Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[Chaneys Ranch]

I don't know what happened. I also incubated with duck eggs which someone told me later not to put small and large eggs in because temp too uneven. I'm putting in 6 Wyandotte eggs tomorrow. I haven't felt this nervous since my water broke on my 27 yr old. Eggcited and worried and ugggh good grief Charlie Brown!

Everyone has different methods, and success with how they hatch. What works for me may not work for you for example. I have 2 cabinets, and the only reason I have waterfowl separate is I hand turn goose eggs in the hatching tray. Just haven't ordered the larger positioning trays for goose eggs yet

! Guineas are one of my easiest to hatch, I just keep the water tray full. Add wet sponges at lockdown. The shells are hard, but the keets shouldn't have a problem if the embryo is healthy.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Also Environment plays big into the whole process. Here in San Diego I had to fill water trays almost every day. its Very dry here. Another thing that complicates things is Elevation. I have heard of people trying to hatch shipped eggs Because they were at high elevatoin and the eggs came from a low elevation. Were talking extreme differences not just a couple of thousand feet.

and No I have never hatched duck eggs but it seems they have similar requirements for different reasons.... so seems logical.

deb

 

[Rock Sister]

One thing that really changed hatching for me was simply cutting box top off of styro bater and sitting it back down in box. It has really made a difference for me here in humid Fl

 

[Nickeyo]

I have a question, I have a small flock of 6 guineas, there are 2 pearl, a white one, a pied lavender, and mulberry and a pied mulberry. I'm hatching eggs at the moment as I'm hoping to build my flock up to 20-30 strong but I really want so more White guineas, my white Guinea is male and it's paired with a pearl and my other pear is also femal and has bonded with the lavender. I've been setting eggs of various coloured shells yet so far I have 10 lavenders, a pearl and a pied pearl, but even tho they have all come from a range of egg colours I seem to only get lavender, is there a reason why this colour seems so dominant and why the white and mulberry genes seem to not show at all?

My other question is I live in the U.K. So the only threat to them is a fox so I plan to teach them to perch in a very old oak tree once I have enough so they can be completely free range, but the field the oak tree is in has very long grass and I was wondering whether long grass or short grass would be best, as if it's long they cants run away or see a predator easily but can hide, but if it's short the predator can see them easily but they can also see it and can then run and take off so which would be better, leave it long or keep it grazed down short?

 

[R2elk]

I have a question, I have a small flock of 6 guineas, there are 2 pearl, a white one, a pied lavender, and mulberry and a pied mulberry. I'm hatching eggs at the moment as I'm hoping to build my flock up to 20-30 strong but I really want so more White guineas, my white Guinea is male and it's paired with a pearl and my other pearl is also female and has bonded with the lavender. I've been setting eggs of various coloured shells yet so far I have 10 lavenders, a pearl and a pied pearl, but even tho they have all come from a range of egg colours I seem to only get lavender, is there a reason why this colour seems so dominant and why the white and mulberry genes seem to not show at all?

My other question is I live in the U.K. So the only threat to them is a fox so I plan to teach them to perch in a very old oak tree once I have enough so they can be completely free range, but the field the oak tree is in has very long grass and I was wondering whether long grass or short grass would be best, as if it's long they cants run away or see a predator easily but can hide, but if it's short the predator can see them easily but they can also see it and can then run and take off so which would be better, leave it long or keep it grazed down short?

I am assuming "mulberry" is a local term since I have never heard of a mulberry guinea before. Please post some pictures so we can see what color it is. You have not said what sex the mulberry and the pied mulberry are. If your pied mulberry is a hen, you could expect to get 50% white and 50% pied by pairing it with the White male. If it is a male, you don't currently have any mixes that will produce white guineas.

The white guinea with his pearl mate will only produce pied guineas which should all be pied pearls if she is a pure pearl without any hidden recessive genes.

Your other pearl hen must have a hidden recessive blue color gene in order to produce lavenders from her pairing with the pied lavender male and should also be capable of producing some pied birds whether they are pied pearls or pied lavenders.

