Need advice quick Guinea broody

[Waldo]

Have a guinea hen on nest for two days. She has quite a few guinea eggs under her. Other guineas are laying in same nest. What can I do to stop them? They are in a pen and house, shut up except late in the evening when they are allowed to range. Nests are in their house.

 

[OutInTheStiks]

My suggestions would be either attempt to move the guinea and her clutch to a place where she is seperate from the others, close off her nest from the others somehow, or mark the eggs she started with and remove any new ones each evening.

 

[Waldo]

I was wondering if I could move her. This is my very first broody guinea. I probably need to wait until dark like moving a chicken then. Thanks for your help.

 

[BetsyOK]

You're very fortunate they're laying in their house! Nests outside are very often hard to find.

If she is moved, she'll almost certainly leave the eggs. Unlike chickens, guineas seem to "imprint" on the location of the nest rather than the eggs--until they start to hatch. That's the only time I've known of anyone who has successfully moved them--during actual hatch. If you can section her nest area off so they can't get in, providing her with food and water, that could work. Often several guinea hens will work together on a nest, with all of them laying n it and eventually brooding the eggs. This has mixed results. If the hens are very cooperative, as they sometimes are, when the eggs begin hatching, one of the moms will move off witht he keets, caring for them, while the other(s) remain with the nest to continue brooding the eggs. Sometimes in shifting around, a newly-hatched keet will be squashed accidentally.

You probably know that mama and keets need to be in a safe area at first, where predators can't get to them. Guineas' instincts are for raising babes in Africa, where it seldom rains during hatchng season and where the predators are different from here. A new guinea mom will often lead her keets around through damp grass, which causes them to chill and die. They are usually good moms if conditions are right for them; in this case, safe. There's lots of good information on the net if you'll search for it.

 

[Waldo]

Thanks so much for your answers. I was going to move her as had been suggested,but I think I might just leave her where she is. I am used to hens clucking before they actually take a nest to hatch out eggs, so the guinea hen gave me a supprise. yesterday another guinea took to the other nest also. As I am not set up specially for them to set at this time, I think I will just let nature decide. They are in their covered pen and house and hopefully safe from predators or weather
Finally marked some eggs and moved other eggs and put them in incubator to finish hatching. Now I can move eggs that are laid in with them and not disturb the seting guineas. Thanks so much for your suggestions.