Prices for Guinea Keets?

[Darkjeweler]

Last year the feed stores were selling keets for about $4ea. This year, the going rate seems to be $6.99ea. Is this si milar to what is going on in other states? It is good for me since I am hatching out a whole bunch of keets this year for sale, but it makes you wonder what is driving the price...

 

[RingedTeal]

The price is going up because everybody wants some but no one has any.Like eggs were going $7.00 a dozen here.

 

[PeepsCA]

Last year the feed stores were selling keets for about $4ea. This year, the going rate seems to be $6.99ea. Is this si milar to what is going on in other states? It is good for me since I am hatching out a whole bunch of keets this year for sale, but it makes you wonder what is driving the price...

With the mild winter and lack of a long effective freeze everyone is predicting a really bad tick season and people have been buying my keets by the armloads. Also the price of feed has increased, so that comes into play too.

 

[Darkjeweler]

Well, the tick season idea makes sense. I know feed prices have gone up a little, but I am not sure that is a good justification for a 75% to 100% price increase in keets. Hey, I am not complaining. I was just informed by a local woman, that at auction they are getting close to $20 for a 6 month bird. I suppose I could keep all the Guineas around till next spring and then sell them for a mega profit. My luck, we will have a really cold winter and their won't be any demand for Guineas. lol... Though my feed store buys keets for $3-$3.5 ea, I have had no luck getting any sales from Craigslist. I wonder why. Granted I am not in a major city, but I am not in the middle of nowhere either.

I have about 20 hatched out in the last 2 days and another 20+ in the hatch box overdue to hatch. I see a lot of the shells pipped. I also have about 90 eggs either in incubators or on the counter waiting to go into an incubator (probably tomorrow). If I can find the new guinea nest, I will have to add a few more days of eggs to the incubator. So, out of all my birds, at least the Guineas look like they will pay for their own feed (and probably everyone elses.) I am happy guineas lay till september. lol.. Now if I can find a way to keep eggs from dying, I will have it made.. lol..

 

[Roxannemc]

For myself i am seriously thinking of a few guineas b/c of ticks.Alway bad here in spring i had 2 on me in March.already so early.Also i think and heard on tv there is a boom of new chicken owners due to better benefits of grow your own eggs so those ppl may br first hearing of guineas and wanteing the tickless yard tooEither way good luck!
Also advertise on Ebay classified and put up up ads in you foods stores bulletin board. and laundrymats Vet offices.All good places to advertise any animals and free.Oh and hatching eggs on Ebay!

 

[Darkjeweler]

I just candled all the eggs that are left in the hatch box. It looks like a have quite a few with no movement inside. Hatch day was supposed to be yesterday, how long past hatch day should you wait till you consider the eggs dead? It just sucks to see eggs get all the way to lockdown and then just die. This is my first season hatching eggs, so I am sure I have much to learn. At least right now I am doing better than the Guineas who keep getting their eggs eaten by (whatever).

 

[PeepsCA]

That's a lot of late quitters Darkjeweler, bummer. What kind of incubator do you use and what temp and how much humidity did you use? And what are the temp and humidity in the hatcher? Guineas need a lot of humidity for lock-down/hatch, but they also need a good supply of oxygen too. Sometimes it's difficult to find the happy medium to providing both. Usually if Guinea eggs go much past 30 days it is a bad sign. You may need to open a few eggs that you're sure are dead and check the condition of the keets inside... are they gooey/sticky, or did the membrane shrink down over them and suffocate them? It's hard to say what could cause that many keets to not hatch without knowing more detail.

 

[Darkjeweler]

Well, all this batch was done using a Hovabator Styro Unit. Temp was set to 99.5°, but it did fuctuate a little. Auto egg turners were used. When it was time for lockdown, the eggs were placed into a modified cooler using a waterheater thermostat. I have not been real happy with the temp swings in the unit, but it did not seem to affect at least 50% of the eggs. The humidity was raised to 65%-75% and the chicks were removed a few hours after hatching and placed in a brooder. There are still numerous eggs that have movement inside and we are on day 29/30 now.

In the future, I will be hatching in my new 1950s Redwood incubator. We will see if that has any affect on the results. That thing has been holding temperature rock solid for several days now, I just don't know how to boost the humidity in it yet. Seems to be staying right around 50%. I suppose I could close down all the vents.

 

[Darkjeweler]

Out of 20 eggs left in the hatcher, I think there are only maybe 8 that are moving. Perhaps if I want to continue using the hatch box I need to get a wafer thermostat for it.

 

[PeepsCA]

If your temps were fluctuating for the lock down in the hatching cooler, that could have been the issue with slow hatching. But... the Hovabator you used, is it a circulated air model with a fan built in? If not, then the temp needed to be 101.5-102 range (which is for still air). If that's the case it definitely would have been why your keets are late. My keets always hatch early in my Hovabators, but I have 2 of the 1588 models, preset/with a fan.

To raise the humidity in your redwood cabinet model you can add another pan of water with sponges in the pan so the keets can't get in in the water and drown, or just wet sponges will work too. I've seen some people use rolled up wet socks, lol. There's all kinds of tricks for raising the humidity, even misting the eggs lightly.

Good luck, keep us posted on how well the nexy hatch goes!