Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[Tikkijane]

Hi everyone found this thread and thought I would ask a few questions... so I haven't read anything about chickens hatching out Guinea eggs and wonder if thats possible ive done duck eggs and quail eggs under my broodys but never heard of guinea fowl if it would work I may have to get my hands on some eggs! thanks a lot!

I have heard it works well. I have a cuckoo marans on 3 remaining chicken eggs and 5 guinea eggs; my bantam birchen cochin is on a clutch of 20 + guinea eggs on the guinea side of the coop. Will let you know what happens. ...

 

[Susiederkins]

My guineas are laying (bad 10%ish fertility rate though...) as far as I can tell I definitely have one female, one mute and the rest are boys....but I just candled the eggies and there is LIFE! YAY....once these are done, I will put in more but in the mean time I love the eggies! They are yummmmy

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

My guineas are laying (bad 10%ish fertility rate though...) as far as I can tell I definitely have one female, one mute and the rest are boys....but I just candled the eggies and there is LIFE! YAY....once these are done, I will put in more but in the mean time I love the eggies! They are yummmmy

The eggs are pretty tasty! From what I see in the guineas, they pair off. so you need 1 hen to one cock...
I have way too many hens. My pearl hen took one, lavender hen took the 2nd and the 3 white hens are extra mouths to feed, ugh. I have one hen rehomed, possibly all 3. I still want royal purple, will need to order eggs I guess.

 

[nelmsy]

Hi everyone found this thread and thought I would ask a few questions... so I haven't read anything about chickens hatching out Guinea eggs and wonder if thats possible ive done duck eggs and quail eggs under my broodys but never heard of guinea fowl if it would work I may have to get my hands on some eggs! thanks a lot!

Yes It would deffinetly work

 

[Fuxzi]

Thanks for the info I will definitely try getting some eggs under my broody

 

[The Farm]

I need help... I have three dozen guinea eggs in the batar. How do I keep the humidity right? Do I need to keep it at 60% the whole time?

 

[R2elk]

I need help... I have three dozen guinea eggs in the batar. How do I keep the humidity right? Do I need to keep it at 60% the whole time?

It really depends on your local conditions. My house humidity is typically less than 10% until I turn the swamp cooler on in the summer. With the auto humidity system that I have the incubator humidity runs about 40% until lock down. At lock down I am able to increase the humidity to 60%. For my local conditions, those parameters have given me a 100% hatch on my own guinea eggs with only one egg requiring assistance due to shrink wrap.

If your temperature is holding constant, the humidity is dependent solely on the surface area of the water in the incubator. If you need more humidity, increase the surface area of the water. If you need less humidity, decrease the surface area of the water. The only thing that depth of the water does is to lessen the need to fill whatever vessel you are using to contain the water.

Constant opening and closing of the incubator will add to the difficulty in maintaining a constant temperature and humidity.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I need help... I have three dozen guinea eggs in the batar. How do I keep the humidity right? Do I need to keep it at 60% the whole time?

Guinea are an easy hatch. Humidity 30% or less till lock down. then go to 70% has been great for me. Air cells need to develop. They have been easiest to hatch for us, even compared to chickens, and such adorable tiny keets too

Good luck on your hatch!

 

[shellybelly]

Hi all!
I bought some keets last year, before I bought any chicks, so there were a "test" run. I love em! My gram had inherited a few when she moved to Arkansas and they were wild, having raised them myself they are a bit tame. The keets were so jumpy I felt like I was gonna give the poor things heart attacks so I only handled them when needed. They Stay around the property for the most part but do go across the road into my neighbors field and they go into their coop at dark. ( the one female I have even has started a best in there!!) There's a part of our property that we leave unmowed and I notice that they don't get into the high grass/hay which I think all the nasty but tasty bugs would be, has anyone noticed this as well? Or are mine just silly? Also I noticed that some/one? Has wet feces where it should be dry? Any suggestions? Also I'm lookin for some more keets in northwest Indiana if anyone has any or wants to go in on an order, I don't want 25 which is the min.order I keep seeing

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hi all!
I bought some keets last year, before I bought any chicks, so there were a "test" run. I love em! My gram had inherited a few when she moved to Arkansas and they were wild, having raised them myself they are a bit tame. The keets were so jumpy I felt like I was gonna give the poor things heart attacks so I only handled them when needed. They Stay around the property for the most part but do go across the road into my neighbors field and they go into their coop at dark. ( the one female I have even has started a best in there!!) There's a part of our property that we leave unmowed and I notice that they don't get into the high grass/hay which I think all the nasty but tasty bugs would be, has anyone noticed this as well? Or are mine just silly? Also I noticed that some/one? Has wet feces where it should be dry? Any suggestions? Also I'm lookin for some more keets in northwest Indiana if anyone has any or wants to go in on an order, I don't want 25 which is the min.order I keep seeing

Oh, you're in NW IN? You should come over to our Indiana thread! We have some members that run "chicken trains" picking up and dropping off birds across the state. Some of us do raise guinea also, myself included! Our link to the thread is in my signature