Our first time incubating Guinea eggs. (Lil Giant)

[PhilH]

It's been a while since I have posted. We purchased 10 keets last May. 9 lived & they are laying this season for the first time.

We purchased a Little Giant still air incubator & installed the egg turner & the fan kit. We were getting 6 eggs a day so I started to save up some eggs. Between seeding their nesting place & breaking some to check for the bulls eye, it took us a little over a week to get enough eggs for a trial run.

It has now been 18 days since they have been in the incubator. We candled them tonight & we have movement in 32 of the eggs. 2 of the eggs are clear the other 7 I can't really tell what is going on..

Next Wednesday is Lock down. I'll remove the turner & jack up the humidity. So far I have been trying to keep the humidity between 35% & 45%.. It usually stays right at 40%

Of course these incubators to fluctuate a lot in the heat department. I have been trying to keep it between 99 & 100 degrees. Hopefully it will average around 99.5 degrees..

The air sack looks about right.. Of course some are bigger than others..

I'll keep everyone updated as time goes on..

Phil

P.S. We have been lucky so far.. We have a old wooden dog house in the Guinea's fenced in run. The chickens & the Guinea's have been laying in that dog house for a few weeks. No looking for eggs.

All of our birds are free range..

 

[PeepsCA]

Congrats Phil, sounds like you have full-on succumed to the Guinea Madness that the rest of us have been sucked into, and you are learning how to do Guinea math too, lol.

Please post pics when you can, after your keets hatch.

 

[PhilH]

Today is Lock Down day..

Now I just have to figure out how to get the humidity up high enough. Guess I'll lay some wet wash rags around the edges of the incubator. That way I can use one of our syringes from our horses to keep them wet through the vent holes.

Phil

 

[PeepsCA]

I've done that... I also have added a few wet (new and clean) sponges both under and above the wire floor, (which I re-wet with a 60cc syringe with a 6 inch length of fish tank tubing shoved on the end... I have horses too, lol).

Good luck with your hatch!

 

[PhilH]

Thanks Peeps.. I do have some new fish air hose laying around here somewhere.

I'm going to candle the eggs after dark & then lock them down.

Any other suggestions for humidity control from others is greatly appreciated.

Phil

P.S. Is the humidity supposed to be between 70% & 80% for lockdown?

 

[PhilH]

I opened up the incubator to candle the eggs & almost pooped myself.

One of the eggs had a beak sticking out & the keet was just a chirping.

I candled the rest of the eggs & had 32 eggs with movement & 2 without. I pulled 6 that were either clear or had blood rings.

Several of the eggs are rocking & rolling. My 8 year old is super excited.

Here are a couple of pics..



Here is the one looking out..



I think most of these eggs have movement. I placed the wash rags in corn on the cob holders. I ended up placing 3 of them in the incubator.. The humidity right now is sitting at 71%.... I hope that is right..

Thanks for looking..

Phil

 

[PhilH]

We had 4 hatch during the night. 3 of them are dry & fluffy one is still wet.

Several more are rolling around.

I tried to take a pic thru the window. It didn't turn out well..

Here are the pics..



The left window..



The right window. They came out better than I thought.

Thanks

Phil

 

[PhilH]

We have 7 now. They are popping out like popcorn.

The one that had it's beak out last night still hasn't hatched yet. It's still moving.. I'll leave it alone & see what happens.

We have 6 that are Pearl Greys.. The 7th is a light grey color almost white.. I don't know where that one came from.. lol

A few more have broken the shells. We should have a few more in a few..

Phil

 

[JulieOK]

Yay! Babies! Thanks for sharing pics.

 

[PhilH]

Yay! Babies! Thanks for sharing pics.

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