Uh oh... found an egg today! ... - A journal of sorts, from finding eggs to hatching them... Update

[PeepsCA]

I spent a LOT of worried hours over here on this board last Spring hatching Guineas (my first hatch of any kind, ever....THANKS PEEPSCA!

So far this Spring I have been over on the Quail board, as we put 50 Bobwhite eggs in the bator, again, a first time. Glad to report, all went well, and we have 34 beautiful 2day old BW quail making our lives miserable!


Anyway, I got a ton of good advice over on the quail board but have missed my "guinea" friends. I guess us Guinea lovers are a special breed. My guineas are as sassy as ever, the owls attacked a week ago, and injured one and killed another. I knew when it happened, I snapped out of sleep.....found the dying one lying there as I burst out the front door. Amazing....you get soooo conflicted.....I used to love owls.

COUNTRY CHICKEN....your guineas are laying? I am just west of you, in Guilford County, is this a good indication I should start looking for eggs, or are you doing something special?? I swore I wouldnt care when my guineas started laying, since I'm hatching some other birds, but I take it back.

Hiiiii Tar! I wanna see baby quail pics! Congrats on your hatch! LOL... and I knew the quail hatching wouldn't hold ya for very long! Betcha have an incubator full of Guinea eggs pretty soon!!!

Sorry to hear about the owl attack, losing birds stinks. And seeing one die after being attacked... blah. Owls are my worst predator problem too, now that my property is fenced and my donkey deals with any ground predators that happen to sneak over the fence. The owl will keep coming back, it's just now the beginning of "predator season", so expect more carnage...

Guineas in a tree = open all night buffet.

 

[TarheelBirdy]

Hiiiii Tar! I wanna see baby quail pics! Congrats on your hatch! LOL... and I knew the quail hatching wouldn't hold ya for very long! Betcha have an incubator full of Guinea eggs pretty soon!!!

Sorry to hear about the owl attack, losing birds stinks. And seeing one die after being attacked... blah. Owls are my worst predator problem too, now that my property is fenced and my donkey deals with any ground predators that happen to sneak over the fence. The owl will keep coming back, it's just now the beginning of "predator season", so expect more carnage...

Guineas in a tree = open all night buffet.

By the way, I just HAPPENED to see one my my Guinea hens sitting on a nest this morning!!! Don't think I'll be able to resist if I see her leave it!!

 

[PeepsCA]

That picture looks weird, but the quial chicks still look cute!!!

Ha, Guinea on a nest already... better warm up that incubator. You know you wanna!!!

 

[TarheelBirdy]

Girl, you know I was setting up the incubator. That guinea stayed out there for two hours. But now I am confused - maybe you have seen this before??? I happened to be outside when the guinea left the "nest.".....but it was one of my males that had been sitting back there! Just to be sure, I waited for them to be out of sight, and I checked - no eggs. Why would one of the males sit like that?

 

[PeepsCA]

LOL, dooped by a male! I've never had a male sitting on a nest before, so I'm not sure why one of yours would do that.... my males do help pick the nesting spots tho (and call the Hen to it with a weird excited chattering/chirping), so maybe he was making sure it was a good spot before he called his girl over, lol. I have read about males that help the Hens brood the eggs (take turns sitting on them), but have never witnessed that in my flocks either. It'll be interesting to see if any eggs show up in that spot now tho.

 

[TarheelBirdy]

The new development in this mystery is this:

I didn't mention that where the male was "sitting," is the same area where the whole big ole group o guineas roosted every night. As of last night, the happy-peaceful-codependent group of guineas that has been going NUTS FOR DAYS is now split up into two groups, nesting 300 yards apart in two groups at night.

 

[PeepsCA]

That's weird, lol. My full-time free rangers will divide into subflocks during the day, but usually they all share the same tree/area at night. Maybe they got spooked? Mine do change trees after getting spooked or going thru a bad storm, but like I said they usually share the same tree or 2 trees in one area

I think your birds just wanna keep you guessin'!

 

[PeepsCA]

Here's most of Hatch #6, 16 keets in this pic and there's still 4 late hatchers that I have in a smaller brooder until they are moving around, eating and drinking better.



I thought the keets below were all Royal Purples at first glance, but now I'm questioning the color on the 2 with lighter body stripes... and their heads have just slightly lighter colored stripes than a normal Royal Purple too... maybe Bronzes? Those lighter/redder dark body stripes have me scratchin' my head, lol. They definitely do not look like any of the Chocolates I've ever hatched in the past, and I think they are just way too dark to be Blondes.

The one with the darkest markings/narrowest patch of head stripes is a Pied Royal Purple, but I guess I'll have to keep the other 2 at least long enough to see how they start feathering out, lol cuz I'm not sure what they are

(besides cute!).

 

[TarheelBirdy]

OMG they're beautiful!

 

[Country Chickens]

Wow, they are so beautiful! And very intriguing coloration...such a bummer to have to keep them! lol This batch is just as lovely as the others, and gives me courage to see if I have guinea eggs in need of being candled. After my last candling with so many infertile, I've kinda put off checking with the next ones. Now I'll do it--keets save the day again!

ETA wanted to add that I sold those first three keets this weekend. I guess the lady was pretty happy--I was only selling them for $4 each but she gave me a twenty and insisted I keep it! Cash in the hand helps me let them go...and reminds me that this is part of how I'll pay for those chocolates coming!