The A B Cs of guinea egg hatching please?

[GBov]

I was just gifted with 24 guinea eggs - woooohooooo lucky me - but now I need to hatch them.

Could one of you lovely experianced folks tell me how to do that? We have a bator and egg turner so I just need temps, times and lock down dates.

Oh, and what do keets eat? I have game bird starter on hand all the time, will that work for them if we are lucky enough to get a hatch?

 

[GBov]

Oh yeh, last questions. Point up or down in the turner? And leave them in the turner for hatching or take them out?

 

[Buster123]

Guinea eggs take 28 days to hatch. We put ours in lockdown for 3 days and wait to hatch. Guinea keets do eat game bird feed so game bird starter will be good for them. You do have to dip their beaks in water and we put shiny objects in there so they will want to explore it. Also put a few crumbles on the floor because they instinctively peck the ground. Also the 1st week, keets have to be kept between 95 to 99 degrees and decrease by 5 degrees each week. They are a wild bird and do not tame down unless you have a lot of time on your hands. We don't even try and they get use to us and come around just not to be touched. When the keets are old enough to come out of brooder, then they need to be penned up until 9 weeks of age. Only feed them in their pen if you want to put up at night. at 9 weeks of age, just open their door or whatever you have them in and let them come out on their own. They will be flying around before this. I they are not penned up for this long they will leave home and don't stand much of a chance against predators until they get a little size on them.

I know you didn't ask for all of this but just wanted to let you know my experience. Keets are really, really fragile the 1st 2 weeks, After that they are pretty hardy! Good luck with your babies. We also mist our eggs during incubation to make sure they don't shrink wrap!