Making introductions

[EarlJ]

Got 4 little baby eggs incubating now. Seems like the girl is laying semi-regularly. Too small to bother eating or feeding to something else, so as long as she's popping them out I'll keep incubating.

Don't expect any to be viable, but it's not much hassle to add water once a day so why not? Hatching keets over winter could be a pain, I guess. But I miss having the little peeps around, too.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Got 4 little baby eggs incubating now. Seems like the girl is laying semi-regularly. Too small to bother eating or feeding to something else, so as long as she's popping them out I'll keep incubating.

Don't expect any to be viable, but it's not much hassle to add water once a day so why not? Hatching keets over winter could be a pain, I guess. But I miss having the little peeps around, too.

Sounds like you may have an interesting hatch! Have you cracked any fresh eggs open to look for fertilization?

 

[EarlJ]

Haven't checked for fertility, I've just been putting them in as I get them. The oldest is about a week, maybe by now I could see something if I candle.

There's a really round one in there, and I saw an unshelled membrane in the coop a bit ago... but she seems to be getting the hang of it.

 

[R2elk]

Haven't checked for fertility, I've just been putting them in as I get them. The oldest is about a week, maybe by now I could see something if I candle.

There's a really round one in there, and I saw an unshelled membrane in the coop a bit ago... but she seems to be getting the hang of it.

You do not need to add them daily. There is nothing wrong in collecting them for a week before adding them to the incubator.

 

[EarlJ]

I was surprised to get one, and they wanted to incubate it, so I did. When she laid another I was still surprised and figured I should put it in right away just in case the first hatched so it wouldn't be alone. It just kind of snowballed from there.

Candled them tonight and didn't see anything more interesting than small air cells. But... candling revealed cracks in one. So I peeled away some shell and got the yolk out.


Am I seeing a bullseye?
Should it be more distinct than that?

 

[My2butterflies]

It should. Especially after a week of incubation.
Unfortunately I think guinea hens mature faster then the boys. Mine laid their first eggs in the fall lasted year but never had any fertile eggs till the spring mating season.
I have so many egg pictures from when I was bugging everyone on the incubation forum I just wanted to know what exactly the “bullseye” Was because searching pictures online was a little confusing.
So this is not fertile. (The six white things making a circle are a reflection of my kitchen light) The lone white dote means it isn’t fertile.

This next egg is fertile. Very noticeable difference.

I hope you get lucky and some might be fertile, but I know in my case it took nearly seven months from when they started laying till I got fertile eggs:/

 

[EarlJ]

There is an adult male in the mix, but who knows if he's shown an interest...

I let the pearls out today after about a month, and one of them had a limp. Of course it's the lone female. Later in the day, I came across her laying in the path, so I grabbed her up. Both her legs are damaged in some way. Not obviously broken, maybe dislocated? The legs appear intact, but her feet are limp and she does not kick or grasp. There seems to be way too much range of motion at the joint. I can't imagine she liked me twisting her limbs around, but she gave no pain response to it.

She seems otherwise healthy and alert. Interested in food and water, and will try to flee when I approach by pushing herself with her wings. For now, I've separated her from the others so she can have access to food and water without competition. We'll see how she does overnight.


On a happier note, I also had a couple of the lavenders out. The 3 other pearls hung out with them for a bit before wandering off. Nobody got picked on.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

There is an adult male in the mix, but who knows if he's shown an interest...

I let the pearls out today after about a month, and one of them had a limp. Of course it's the lone female. Later in the day, I came across her laying in the path, so I grabbed her up. Both her legs are damaged in some way. Not obviously broken, maybe dislocated? The legs appear intact, but her feet are limp and she does not kick or grasp. There seems to be way too much range of motion at the joint. I can't imagine she liked me twisting her limbs around, but she gave no pain response to it.

She seems otherwise healthy and alert. Interested in food and water, and will try to flee when I approach by pushing herself with her wings. For now, I've separated her from the others so she can have access to food and water without competition. We'll see how she does overnight.


On a happier note, I also had a couple of the lavenders out. The 3 other pearls hung out with them for a bit before wandering off. Nobody got picked on.

We have been seeing a lot of posts where guineas have leg issues. Breaks, joint problems, possible vitamin deficiency... What are your feeding them?

 

[EarlJ]

I was giving them a 24% protein chick starter, but recently they've been on meatbird crumbles (21% protein, but I don't know the rest off the top of my head).

 

[R2elk]

I was giving them a 24% protein chick starter, but recently they've been on meatbird crumbles (21% protein, but I don't know the rest off the top of my head).

Neither chick starter nor meat bird feeds contain the higher levels of lysine, methionine and niacin that keets need for proper growth and development. It isn't just about the protein content. They benefit from higher protein too. I feed my keets a 28% protein turkey or game bird starter.