My guineas are driving my crazy 🤪

[Fcarter]

I’m so sorry Fcarter! I just can’t tell what the problem is. She could be killing the keets. Or maybe she is accidentally trampling them. Or maybe they aren’t eating and drinking? You might quietly sit nearby for awhile and try to see what’s happening. However, given how poorly it’s going, I would probably pull the plug and take any remaining keets to brood yourself. It took me several years of seriously trying before nesting and brooding by my Guinea mom’s was moderately successful, and I still lose some keets with every hatch. Most people don’t bother letting Guinea hens raise the babies for that reason; they’d rather deal with integration.

As for your nest eggs, have you candled before? BYCs has a forum on hatching eggs, and this link has many resources, including pictorial guides to candling eggs.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-important-topic-index-please-review.1512879/

The guide is for chickens, which incubate 21 instead of 28 days, but you can use it to gauge about how far along your eggs are. Your eggs may be way behind where you expect them to be because anothwhat I er hen laid in the broody girl’s nest.

Me again. Well, mama guinea is in the big tub brooder with what I think are 4 babies. The problem is that the babies arent able to walk around. She is always sitting on them. She knocks over their water and eats their food even though she has her own. The brooder stays wet even though we are constantly changing out the paper towels. Our other option is to put them in the guinea pen where they would be quite safe and have more room. I'm afraid she may be hindering their growth.
Also, i put 4 eggs from this batch in the incubator. I tried to candle them but I'm only about 50% sure they may be ok. No bad smells or cracks. Should i leave them there and see what happens? I have no idea how old they may be
Thanks so much for everyone's help.

 

[Sydney65]

Me again. Well, mama guinea is in the big tub brooder with what I think are 4 babies. The problem is that the babies arent able to walk around. She is always sitting on them. She knocks over their water and eats their food even though she has her own. The brooder stays wet even though we are constantly changing out the paper towels. Our other option is to put them in the guinea pen where they would be quite safe and have more room. I'm afraid she may be hindering their growth.
Also, i put 4 eggs from this batch in the incubator. I tried to candle them but I'm only about 50% sure they may be ok. No bad smells or cracks. Should i leave them there and see what happens? I have no idea how old they may be
Thanks so much for everyone's help.

I think if you want any chance of those surviving, you're going to have to take over, get them clean, dry and on electrolytes, show them how to eat and drink and keep them inside under heat x4 wks. If you have a plate warmer or brood light or make a mama's heating pad warmer., 90-95° 2nd week, 85-90° 2nd wk, etc.
Watch for diarrhea, pasty butt, over heating, hypothermia & basic failure to thrive. They've had a rough start.

 

[Sydney65]

If they're very weak and electrolytes don't give them a boost, you can give them a jump w/b complex vitamins. The catch is that if they already have coccidiosis, the bs feed the protazoa, in which case you don't want to give it. Reading through this forum'spast years, ppl used to say molasses for a boost. I don't know if that's still approved of.

 

[Fcarter]

If they're very weak and electrolytes don't give them a boost, you can give them a jump w/b complex vitamins. The catch is that if they already have coccidiosis, the bs feed the protazoa, in which case you don't want to give it. Reading through this forum'spast years, ppl used to say molasses for a boost. I don't know if that's still approved of.

We got the mama outside the garage and now she and 2 males are stalking us. They have even tried to get in the house. Got the tub cleaned up, gave them fresh water (1 ran over immediately to drink) and food. They are very vocal and seem happier now that they can move around. We actually have 5. Couldn't get a true count because she was always on them. There is 1 egg (moved from the 1st nest ) in the 2nd nest that looks to be hatching. How soon can we remove the baby to the brooder?
Thanks!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

We got the mama outside the garage and now she and 2 males are stalking us. They have even tried to get in the house. Got the tub cleaned up, gave them fresh water (1 ran over immediately to drink) and food. They are very vocal and seem happier now that they can move around. We actually have 5. Couldn't get a true count because she was always on them. There is 1 egg (moved from the 1st nest ) in the 2nd nest that looks to be hatching. How soon can we remove the baby to the brooder?
Thanks!

