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

[PeepsCA]

Sure jump right in!

Congrats on getting some eggs already, hopefully you can replenish your flock!

 

[Country Chickens]

Welcome to PeepsCa thread! So sorry to hear about your flock, but congrats on the rebuild begun! I hope you have great fertility!

Peeps, these pics are the pics for that variety on GFI, so maybe you saw them there. Or maybe I posted somewhere else. I love my guinea pics. The blonde boy is super pretty now, and doesn't seem to have committed to any one female...which is fine with me, cause it means he kinda steals the girls from the other boys when they're in the doghouse for some reason, and might be giving me more keets that could look like him! lol

 

[PeepsCA]

Yep that's where I saw them, I was just pokin' at ya, lol.

If he's an opportunist, then yep, I bet you get a few more just like him and maybe even some Pied Blondes too

 

[Zootopia]

Well until I find someone around here or someone to ship me Beauties like PeepsCA has, I still have the one lonely girl. She has started laying in one of the nests in the barn with the chicken girls. I had some for breakfast and they look fertile. Since she hangs out with my Cuckoo Maran roo, I'm guessing he has bred her. I can give these to my broody and have hybrids, right? Kind of neat, but I still want to get her a guinea flock since she walks around Buckwheating with no one to answer, I feel bad for her.

PeepsCA:
I really don't want to go to a hatchery, who else has the rainbow of color you have?

 

[PeepsCA]

Try this Breeders List , they have quite a few listings for Tx that breed lots of colors. Maybe one of them is close to you, or will ship.

ETA... Yes your Guinea Hen can hatch out some hybrids. They are rare, and usually don't live as long as normal poultry breeds tho. And of course they are sterile. But if she hatches a whole clutch you could sell them and pay for new keets or eggs!

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Thanks for the welcome. : ) I am getting anxious to candle them. I had better wait at least a week, but it is so hard! What kind of incubators are y'all using? Right now I'm using a Sportsman for the Guinea, Quail, and Chicken eggs and then I have my 1588 Genesis HB for my duck eggs.

~ Aspen

 

[PeepsCA]

I just have 3 table top styrofoam incubators with auto egg turners. 2 Hovabator 1588s that are great, and my other one is a Fall Harvest Product but other than being a little sturdier built, stability-wise it's not much better than a LG with a fan (I have 2 of those that I use for hatchers and that's about all they are good for lol). I really wanted a cabinet incubator last season, but now I don't really want to spend the bucks on one cuz I'm already burning out on all the hatching and brooder cleaning... and selling, lol. I OD'd last season, hatched 782 keets during 8 months of hatching... blah! Now I pretty much just want a few cute keets, lots of eggs to eat and sell, and of course tick and snake free property... but I currently still have 85 adults/5 flocks lol.

 

[Country Chickens]

We have a Brinsea Octogaon Advance with the humidity pump and three hovabators. We also have a Little Giant, (and just sold our other) but this particular one I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy--which is the only reason I haven't sold it. The Brinsea we only plan to incubate in, but the hovabators all take a turning hatching or incubating as demand requires. We're on the watch for more good hovabators, and have been on the lookout for a good used cabinet but I'm starting to cool on the cabinet idea. I know someone who recently lost close to 90 eggs in a cabinet when it went bad--I don't like the idea of all my eggs being in one basket. Anyway, we love hatching and have a pretty good brooder system using the barn for keets/chicks once they're a couple weeks old so I don't go TOO crazy! Course, I've never hatched numbers like Peeps...but we may this year. Intervention stand by...

 

[PeepsCA]

Good point about losing a whole cabinet full of eggs at once... I'd have more than 90 eggs in there at once for sure if I had one

 

[zazouse]

Fluffy i candle mine before i put them in the bater, then at 2 weeks and then again at lock down and i have never had a rotten egg blow up in the bater,.
I use GOF cabinet bators exclusively now and never open it till i candle I have a 90 percent hatch rate.
Good luck on your hatch