business to save for college. She hatches and sells the keets on Craigslist, and I go along for “security” (as if!). I bring a bag of game feed to give them, as no one gives them anything but chick starter. At least they get a week or two of game starter feed this way. I’ve learned not to talk to the buyers though, as I get too sad hearing stories about why they buy 30 keets every year for replacement... I just tell myself that our keets have brief but happy lives, eating Oklahoma’s incredibly abundant ticks.

Being a scary old man with a gas hog truck, I have the buyers come to the house. It is amazing how many of my buyers turn out to be pretty young women. Or maybe I just have selective memory and only recall the pretty women.