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

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Hello Everyone! Its has been awhile since I've been active on the Guinea Fowl forum, but I hope that will change. I set 97 Guinea eggs this morning, they will be Pearl, Pied, Blue, White, Chocolate, Grey, and Lavender. 5 of the eggs are from my flock, the 92 others are from a 'gal in Oklahoma. I will be selling most of the keets, but hope to keep some as well. Wish me luck!

~ Aspen

 

[perchie.girl]

Wow you must have a Cabinet hatcher.... what kind?
deb

Hello Everyone! Its has been awhile since I've been active on the Guinea Fowl forum, but I hope that will change. I set 97 Guinea eggs this morning, they will be Pearl, Pied, Blue, White, Chocolate, Grey, and Lavender. 5 of the eggs are from my flock, the 92 others are from a 'gal in Oklahoma. I will be selling most of the keets, but hope to keep some as well. Wish me luck!

~ Aspen

 

[just1morechick]

Were those that dry hatching hatching Guinea eggs, or any other thick shelled eggs? Chicken eggs are super thin shelled compared to Guinea eggs... plus Guinea eggs take 26-28 days so they are in for a week longer losing more moisture from the eggs than chicken eggs do. Plus the thin shells are easier to hatch out of. Guineas really have to work for it, big time. I'm interested to know if it works or not, but like I said, I don't want to risk my keets, lol.

Humidity is low here too, my airtight woodstove dries out the house in the winter (but maintains around 22% RH), then I'm dealing central A/C in the summers (it's usually down around 11% in the summers)... I only have to fill the middle trough/reservoir in the 1588 tho, and it holds 46-48%. I have to add water every 4 days, usually when I see it drop to the high 30s. I don't hatch in mine, but if you need extra humidity besides adding water to the other reservoir, there's lots of tricks.

The Accurites are good hygrometers, most are thin enough to just lay flat in top of the eggs, and not worry about messing with the sensors, but that's your call. The less crap getting knocked over on top of my 'bator and scratchin' the window, the better IMO, lol. You can check the RH calibration on it with the salt test, just to see how accurate it is, (it may be off a small % either direction). With Guinea eggs the RH is a little forgiving tho, if it's a little too high or low you are usually still ok... so just in a general range is fine (40-50% for incubation, 70-80% for hatching). Can't say if that's the case for chicken eggs tho.

I am absolutely not a fan of still air incubation. I have nothing good/nice to say about it, lol. The 1588s are a piece of cake, you'll do fine this time, so you can relax. The preset temp is reliable and stays stable. Just set it up in a draft free area and where it doesn't get direct sunlight, in a room that has a somewhat stable temp 24/7, add water and eggs and you're good to go. both of mine maintain a stable temp even if the room temps swing 15 degrees in either direction (oops, but I try to prevent that). I'd say fertility rates and egg viability will be more of a concern than the 1588 is gonna be for you.

I recently had a batch of about 60 chicken (standard,bantam and silkie) eggs where I only hatched about 25 in a LG bator#1. I had 15 Guinea eggs and more various chicken eggs in LG bator#2. Both are still air. I was desperate to figrue out where I went wrong. This was my first attempt with guinea eggs and refused to have them suffer the same fate. I found the thread on dry incubation, and decided that would be what I would use next time (since I was in the middle of incubation in bator#2). By chance, with kids keeping me running from dance studio to baseball field and softball field, I neglected my eggs in the bator and let it dry completely out. I thought my hubby was tending them since they were sitting ON HIS DESK and he thought I was. Eggs were moved to bator#1 to hatch and I filled both bottom rings, covered the entire bottom of bator under wire mesh floor with paper towels,and added a bowl of water with sponge. Turned out, It was the best hatch! Of the 15 guinea eggs originally set (from the first eggs of the season), I had 11 viable and 10 hatched. 1 died before hatch was finished. I was amazed! The hatcher was not nearly as messy with goo as usual, either. They started pipping on day 25 and finished hatching on day 27. I just set another 20 guinea eggs last night and will keep it a little drier until I move them into the hatching bator. We live in South Mississippi where humidity is extreamly high (I have natrually curly hair + high humidity = a lot of bad hair days!) so I'm thinking that I still have pretty good humidity inside.

