Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[itsjustme]

[COLOR=4B0082]A Guinea Hen that persistently broody is a rare thing, especially after all that she and the nest have gone thru... but she may be able to feel that she has live keets in her eggs, so that's why she is so determined to stay put. A leaf rake or a future (manure) fork works good to hold back a vicious Hen, but you may want to have a helper gather the eggs while you hold the Hen back (or vice versa).[/COLOR]

[COLOR=4B0082]If you take the eggs and candle them and find that some are alive... she may not get back on them if you put them back in the nest. So you may want to have an incubator set up and ready just in case.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=4B0082]Good luck, hope you don't lose too much blood, lol.[/COLOR]

well I went out today to shoo her away and get rid of the nest. But noticed she had dumped a bunch of eggs. Just rolled them out of the nest pushed them off to the side I figured they were bad and she knew it so I decided to just shoo her take the discarded eggs and leave the few she had left. For awhile longer if she would come back and sit. I had decided if she didn't no big deal. Well bf come with me I had to scoot her off the nest with my foot ( I was gentle) she did not want to leave. She finally gave up and got out of her nest bc took his shirt off and waved it at her to keep her from nabbing me while I grabbed eggs. I took all the ones she pushed out and a couple that she had under her but didn't look good. As soon as I stood and backed up she was right back on them. And hissing at me like crazy. Lol I noticed a few that were under her were nice and warm and felt heavier than the discarded ones so maybe they are still good?

 

[NCgirl21]

HELP/ADVICE Please!! I have a guinea flock of five. They were all raised from keets together and are a year old now. (Four males; One female). There is one male that is constantly left out of the group and this has been going on for a while (months) but it will go through phases where it's worse than others and we're at a bad stage now. The guineas will free range in the front of the house and I'll see that the one lonely male is in the backyard by himself just laying on the run or beside it or in the grass. (Their house & run are in the back yard along with other chickens). This morning he was laying in the sun on the grass and I saw the four in the front yard running to the back yard and the chased him away from his spot. It is so heartbreaking because he is the sweetest guinea and he just wants to be with the others. When I let my chickens free range he's the only one that gets along with the girls and he tries so hard to be by them. If I didn't have two silkie roosters that attack me let alone anything else, then he'd be with the chickens by now. When they all free range together, the roosters mostly ignore him but I'm afraid if they were all locked in the run together then the roosters would not have the distraction from free ranging and will then terrorize the lone guinea. Does anyone have any advice or experience with this? I'm not sure what to do or where to go from here. I really want to put him in the run because he seems to like the chickens a lot but I'm concerned that my roosters might be mean. Thoughts? Worth a shot? My heart just breaks for this sweet guinea and I'm desperate to find some sort of resolution for him because it's not fixing itself.

Thank you all so much!!

 

[guineaninnie]

Hey! I'm a new comer to this addicting game of hatching guineas in an incubator! Everything seemed to be going great. Till I put eggs in lock down. I candle each egg for movement on day 25 then put them in a still incubator at 99.5 (same temp as in egg turning incubator). I have 3 small plastic containers of water but no way to check humidity! My first four eggs are now at day 30 and nothing happening I also have a damp paper towel under them. I am no up to 15 in lockdown and the only time I open is to add eggs! Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong! I'm afraid I'm killing all my keets! When I spoke with a man that hatches his own he said I'm doing everything I can! So any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[itsjustme]

 HELP/ADVICE Please!! I have a guinea flock of five. They were all raised from keets together and are a year old now. (Four males; One female). There is one male that is constantly left out of the group and this has been going on for a while (months) but it will go through phases where it's worse than others and we're at a bad stage now. The guineas will free range in the front of the house and I'll see that the one lonely male is in the backyard by himself just laying on the run or beside it or in the grass. (Their house & run are in the back yard along with other chickens). This morning he was laying in the sun on the grass and I saw the four in the front yard running to the back yard and the chased him away from his spot. It is so heartbreaking because he is the sweetest guinea and he just wants to be with the others. When I let my chickens free range he's the only one that gets along with the girls and he tries so hard to be by them. If I didn't have two silkie roosters that attack me let alone anything else, then he'd be with the chickens by now. When they all free range together, the roosters mostly ignore him but I'm afraid if they were all locked in the run together then the roosters would not have the distraction from free ranging and will then terrorize the lone guinea. Does anyone have any advice or experience with this? I'm not sure what to do or where to go from here. I really want to put him in the run because he seems to like the chickens a lot but I'm concerned that my roosters might be mean. Thoughts? Worth a shot? My heart just breaks for this sweet guinea and I'm desperate to find some sort of resolution for him because it's not fixing itself. 

Thank you all so much!!

