Possible Guinea Eggs in "Quail" Batch?

[Cheyen]

Today my mother took it upon herself to surprise me with some quail hatching eggs. I have recently lost a few chicks, which my little brother didn't take too well. She thought it might cheer him up. Anyway... I do not have much experience with quail eggs, but it is my understanding that they come in a few different colors. However, I'm pretty suspicious of these eggs... they're speckled, but only lightly. Plus, they're huge for what I expected from quail eggs!

I'm thinking there's no way these are quail eggs! After doing some research, the closest thing I can find to these things are guinea eggs (which I have even less experience with than quail). I'm willing to experiment with these eggs, and would like to hatch them. I just need to be sure what type of bird will pop out so I can incubate them properly!


Here they are in a large egg carton, next to a pretty decent sized egg (not quite large) from one of my ladies. There were two types of eggs on the palette my mom gave me...


One type is more elongated and a bit more heavily speckled than the nubbier, lighter eggs.


And here's the monster "quail" egg next to the egg that came from an orpington hen.

The palette came with 30 eggs (half of which are going in my belly!) and came from a local farmers' market. Apparently they weren't marked, and my mother was so sure they were quail eggs that she didn't bother to ask. The only thing she asked was whether or not they were fertile!

Again, I have very little experience with quail, so I could be wrong. Could quail eggs be larger and lighter than I thought? What do you guys think? Quail? Guinea? Maybe some sort of miniature ostrich?

 

[Granny Hatchet]

they are shaped like guinea eggs, both of them but they lookkinda small to me. guinea is likea medium size egg from grocery store. i have some due to hatch tonite.

 

[Cheyen]

they are shaped like guinea eggs, both of them but they lookkinda small to me. guinea is likea medium size egg from grocery store. i have some due to hatch tonite.

Thanks! I was looking at pheasant and chukar eggs, too. But they all look pretty similar to me!

If I can't figure out what they are, I'll just have to wing it!

 

[Granny Hatchet]

haha, they do look like guinea, the only difference in hatching is time. guinea take longer

 

[Cheyen]

haha, they do look like guinea, the only difference in hatching is time. guinea take longer

Thanks for the opinion!

Hopefully tomorrow the farmer who supplied these things will be at the market so I can ask what they are.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

did u find out if ur eggs were guinea or not? im betting yes

 

[Cheyen]

Hi! I went to the market today, and unfortunately the fellow in charge of the eggs doesn't work on Sundays.

I did manage to get a few opinions, though, and everyone seems to agree on quail. I'll try hatching a few of them, and set a little hutch up for them outside. It should be pretty fun!

 

[Cheyen]

After looking up some pictures of guinea, I'm actually really hoping they're quail eggs! Guinea certainly aren't the prettiest birds, lol.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

are u kidding? they are beautiful, if u dont look at the head that is. haha, BUT, they have good personalitys and they are great tick and weed seed eaters. and the way they sing, oh my..... u bout need to be hard of hearing to put up with that. with that being said, i have 10 of them.heheh

 

[Cheyen]

Lol, I'm sure they're great once you give them a chance!

I'll just get little brown bags to throw over their heads!