Questions about incubating Guinea Fowl Eggs!

[KatelynnRiedel]

Hello I want to start off that I am new to this group, so if there is already a forum about this I am sorry.

So I have a friend of mine asking me to incubate some eggs for them. Their guineas are already laying!!!! I wish mine were
I have looked some of the stuff on-line but get different degrees and stuff. I was hoping that someone could tell me how to incubate guinea eggs. I have done duck eggs, but not guinea eggs. How long do they take to hatch? What temp should they be at? What humidity should they be at? I need to know everything about the incubation process. I have raised them as keets, but never incubated them. I have an automatic egg turner and my incubator has a fan. Thank you in advance for the info!

 

[PeepsCA]

Hello I want to start off that I am new to this group, so if there is already a forum about this I am sorry.

So I have a friend of mine asking me to incubate some eggs for them. Their guineas are already laying!!!! I wish mine were
I have looked some of the stuff on-line but get different degrees and stuff. I was hoping that someone could tell me how to incubate guinea eggs. I have done duck eggs, but not guinea eggs. How long do they take to hatch? What temp should they be at? What humidity should they be at? I need to know everything about the incubation process. I have raised them as keets, but never incubated them. I have an automatic egg turner and my incubator has a fan. Thank you in advance for the info!

Guinea Fowl eggs typically take 28 days of incubation at 99.5 degrees F, and I try to maintain the Humidity anywhere between 35%-45%. Lock-down should be on day 25, but you may want to candle them on day 23 and check the air cells for an obvious slant or any internal pipping, just in case some are developing faster than normal (mine typically hatch on day 26, so lock-down is day 23 or 24 for my hatches depending on how the air cells look). Be sure to raise the Humidity up to at least 65% when you lock them down... the keets need the extra moisture to be able to pip, spin in the egg and zip to hatch, especially in a forced air incubator.

 

[PeepsCA]

Just go ahead and put them in the incubator at the right temp and humidity for incubating now, and be sure to turn them 3 or 5 times a day (odd# is best). If you don't know how to candle and check the air cell then once one or a couple of the shells shows an external pip or crack, it's definitely time for lock-down/hatch (higher humidity, no more turning, and be sure to keep the incubator closed until the hatch is over).

Actually candling them is easy, just be sure to do it in total darkness, with a small flashlight held up to the top of the egg (fat end). The water method may drown your keets, especially if there's a pip you can't see, so I wouldn't risk it. Candling them is safer. The air cell should always be at the big/fat end of the egg (Guinea eggs have a big round end and a very pointy small end). Once the air cells goes really slanted, lock-down/hatch time is just a couple days or so off. If you see the shadow of the keet inside the egg, you can lock them down then too. but it won't hurt to wait until you see an eternal pip in the shell. You can lay them flat on the incubator floor, or you can set them in cardboard egg cartons with the top cut off and the bottoms of each cup cut out.

This is a pic of a Turkey egg, but here is a diagram showing how the air cell development should look in a Guinea egg. Lock-down should normally be day 25, but since you don't know exactly when that may be you can either use this as a guide, or like I said, wait for internal or external pips.

 

[PeepsCA]

This is my first guinea incubation and hatch. My eggs are at day 21-23 what are folks referring to by "Lock Down"?? and pipping?
I have raised the humidity up to about 80 % the digital temp and humidity is not accurate and I have regulated the tempature with a regular glass themomtor that came with the incubator. I raised the humidity because it looks like some of the eggs might be starting to hatch. Several eggs I collected were sat on by the chicken hens and we had a huge heat wave in California during the same time that could have started the incubation process prior to my putting the eggs in the incubator.

I can see several eggs with tiny shell fractures and doing my best at candling with a flash light can see several with slanted air pockets at the top of the eggs. I also have 3 duck eggs hatching with these and all 3 of those eggs have slanted air pockets for sure.

There is one egg that has some liquid dots forming on the top of the egg that are coming out of the egg and I can see tiny fractures down the sides of the egg as I sat and watched the egg for a while the liquid had tiny bubbles that appeard like something inside was causing pressure that was forcing the dots of liquid out of the shell. Any ideas??

The bubbling liquid dots coming out of an egg is probably a rotten, seeping egg... and that egg may explode at any time. Remove it, and handle with EXTREME care!! If there's a bad smell to it, put it in a zip lock bag and gently dispose of it right away, or bury it. If it does not smell then you can carefully candle it to check for any sign of life, but my guess is that you have a rotten egg. I call those "MayPops"... as in may explode.You do NOT want that blowing up in your face or in your incubator, believe me, lol.

Lockdown is the last 3 days of incubation, when you raise the humidity for hatch... and the term "lockdown" actually means do not open the incubator until the hatch is over. You want that warm moist air to stay in there so the shells stay softer and the inner membranes stay moist.

Pipping is when the keets that are developed far enough along to be ready to start hatching start pecking the inside of the shell and cracking it. Sometime it's just a crack at first, other times there is an obvious peck mark sticking up on the surface of the shell.

At this point, with pipped eggs... if I were you I would leave the incubator closed, stop candling the eggs and just let them hatch. You do want some fresh air flow coming into the incubator from the vents in the incubator, but the more cool dry air you expose the eggs to by opening the incubator the less of a chance there is of the keets hatching successfully. Every time cool dry air gets to the eggs you run the risk of the inner membrane shrinking down over the keets, making it difficult or impossible for the keets to hatch, or even suffocating them.

 

[R2elk]

At least temporarily the incubator is empty. Here are some of the latest arrivals.

White guinea keets



Lavender guinea keets

 

[R2elk]

R2elk, thank you for replying. What of the people who say theirs are hatching 3 days early? That isn't typical is it? I'm really banking on a Thanksgiving day hatch.

