Picking up Guinea eggs tomorrow for the incubator

[JanO]

So far, so good I think. It's been two and a half days since I set the eggs and the temp is holding steady at 99/100. Humidity has been a little more difficult to regulate but it seems to finally be holding at 52-54%. My biggest fear is that I'm going to damage the eggs while turning them so I'm seriously considering an egg turner. Is there any reason why I shouldn't add one after incubation has started?

I am dying to candle them and see how they are doing, but I'm determined to wait until at least Wed. when I add the chicken eggs. As a result I'm a nervous wreck worrying about them and not so patiently sitting on my hands, so I don't cave. My husband has started calling me the "Nervous Chicken Mama."

 

[PeepsCA]

Is the styrofoam cooler big enough for a turner? If so just be quick when you move the eggs into the turner and then set the turner in the incubator... it will probably take a long time for the temp and humidity to recover since the turner is cold (or room temp), and pretty much all the of the humidity and heat will be lost inside the incubator while the lid is off as you're moving the turner full of eggs in, but if you do this early into the incubation you should be ok. Be sure to give it plenty of time to recover before you mess with the temp... and you may even need to turn it down a hair because egg turner motor can produce a little heat. Also if you don't have a small fan circulating the air in the styrofoam cooler your temp should be up around 101.5-102 (measuring the temp with the thermometer laying on top of the eggs). If you've got a small fan moving the air around inside the incubator then 99.5 is optimal for Guinea eggs.

You won't be able to see anything candling the Guinea eggs yet... I can see development by day 5, but I have candled thousands of eggs so I know what I am looking for, lol. Hold out until Wed at least, lol.

 

[JanO]

As always I'm very thankful for your insight Peeps. I've decided to hold off on adding a turner until the next batch. My cooler is plenty big enough for one, it's one of the big commercial sized ones that is used for transporting frozen fish so it's pretty large and thick compared to the ones you see at the local tackle shop. However I'm already like a nervous mother hen watching over the temp and humidity on this batch and I'm afraid that if I had something else to worry about with them I'd drive myself bonkers.

I'm definitely not going to candle them until Wed. evening. I am the first one to admit that this is all new to me so I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for yet. Currently studying up on that end. However from what I've read so far I believe that it's better to wait at least a whole week to be sure that the eggs have a chance to do something visible in the first place.

 

[PeepsCA]

It is better to wait a week to candle Guinea eggs, or even 10 days... mainly because the Guinea eggs shells are so thick it's hard to see what's going on inside the eggs. Use a super bright flashlight (LED), in total darkness at day 7 and you should see veins and a very obvious reddish color change in the contents of the egg, in contrast to the air cell area at the top to the egg.

These aren't the best pics (and I just held my light to the egg while it was still in the egg turner), but here's what a clear egg (infertile) egg looks like. The air cell is hard to see.


And here's a fertile/developing egg at just day 6... you can't see the veins in this pic (but I could), but you can at least see the color difference I mentioned. And the air cell is much more visible.

I don't blame you on waiting to add an egg turner to avoid more to worry about... but it would definitely make your life much easier once you get one in there and everything's stable, lol. Turning eggs is a pain in the butt, but so is stressing, lol.

 

[JLeigh]

This is just my opinion, but I think when you have a "home made" incubator, it pays to stress a little. Personally, a little stress can be a good thing. . But I wouldn't worry that you're harming the keets by turning them as long as you're careful and quick. Think about what the hens do, rolling them around in the nest LOL.

Make sure you have a plan in place to get the humidity up in the incubator when it's lockdown time because you definitely don't want to open in incubator then. Since you have a lot of space, that shouldn't be hard - you can add a big CLEAN (unused for anything else) sponge for additional humidity. What are you using for humidity now? I wouldn't add a bowl of water unless it's under a wire "floor", like in the store 'bators. I would worry the keets would drown. See, I'm a worrier, too. Like, an Olympic worrier...with Gold medals...

What are your plans for brooding? I had everything ready to go a week ahead of time so that I didn't have to worry

I guess I worry when I have the luxury of a little time and not at the last minute.