I have no idea what your mulberries would produce since you haven't stated what sex they are and I don't know what color a mulberry is.

Here is a chart of known colors, perhaps you could pick out what color your mulberries are.

http://guineas.com/colorchart/

In the future you can produce more white guineas by mating the white male with a pied hen (yields 1/2 white guineas and 1/2 pied guineas) or mating pied guineas together (yields 1/4 white guineas, 1/2 pied guineas and 1/4 colored guineas).

Good luck.

 

[guineapeeps]

I am assuming "mulberry" is a local term since I have never heard of a mulberry guinea before.  Please post some pictures so we can see what color it is.  You have not said what sex the mulberry and the pied mulberry are.  If your pied mulberry is a hen, you could expect to get 50% white and 50% pied by pairing it with the White male.  If it is a male, you don't currently have any mixes that will produce white guineas.

The white guinea with his pearl mate will only produce pied guineas which should all be pied pearls if she is a pure pearl without any hidden recessive genes.

Your other pearl hen must have a hidden recessive blue color gene in order to produce lavenders from her pairing with the pied lavender male and should also be capable of producing some pied birds whether they are pied pearls or pied lavenders.

I have no idea what your mulberries would produce since you haven't stated what sex they are and I don't know what color a mulberry is.

Here is a chart of known colors, perhaps you could pick out what color your mulberries are.

http://guineas.com/colorchart/

In the future you can produce more white guineas by mating the white male with a pied hen  (yields 1/2 white guineas and 1/2 pied guineas) or mating pied guineas together (yields 1/4 white guineas, 1/2 pied guineas and 1/4 colored guineas).

Good luck.

Since we are discussing genetics/colors of offspring, I have another question for you. Last year I only had 2 males, 1 white and 1 pied pearl male, and 2 colors of females, pearl gray and buff dundotte. I only got 3 colors of keets from those.....pearl gray, lavenders, and buff dundottes....no pied in the whole lot of about 40. From your post, it sounds like the chances of getting a pied are about 50% with the pied and pearls and 100% pied with a white and pearl combo? It seems crazy that I didn't get any pied last year (I know my a couple of my pearl hens mated with the white male.) Maybe I have a lot of recessive genes in my flock?
I guess my real question is for this year. Right now, I have 1 lavender female, 1 lavender male, 1 pied pearl male, a couple of buff females, and a few pearl grays females (my white male got eaten by a fox , so he is gone). I know I will get pearls and buffs, but what about lavenders? It sounds like lavendar is a recessive blue gene from the pearls. Will they produce pearls, lavenders, or both?

 

[guineapeeps]

Just an add on to my last post/question: After looking at the Guineafowl.com/colorchart link, I think my lavenders are either very light lavenders or maybe porcelain. They are a very light icy blue color with dots over entire body. So considering this, what would these lite lavendar/porcelains produce?

 

[R2elk]

Just an add on to my last post/question: After looking at the Guineafowl.com/colorchart link, I think my lavenders are either very light lavenders or maybe porcelain. They are a very light icy blue color with dots over entire body. So considering this, what would these lite lavendar/porcelains produce?

Since we are discussing genetics/colors of offspring, I have another question for you. Last year I only had 2 males, 1 white and 1 pied pearl male, and 2 colors of females, pearl gray and buff dundotte. I only got 3 colors of keets from those.....pearl gray, lavenders, and buff dundottes....no pied in the whole lot of about 40. From your post, it sounds like the chances of getting a pied are about 50% with the pied and pearls and 100% pied with a white and pearl combo? It seems crazy that I didn't get any pied last year (I know my a couple of my pearl hens mated with the white male.) Maybe I have a lot of recessive genes in my flock?
I guess my real question is for this year. Right now, I have 1 lavender female, 1 lavender male, 1 pied pearl male, a couple of buff females, and a few pearl grays females (my white male got eaten by a fox , so he is gone). I know I will get pearls and buffs, but what about lavenders? It sounds like lavendar is a recessive blue gene from the pearls. Will they produce pearls, lavenders, or both?

