Momma guinea is hatching keets!

[RobinB in Ok]

I have a total of six adult guineas. I know I have 2 males and at least 3 females. I had 2 females that were laying eggs inside their house (a 10x10 concrete floored house with wood shavings and straw covering the floor). These 2 females had laid over 40 eggs and they were taking turns but as the nest grew bigger, both of them would sit side by side. A neighbor's dog (I guess) got in and raided the nest, destroying about half the eggs. One of the females gave up and quit sitting but the other was very determined and kept on. We have a "dutch" door on our house (top half opens independently from the bottom) so we are only opening the top part during the day. Now we have this determined momma who I noticed today has at least 2 babies that have hatched. They look so sweet! All nice and fluffy. They have been out a little but are mostly spending time under momma.

I need advice on what to do. She seems very protective and the daddy is staying inside with her to protect her. There is another female that seems to be acting as "midwife" although this female is also laying her own eggs on a nest outside. I have a way to divide the house and make a nursery area. Should I do that? I'm afraid I will scare momma. Should I let her finish hatching then divide the house? I was hoping to get the mommas to lay in the house. At least I have one that is and I don't want to discourage her or frighten her.

I incubated over 60 eggs last year...ended up with 24 babies and lost all but 4! So I'm not sure that I will incubate eggs this year.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

If they are not with chickens, I would hold of and see how she acts. Some can be annoyingly over, to where they ignore the babies because they are too busy chasing everyone away. But many times the other guineas help raise and protect them, and if all of them hatch she'll appreciate some help. The only thing to watch out for is that she doesn't try to take them too far too young. I would keep her enclosed for at least 4 days after the last one hatches so they can all keep up.

 

[trev1lov3]

Lucky. None of my six. Guinea hens have showed they wanna sit yet but they are only almost a year. They are all mostly layong in the nestong boxes my chickens used. I tryed moving them all to one nest. To see if they miight try and sit a larger clutch. Nothing yet.

 

[RobinB in Ok]

We now have 5 babies. I did go ahead and divide the house. I think it disturbed momma enough that she's not sitting on the nest any longer. I had another guinea that was laying eggs on a nest outside. I moved those eggs inside and I'm hoping the momma will sit on them in the house. I kept them all cooped up for today. I'll check on them tomorrow and see how things are going.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I think a lot of the broodiness is in the genes. I know it is with chickens. My original guineas were from Cackle Hatchery and none went broody until they were well over a year old. The ones I have now are from eggs I got through ebay late last summer and so far 2 out of the 3 hens I kept have gone broody.

If you moved all the eggs to one nest after she was already sitting you'll have eggs at all different stages of development, which means you'll end up either having to move some to an incubator or just let them die. The mother won't sit on them indefinitely to make sure all the eggs hatch; she has to focus on the ones that made it out already.