 

[JanO]

Peeps thanks for the pictures. I can see the difference between the two.

JLeigh if you're a gold medalist worrier I'm at least a silver medalist. I think I'd stress even if I had an expensive commercial incubator with all the bells and whistles. As far as humidity is concerned I currently have a bowl of water that I fill once a day in the area by the bulb and fan, sectioned off by hardware netting so it's inaccessible to chicks. At lockdown I'll add another one and a sponge to jack it up and adjust the vents as necessary to keep it up. I want to add a way to add water from the outside, but for now I have to just fill it up and pray that I am able to manage it with the vents. I'll definitely add an egg turner before the next batch of eggs go in.

I brood all my chicks in a 4x4x2 cage that is set up in the coop. (My coop is 24x12 and divided into 2 sections. One side for the mature hens, one for the juveniles.) It's well ventilated, secure from predators, and free of drafts. With the addition of a heat lamp that I can raise or lower as needed for warmth, they do quite well. I've brooded hundreds of chicks this way and have never had a problem. When they are feathered and big enough to come out, I just open up the door and they start to investigate their side of the coop for a few days, eventually making their way outside with the rest of the flock. By that time the older birds are used to them so they integrate pretty easy. Currently I have 11 RIR, and 10 Black Sexlink pullets in the brooder cage that are just now being let out during the day. They haven't made it outside of the coop yet, but I expect they will in a couple of days and be out of it completely by the time these eggs hatch. They've already discovered the roost on their side of the coop and seem to want to stay there when I lock things up but it's still pretty chilly when the sun goes down so I feel better about giving them access to the heat lamp at night; it won't be long before they will graduate to the roost once and for all.

 

[JLeigh]

It sounds like you've got everything set up and ready to go and everything sounds great. Lucky little keets and chicks....

Weren't we on the same "worry" team as me back in the National Competitions? LOL. Congrats on having everything set and ready. Really, we shouldn't worry so much. We do a great job overall. I owe my knowledge to PeepsCA and all the other experts on this site, who've taught me 99% of what I know, and I'm still learning.

 

[JanO]

It sounds like you've got everything set up and ready to go and everything sounds great. Lucky little keets and chicks....

Weren't we on the same "worry" team as me back in the National Competitions? LOL. Congrats on having everything set and ready. Really, we shouldn't worry so much. We do a great job overall. I owe my knowledge to PeepsCA and all the other experts on this site, who've taught me 99% of what I know, and I'm still learning.

I think we tied in the "worry" team National Finals.

I would be totally lost without this site, and definitely in the dark without PeepsCA and her wealth of knowledge. Chicks I can handle, but guineas are a whole new ballgame; and incubating them is an adventure all by itself!

Today I started collecting eggs to add to the incubator on Wed. I want a dozen but we'll see how generous the girls are between now and then. Some of them aren't laying very well yet this season, or they've found new hiding places that I haven't discovered yet.

Back to studying up on candling, so I have at least an idea what I'm looking at next week.

 

[JLeigh]

If you invest in a strong LED light and candle in complete darkness, or as dark as you can possible get the room, you'll be able to see veining pretty early in the development process. I bought a "Coast PX25" LED flashlight at Home Depot. It was expensive in my opinion - about 35-40 bucks, but it goes through the thicker guinea egg shell very well. If you're going to hatch each spring, it's worth the money IMHO. You don't have to have one that bright, but I had to see everything I could as soon as possible. Did I mention that in addition to worrying, I'm also impatient?

It's also great for power outages and general flashlight needs and uses three AAA batteries.

Anyway, you can darn near see the feathers on chicken eggs with it since those shells are thinner.

As a newbie myself, my best advice to a successful hatch is DON'T OPEN THE HATCHER at lockdown. Resistance might be futile, but I swear it's best for the keets.

 

[PeepsCA]

The flashlight I use (and used in the egg pics I posted) is a Streamlight Strion C4 LED. It's rechargeable, and it was over $150.. lol.
I didn't buy it specifically for candling, but it works really good.