Just an add on to my last post/question: After looking at the Guineafowl.com/colorchart link, I think my lavenders are either very light lavenders or maybe porcelain. They are a very light icy blue color with dots over entire body. So considering this, what would these lite lavender/porcelains produce?

Theoretically White guineas in the U.S. when mated with a colored guinea will produce all pied guinea offspring. Apparently there is a different type of white guinea in Australia that produces a different ratio of offspring. The other thing that needs to be taken into account is that there are people misidentifying Opalines and possibly Ivories and Porcelains as whites when they are not. White guineas are white and have no pearling or dots of any kind.

How the eggs are incubated also can affect the resulting outcomes making them different from expected percentages of colors hatched. I have a Lavender hen that is mated to a Coral Blue cock. The first year of that pairing produced zero Lavenders out of an expected 50% Lavenders from the eggs that I incubated. The Coral Blues and other expected colors hatched fine. When the eggs were given to a dependable broody chicken, the expected numbers of Lavenders did hatch. I did manage to hatch one Lavender from the eggs I incubated last year and the broody chickens also hatched fewer than expected lavenders even though they had 100% of the guinea eggs given to them hatch. I do not have any answers for why this occurred.

I also have one White male guinea and have not gotten any pied offspring. This is because this male has not mated with any of the guinea hens even though he is a favorite for one particular hen. He injured a leg when 6 months old and I suspect that he is incapable of breeding.

If your Pearl guineas have a recessive blue gene and mated with the Buff Dundotte, that could produce Porcelains for you since the Porcelains have both a recessive blue gene and a recessive buff gene. Porcelains mated together could produce more Porcelains (50%), Lavenders (25%) and Buff Dundottes (25%).

With your failure to get any pied offspring last year, I have to suspect that your White guinea either failed to mate with any of the hens or he is infertile. A mating of a white guinea with a colored guinea theoretically will produce 100% pied keets.

Good luck.

 

[Nickeyo]

So I'm not sure what the pied guineas gender is but I think my solid 'mulberry' guinea is female but it regularly chases the other guineas which makes me think it's male but it has some feathers on its back missing from potential treading or just been pulled out. If lavender is recessive why when my lavender is mated to a pearl does it get majority lavender?

 

[guineapeeps]

Theoretically White guineas in  the U.S. when mated with a colored guinea will produce all pied guinea offspring.  Apparently there is a different type of white guinea in Australia that produces a different ratio of offspring.  The other thing that needs to be taken into account is that there are people misidentifying Opalines and possibly Ivories and Porcelains as whites when they are not.  White guineas are white and have no pearling or dots of any kind.

How the eggs are incubated also can affect the resulting outcomes making them different from expected percentages of colors hatched.  I have a Lavender hen that is mated to a Coral Blue cock.  The first year of that pairing produced zero Lavenders out of an expected 50% Lavenders from the eggs that I incubated.  The Coral Blues and other expected colors hatched fine.  When the eggs were given to a dependable broody chicken, the expected numbers of Lavenders did hatch.  I did manage to hatch one Lavender from the eggs I incubated last year and the broody chickens also hatched fewer than expected lavenders even though they had 100% of the guinea eggs given to them hatch.  I do not have any answers for why this occurred. 

I also have one White male guinea and have not gotten any pied offspring.  This is because this male has not mated with any of the guinea hens even though he is a favorite for one particular hen.  He injured a leg when 6 months old and I suspect that he is incapable of breeding.

If your Pearl guineas have a recessive blue gene and mated with the Buff Dundotte, that could produce Porcelains for you since the Porcelains have both a recessive blue gene and a recessive buff gene.  Porcelains mated together could produce more Porcelains (50%), Lavenders (25%) and Buff Dundottes (25%).

With your failure to get any pied offspring last year, I have to suspect that your White guinea either failed to mate with any of the hens or he is infertile.  A mating of a white guinea with a colored guinea theoretically will produce 100% pied keets.

Good luck.

Very interesting! Thank you so much for all the helpful info!