JUNE - JULY HATCH-ALONG!!!!!!!

[Bookworm0124]

I should hopefully have some ducklings soon!! This little one is a bit early... Saturday is day 28. But we have had some very hot temperatures here lately so maybe that is contributing. I have 4 in the incubator so I don't need to try and catch any of the broodys babies. The incubator eggs have internally pip'd so I put them in lockdown yesterday. These are shipped eggs and I'm 10/15 so far.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

So.... I now have a 5th guinea hen who decided to join the communal flock!!! My bubble has been burst though. I posted a question about this nest on the guinea forum, and our resident guinea guru states that communal guinea nests have poor hatches because the nests are too big so there are always cool eggs at the edges that get swapped around. I then looked up what posts and internet info that I could on communal guinea nests, and mostly just found gruesome stories of guinea hens who killed their hatchlings (like the many bad broody hen stories that I’ve also read). So, when that fifth guinea decided to ser today, I wasn’t completely thrilled! Plus, the first eggs could hatch any time, but by my count most likely to start the day after July4! There will be fireworks around here so that may further stress the guineas. Ugh, just really hoping I don’t have cannibal guinea moms!!! Let’s hope that our good broody luck continues to hold... At least I have the six eggs in the incubator that I can brood and introduce later, if need be!

I hope it goes well! I would be soooo tempted to take half of those eggs and put them in the incubator because there were so many! Lol

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I should hopefully have some ducklings soon!! This little one is a bit early... Saturday is day 28. But we have had some very hot temperatures here lately so maybe that is contributing. I have 4 in the incubator so I don't need to try and catch any of the broodys babies. The incubator eggs have internally pip'd so I put them in lockdown yesterday. These are shipped eggs and I'm 10/15 so far.

So exciting! Your broody is beautiful! I hope you have a great hatch!

 

[starri33]

@Mixed flock enthusiast , it sounds like you have your hands full, I think if you have a incubator I would fire that up and put some of your eggs in there, help hopefully guarantee you a good hatch. It's time for me to go clean out my incubators, final tally is 11. 7 from the large and 4 from the small incubator.. that is out of 27 eggs,

 

[CluckNDoodle]

@Mixed flock enthusiast , it sounds like you have your hands full, I think if you have a incubator I would fire that up and put some of your eggs in there, help hopefully guarantee you a good hatch. It's time for me to go clean out my incubators, final tally is 11. 7 from the large and 4 from the small incubator.. that is out of 27 eggs,

Yay! That's not too bad considering you mentioned several of them were infertile as well!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I hope it goes well! I would be soooo tempted to take half of those eggs and put them in the incubator because there were so many! Lol

Oh yes, I would if I could! That’s why I’m kicking myself that I didn’t grab more eggs after the snake attack! They rarely get off the nest and it’s never more than one or two that get off at a time - there are always a couple of guineas there!

Guineas aren’t like chickens, they don’t typically tolerate any disruption of their nest. It was quite difficult to get them nesting in the coop at all instead of their own wild nests, which I’m finding attract predators to our property. Taking that picture as I did was probably somewhat risky, and I did not look at them as I took it. I play, “I can’t see you” in the coop where I pretend they are invisibly hiding in tall grass, invisible to predators like me... There’s a huge risk that they’d abandon the nest altogether if I took any eggs while they were watching, and clearly that’s what most guinea breeders would do to maximize keet hatches...

However, integration of new keets is tough, so that’s my first goal. Also important is not letting the guineas nest outside, as their nests can be hard to find and are attracting predators. My current, rather hard-hearted plan is to let the first group of keets hatch and see what happens... If the moms kill them, I will feel terrible, I’m sure... If that happens, I’ll disrupt the nest and gather what eggs I can to incubate.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I should hopefully have some ducklings soon!! This little one is a bit early... Saturday is day 28. But we have had some very hot temperatures here lately so maybe that is contributing. I have 4 in the incubator so I don't need to try and catch any of the broodys babies. The incubator eggs have internally pip'd so I put them in lockdown yesterday. These are shipped eggs and I'm 10/15 so far.

Oh how exciting! And what a GREAT picture of the pipped egg under the Welshie!!!! Are you hatching WH? You are getting the best hatch rate of shipped eggs!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

@Mixed flock enthusiast , it sounds like you have your hands full, I think if you have a incubator I would fire that up and put some of your eggs in there, help hopefully guarantee you a good hatch. It's time for me to go clean out my incubators, final tally is 11. 7 from the large and 4 from the small incubator.. that is out of 27 eggs,

Congratulations on your hatch! Seems like a good hatch rate to me after my recent poor hatch, so it’s funny that everyone is advising me to grab eggs to put in my incubator after my recent fail! I did manage to get 12 guinea eggs into the incubator, and six of those do look good still. I’ve turned my incubator temps down 0.6 F from my bad hatch but am still troubleshooting the thing...

I have just answered CluckNDoodle about why I’ve not yet gone the incubator route with the guinea nests... Should be like two posts above this one...

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Oh yes, I would if I could! That’s why I’m kicking myself that I didn’t grab more eggs after the snake attack! They rarely get off the nest and it’s never more than one or two that get off at a time - there are always a couple of guineas there!

Guineas aren’t like chickens, they don’t typically tolerate any disruption of their nest. It was quite difficult to get them nesting in the coop at all instead of their own wild nests, which I’m finding attract predators to our property. Taking that picture as I did was probably somewhat risky, and I did not look at them as I took it. I play, “I can’t see you” in the coop where I pretend they are invisibly hiding in tall grass, invisible to predators like me... There’s a huge risk that they’d abandon the nest altogether if I took any eggs while they were watching, and clearly that’s what most guinea breeders would do to maximize keet hatches...

However, integration of new keets is tough, so that’s my first goal. Also important is not letting the guineas nest outside, as their nests can be hard to find and are attracting predators. My current, rather hard-hearted plan is to let the first group of keets hatch and see what happens... If the moms kill them, I will feel terrible, I’m sure... If that happens, I’ll disrupt the nest and gather what eggs I can to incubate.

Oh I understand now. I would be a terrible guinea caretaker I think. I'm out in the coops several times a day and always handling the chickens, lol.

 

[Enigmius]

Aw no! I'm sorry for your loss! Malpositioned ducklings have a hard time hatching, and are very difficult to help. You did everything right with your help, unfortunately it was a little too late. At least now you know how to do it if there's another one struggling.
I'm sure the rest of the eggs are fine, malpositioning is usually a random thing that just happens sometimes. Hope you get 10 healthy ducklings!

Yeah I removed it this morning from the lockdown incubator. I checked the other eggs whilst I did. Two birds are definitely internally pipped in the air cell. And two others look like they are "right there". I don't hear chirping though, but the incubators are kind of noisy.