I have 10 that are around a year and they were the same way. All of them stayed in a tight knit little group then for no reason they singled 1 male out and would run him off if he got anywhere near him he finally buddied up with the bachelor group ( my tom turkeys) and hung out with them. Breeding season come around and they all broke off into pairs or trios and stayed apart until it was time to roost. He found him a girlfriend and stayed with her all the time. I've noticed lately they have gotten back into their lil group and he's back with the turkeys. If he's hanging out with the chickens during the day and the roos don't bother him then it may be ok to roost him with him. I would put him in there and hang out for a bit to see what happens. I image there will be a little picking for awhile until he realizes his place in the pecking order but if it gets nasty get him out. I'm more concered about your 1 hen with all those boys. I have 6 hen chickens and 4 roos and I had to lock my girls up bc they never got a break and were having all their feathers pulled out. It was awful! I'm still wanting to thin out the rois but between kids and bf its not happened. Everyone one has their own fav and can't decide on just 1 to keep lol

 

[BlueMouse]

the guinea crew and their new outdoor accomodations. they're 8 weeks now. Is it normal that they still haven't figured out how to use the roost? it's 3 feet up. I know that they can fly that high. I'm thinking about putting in a temporary lower roost so they don't end up in a huddle on the ground if it's damp.

 

[JacqueOCS]

Can anyone tell me what color this keet will turn out to be? Out of the 22 keets, I have 2 marked like this. The other 20 are Pearl Gray and royal Purple. Thank you for any info

 

[PeepsCA]

Hey! I'm a new comer to this addicting game of hatching guineas in an incubator! Everything seemed to be going great. Till I put eggs in lock down. I candle each egg for movement on day 25 then put them in a still incubator at 99.5 (same temp as in egg turning incubator). I have 3 small plastic containers of water but no way to check humidity! My first four eggs are now at day 30 and nothing happening I also have a damp paper towel under them. I am no up to 15 in lockdown and the only time I open is to add eggs! Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong! I'm afraid I'm killing all my keets! When I spoke with a man that hatches his own he said I'm doing everything I can! So any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Are you incubating and hatching in separate incubators? If you incubated your eggs (in a turner) at 99.5 degrees for the first 25 days in a still air incubator that is most likely why your keets are not hatching. They are way behind in development, because the temp has been too low. Still air incubation temp should be 101.5-102 degrees measured on top of the eggs (99.5 degrees is for incubators that have a fan to circulate the heat/moisture). For hatching in a still air incubator the temp can be lowered 1 degree for the lock down... so 100.5-101 degrees.

You can get an inexpensive digital hygrometer to measure the humidity at walmart or radio shack...

 

[PeepsCA]

the guinea crew and their new outdoor accomodations. they're 8 weeks now. Is it normal that they still haven't figured out how to use the roost? it's 3 feet up. I know that they can fly that high. I'm thinking about putting in a temporary lower roost so they don't end up in a huddle on the ground if it's damp.

Nice pen

Maybe try a ladder style roost, so they can gradually hop up higher and higher as they get more brave. If they are still scared of something like that then oi can try putting a log in there for them to roost on so they are up off the ground at least.

 

[JLeigh]

Are you incubating and hatching in separate incubators? If you incubated your eggs (in a turner) at 99.5 degrees for the first 25 days in a still air incubator that is most likely why your keets are not hatching. They are way behind in development, because the temp has been too low. Still air incubation temp should be 101.5-102 degrees measured on top of the eggs (99. degrees is for incubators that have a fan to circulate the heat/moisture). For hatching in a still air incubator the temp can be lowered 1 degree for the lock down... so 100.5-101 degrees.

You can get an inexpensive digital hygrometer to measure the humidity at walmart or radio shack...

To add to what Peeps said, you CAN get an inexpensive hygrometer at Walmart, but I'd recommend getting the best one you can afford. I bought the cheap cheapies, and they're off by a few percentages at least. If nothing else, it's a comfort knowing what your temp and humidity are - for real - without trying to guess "am I really doing it right?" Plus, it can affect hatches if off by too much. It was worth the few extra dollars to sleep better for each month I hatch. .

 

[PeepsCA]

Whether you buy a cheapo Hygrometer, or expensive one it's always a good idea to calibrate your Hygrometer and check it's accuracy. For those that do not know how to calibrate their Hygrometer... you can do a search here on BYC for Hygrometer Salt Calibration Test (or Google it).

I've had pretty decent luck with my cheapos (Springfield) being "close enough" tho. And with Guinea eggs, typically the RH % isn't as crucial during the incubation period (as long as the eggs have SOME Humidity at least) as it is during the hatch/lockdown.. but of course that will vary by climate and the ambient RH of the room where the incubator is set up. I'd rather have a ball-park reading than none at all tho.
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