I have had a couple of day 25 day hatches but they are not usual if your temperatures are correct. Those experiencing really early hatches are either incubating eggs that have already been started or are running their incubator a little high. There are also those who have late hatches because their incubator temperature is running on the low side.

If it makes you feel better to begin lockdown earlier than day 25, go ahead and do it. It is not critical that the eggs be turned during their last week of incubation.

Good luck.

 

[R2elk]

Hi I read through this thread hoping for answers. Found some great info but not all I needed.
We are Newbies to incubator hatching
We moved guinea eggs under a broody chicken a couple weeks ago- didn’t know how long the chicken(7) or guinea(12) eggs had been sat upon. I won’t go into the details of possible reasons, but the hen abandoned the eggs. After an overnight where they sat out in the night air, we bought an incubator and moved the eggs - (couple of days ago). One of the chicks hatched today. So I unplugged the egg turner And moved the chick to a brooder setup after it looked dry. It appears perfectly healthy. Now other chicken and guinea eggs are pipping. Maybe more chicks/keets in the AM? Hope so
Couple questions -
1. will it hurt the chicks to be on that uneven surface of the egg turner? Since we’re in lockdown now, I can’t take the eggs off of it. When can I move the hatched ones to the brooder w/o affecting others still to hatch?
2. How do I add H20 for humidity to a Farm innovations 4200? Tried with tubing run through the vent hole but I couldn’t see what I was doing and the water ran under the machine
Sorry for this LONG post
Kathy

Lockdown is not as critical as some would like you to think. You can take the eggs off of the turner and remove it if you want to.

You can take the keets and chicks out of the incubator when you want to although it is best to wait until they appear dry.

You can open the incubator so that you can align your tubing so that the next time you add water it ends up in the right place. It would have been best if you had done this before lockdown. If needed you can open the incubator to add water.

It helps if you make it so the incubator being open is held to a minimum and for as short a duration as possible. You can add a wet cloth to help get the humidity back up as quickly as possible.

 

[Mmmaddie13]

I know that for chicken eggs, the hatchability generally starts really decreasing after it sits for 7 days. You don't want to put them in the incubator as soon as you get them because you'll have a staggered hatch and that's not a good idea because of the humidity needs at specific days. I wouldn't keep them at room temperature, but just below. If you have a basement that is cooler than the rest of the house, you should keep them there. Don't forget to "turn" them every day. The easiest way to do that is to put them in a carton when you collect them, prop up one side of the carton (the long side) on the edge of a book or something, and at LEAST once a day switch which side is propped up. I've never collected eggs for a hatch, I always buy online, but this is what I've heard.

 

[Desert Springs]

Hi all

Just found this thread and had to join!!!

I only have a small flock of guineas, down to 14 this fall (PeepsCA - wow, you're swimming in guineas!!). I started with 19 keets last year which grew up nicely. One had a flying accident this summer and another tried to race a car across the road

. The other missing three 'disappeared' out on the high desert which adjoins us. Uncertain whether they went wild, or predators were the culprits. I've had several come wandering in, early in the mornings, the last few weeks, which I had thought missing previously. They must have gone in search of bugs and started laying/setting on eggs out there, and since the cold is setting in, they are now coming home. So glad to see them!! Still have my fingers crossed to see the other three

.

Anyway, I've read the thread and saw some who had incubation questions in the high elevations. I'm at 5500 and have a Sportsman which I consider perfectly calibrated for hatching guineas. Chicken and peacock eggs not so much, which I then have to adjust. My guineas have been laying well and the fertility rate of my small flock is running about 95%, which thrills me. My hatches usually produce 21 keets per 24 eggs, with the other 3 just not pipping. I run the heat at 99.5% and the humidity at around 60%, throughout the entire time. They have been hatching at 24 days, healthy and active. I first started planning on lockdown at day 25, however most were 'riding the rails' by then. I've hatched out over 100 this season and had to stop collecting eggs...lol, even though they are still selling like hotcakes (the feed stores here have had a bad time of them the last couple years and haven't been carrying them). Time to start winterizing the coops and getting the poultry flocks merged, to better utilize the heat/water and feed sources. Plus I have to really do a deep cleaning and disinfecting for the next spring hatch season.

Do not know if this is normal, or just the environmental dynamics here in this little basin, but it works great here.

Oh, and franj99... I found out the hard way about the bubbles on the egg...ewwwww!!

. I was closely inspecting it when it blew. I was deaf for about 2 days in one ear, the smell was putrefying and the contents made me want to scrub my face for a week.....yuck!!! It's something you would never forget, and would fear forever...lol.

PeepsCA - what colors are you running in your flocks??

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Hello:

I have found that when the keets start peeping (not piping) that one should make absolute sure the little guys have an air hole.
The Guinea shell is a bit harder than a chicken shell, even at hatching and it is most important that the humidity is raised
and the the incubator left alone. I too have had my keets hatch out a few days early.
I have found that many of them need a little help out of the shell.
I use a medical type que tip like the ones you see at the doctors office.
I carefully open the shell from the peep a little at a time during the 24 hours it make take for the little one to make it out.
I DO NOT open the shell to the point were the chick is attached to the yolk sac.
I let them work their way out of an open shell and make SURE that they do not drag the shell around
the incubator as this may cause problems.
I use cutical scissors to cut the cord once they are out.
I just spend the day and night with them.
It is always a wonder to watch the little turds hatch out anyway.
If you see a few hatch out early and are mobile, do not worry.
They can stay that way for a few days without problems.
Just remember to take out your turner on lock down
a few days early. As stated I do this around day 25.
guinea G.