I’m not sure why mama would let them up - maybe nervous due to all the changes? Sounds like taking them to brood yourself was the best thing. Mama Guinea will probably start a new nest in a few weeks or maybe a month. That’s great that one is hatching! Have you raised humidity in the incubator to keep it from being shrink wrapped? As for when to move it, you want to leave it until it’s dry and pretty fluffy. When you move it to the brooder, sip it’s beak in the water to help it figure out where to drink. For your other eggs, can you take a picture in the dark while candling with your light? If you can post the pic we might be able to help you figure out what stage they are at.

I’m putting a few examples here. The first is a Guinea egg that has either internally pipped (broken it’s beak into the large air cell) or is just about to internally pip. This egg hatched within a day of this picture. The second picture is an egg that is actually close to hatching, but still has fluid left to absorb. It hatched a few days after this picture was taken. For both of these, note how big the air cell gets just before hatching. The next pic is a Guinea egg pretty early in development, about 10 days. You can see the blood vessels from the developing keet but the keet itself only takes up a little space in the narrow part of the egg. Note the smaller air cell. The last pic is a clear egg; one that is infertile or hasn’t yet started to develop.

 

[Fcarter]

I’m not sure why mama would let them up - maybe nervous due to all the changes? Sounds like taking them to brood yourself was the best thing. Mama Guinea will probably start a new nest in a few weeks or maybe a month. That’s great that one is hatching! Have you raised humidity in the incubator to keep it from being shrink wrapped? As for when to move it, you want to leave it until it’s dry and pretty fluffy. When you move it to the brooder, sip it’s beak in the water to help it figure out where to drink. For your other eggs, can you take a picture in the dark while candling with your light? If you can post the pic we might be able to help you figure out what stage they are at.

I’m putting a few examples here. The first is a Guinea egg that has either internally pipped (broken it’s beak into the large air cell) or is just about to internally pip. This egg hatched within a day of this picture. The second picture is an egg that is actually close to hatching, but still has fluid left to absorb. It hatched a few days after this picture was taken. For both of these, note how big the air cell gets just before hatching. The next pic is a Guinea egg pretty early in development, about 10 days. You can see the blood vessels from the developing keet but the keet itself only takes up a little space in the narrow part of the egg. Note the smaller air cell. The last pic is a clear egg; one that is infertile or hasn’t yet started to develop.

The eggs that I candled from the original nest looked much like your first pic. I then took some eggs from the 2nd nest in the garden to put in the incubator. They looked the same as the first. Tonight I found another cracked/broken egg in the garden nest. Unfortunately, ants had gotten to it and the chick was dead. There are still ants in the nest. Can I take all the remaining eggs and put them in the incubator if they seem ok. I'm afraid the ants may keep mama from nesting. Any suggestions about what I should do at this time?
Thanks.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

The eggs that I candled from the original nest looked much like your first pic. I then took some eggs from the 2nd nest in the garden to put in the incubator. They looked the same as the first. Tonight I found another cracked/broken egg in the garden nest. Unfortunately, ants had gotten to it and the chick was dead. There are still ants in the nest. Can I take all the remaining eggs and put them in the incubator if they seem ok. I'm afraid the ants may keep mama from nesting. Any suggestions about what I should do at this time?
Thanks.

Yes I would definitely put all developing eggs in the incubator. It’s messy to have a staggered hatch and contaminates the incubator so I’d try to put the most developed one on one side and earlier ones on the other. I’d they are about to hatch then you should kick up humidity to about 65%.

 

[Fcarter]

Yes I would definitely put all developing eggs in the incubator. It’s messy to have a staggered hatch and contaminates the incubator so I’d try to put the most developed one on one side and earlier ones on the other. I’d they are about to hatch then you should kick up humidity to about 65%.

After all of the confusion and chaos 1 little baby hatched this am. He seems fine and healthy. No signs of further hatchings yet. There are still 16 eggs in the incubator. We did lose one of the original 5 babies but the others are healthy and thriving. Thanks to everyone for your help in all of this mess.