I'd like to post a pic of my new babies and see if you'd mind helping with identifying colors. Expecially since I agreed to share a few. Thinking now that wasn't a good idea since I absolutely adore them. That's the problem with hatching....... I want to keep them all!

I, too, am a hatch-a-holic! I am a feather-a-holic! "I'll take 10 of each" is what I alway tell my hubby! I currently have blue silkies, cochin bantams, frizzles, RIR, Buff Orphs, Americanas,Barred Rocks, 5 mallard ducks, 2 unknown baby ducks, and I just added Silver Laced Wyandotte, Cuckoo Marans, and Lavender Orphs. My new keets are my prize possessions, though. I love guineas. They are so curious and quirky!

Question..... Will my keets born 4/15/12 lay this season (assuming I have a hen or two) or will it be next year? Thought I read you or someone else say that they could start laying as early as 16 weeks. That would make them 4 months old mid August. When does the laying season end?

I finally feel like I have found a place I belong! Most people don't get the feather addiction! Glad to be in good company!

 

[PeepsCA]

just1morechick

Yay! Another hatch-o-holic! Yes please post pics of your babies, I'll help you ID them if the pics show their colors and head stripes well enough.

Thanks for sharing your Guinea egg dry incubation experience with us. I'd imagine that success with dry incubation for any eggs would definitely depend on the ambient humidity in your home/area. Here... it averages under 20% most of the year, and I use circulated air incubators so I'd be worried that all my keets would lose way too much moisture during the incubation period and not hatch, even if I gave them 100% humidity at lock down (if they didn't die in the shell before lockdown), so I don't want to risk trying it

Maybe still air incubators work better for dry incubation than circulated air do, and the eggs do not lose as much moisture. I've read a lot of info about eggs from different elevations needing more or less humidity too. Basically it all boils down to what works for one person won't always work for someone else, there are just so many variables that can differ from area to area, from house to house in the same area, and even from room to room in the same house...

It's definitely possibly that your young Guinea Hens (if you hatched any) will lay some eggs this season before the weather cools off. It may only be a few sporadic weeks of laying tho, and it may not be all the Hens. You may even see some eggs on and off thru the winter. It really depends on the Hens, but most will typically start laying the following Spring after they were hatched. I've never gotten eggs thru the cold winter from early hatched Hens, but a lot of my youngest Hens (always first timers, regardless of when they were hatched in the hatching season) have started laying in early January for me (technically that's still winter... but it's usually more Spring-like in my area of CA).

Looking fwd to some pics!
Good luck withyour next dry hatch too

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Wow you must have a Cabinet hatcher.... what kind?
deb

I currently do most of my hatching in my two GQF Sportsmans. One has to be turned off all the time so I can use it for a hatcher when ever I need to, so really I only have one Sportsma to incubate eggs in. I would LOVE to have a hatcher, and I'm actually working on getting one, hopefully this week. I seriously need one.

~ Aspen

 

[TarheelBirdy]

I currently do most of my hatching in my two GQF Sportsmans. One has to be turned off all the time so I can use it for a hatcher when ever I need to, so really I only have one Sportsma to incubate eggs in. I would LOVE to have a hatcher, and I'm actually working on getting one, hopefully this week. I seriously need one.

~ Aspen

this brings up a question I have been dying to ask of you professionals. .....so without a hatcher, what happens? The chicks/keets hatch out in the incubator, and you just check in when it's time?

 

[PeepsCA]

The cabinet style incubators usually have a hatching tray at the bottom, that doesn't auto turn with the rest of the eggs that are set in the upper trays. The idea is to set a tray of eggs weekly so that you have ongoing weekly hatches, but some hatch-o-holics set hundreds of eggs at once and then have a separate cabinet style hatcher that will hatch out that many eggs at once as well.

 

[GuineaLady93]

Here's what my cabinet incubator looks like. It has a drawer in the bottom.

 

[TarheelBirdy]

Here's what my cabinet incubator looks like. It has a drawer in the bottom.

Wow, that's nice!

 

[PeepsCA]

Nice, Congrats! Whatcha got in there??? And when are they due to hatch?