This must be one of the biggest threads on the board! I posted this on the raising guineas thread but am also posting here hoping I can get as many ideas/answers as possible. Thanks in advance for your replies:
My 2 guinea hens have started laying-2 eggs/day and I think I lucked out because just prior to the guineas laying, one of my chickens went broody. So now I'm keeping all the guinea eggs under the hen. Now I've read that once a clutch of eggs are laid by a guinea, she will go broody and set on them, but my question is doesn't the prolonged cold period the eggs go through prior to the hen setting cause the eggs to go bad? Also I would imagine my eggs won't hatch all at once,so while one or 2 hatch, does the hen leave the nest to tend to the hatchlings and ignoe the eggs remaining? Should I take a newly hatched keet and put it in a brooder box waiting for the others to hatch and keep adding to the brooder as the keets hatch or leave then all with the hen? I keep my guineas together with the chickens and they get along pretty well, would the keets know enough to follow the guinea hens around or stay with the chicken hatching them? If I keep the keets with the rest of the flock, how do I keep the chick feed from being eaten by the other birds?
I'm new to this so I have a lot of questions. Live in Paonia,CO and its still getting subfreezing here at night. My first guinea egg was laid on Easter Sunday so I'm looking at first hatch I guess around April 27-29. The guineas are laying on the floor of the chicken coop, wondering if I should leave eggs there and let one of the guinea hens start sitting on them when she feels ready.
I bought 1 male and 2 female guineas from a family that was moving to the front range, they told me last year that only one hen laid and they lost all they hatched. I want to raise the keets for sale and eating and at the rate they're laying now, I think I'm going to haver lots of keets! Any advice /answers are greatly appreciated.