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

[Country Chickens]

It's head markings are a little evasive, lots of tan and just narrow tiny stripes lol... but I'd say Coral Blue if it's body colors are more to the silver/blue end of the spectrum, but if the body colors have an tannish hue to the blue/sliver then I'd say Lite Blue.

Congrats, cute keet!

Thank you! I think she's probably Lite Blue, then, cause she seems like she has a lot of tan for being what should be a basically blue chick. Kind of a buffed silver more than true silver, if that makes sense. But, either way I'm just so excited to have gotten a color like that this early! I was hoping for some lavender to go with our purple, but this is awesome! Best yet, the chocolates look to be developing nicey. Crossing my fingers that I'll be joining you in poring over them as they feather out! lol

 

[PeepsCA]

Oooh congrats on the developing Chocolate eggs! I was wondering how they were doing, Hope they all hatch for you

Your description of your blue keets sounds exactly how my Lite Blues look. Congrats again, new colors are always great! (But that's how you end up with 100 Guineas like I did, lol).

 

[perchie.girl]

Woo Hoo I set four Guinea Eggs and three are developing.... Cant EVEN see through the Araucana eggs. this is week two. Wednesday will be 14 days so next Sunday I do lock down for the chickens and see which hatch. Then another Higher moisture lockdown for the guineas the next Sunday.

deb

 

[PeepsCA]

Ooooh yah! We like fertile eggs, lol, congrats Deb!

How high are you gonna bump the RH for the chicks to hatch? You set all those eggs together at the same time, right? I've never done a staggered hatch, raising the RH, then lowering it back down... I've been too chicken lol. It'll be high day 18-21, with the Guinea eggs still in there, right?

 

[PeepsCA]

I am really loving these 6 assorted Chocolate and Blonde keets... they are all feathering out so differently, and the lightest (Blonde) popped out heavily Pied all of a sudden, little sneak!

 

[perchie.girl]

Ooooh yah! We like fertile eggs, lol, congrats Deb!

How high are you gonna bump the RH for the chicks to hatch? You set all those eggs together at the same time, right? I've never done a staggered hatch, raising the RH, then lowering it back down... I've been too chicken lol. It'll be high day 18-21, with the Guinea eggs still in there, right?

I dont know.... I will raise it up for the chicken eggs then let it go back then raise it again for the guinea eggs. I need to talk to a gal on the San Diego list she is running a cabinet hatcher full tilt hatching at staggered times.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

OK I may have F*&k%d up. But will give it a try anyway. The Only difference between the two sets of eggs is one hatches at 21 days and one hatches 28 days. The Staggered hatch search I did came up with three hundred different conversations on the subject.

There are two schools of thought.

One:
To use a second incubator as a hatcher. The thought being raising the humidity will drown less developed eggs.

Two:
To use the same incubator and take out a couple of rails for the early hatchers. And No difference in hatch rate for the rest to have gone through three days of elevated humidity.

We recently discussed the study about turning eggs after the fourth day. Part of lockdown is to take the eggs out of the turner. So my thought is to put them all in egg cartons after taking out the turner then raising up the humidity on day 18. Then after day 21 letting the humidity go back to normal.

So my thought is use the Same humidity for both hatches not different. Take out the egg turner at day 18 and prepare for the first group, and not worry about turning the others.

Call it an experiment unless I can locate a spare incubator.

deb

 

[PeepsCA]

I've read about staggered hatches going fine, with basically your same method... so you'll just have to wait and see. Guinea eggs are pretty forgiving, so it'll probably work fine, I didn't mean to give you a panic attack of I did! I figured you had done a bunch research and were talking to other more experienced hatch-o-holics and maybe had a tip or 2 that I could learn from! I'm not experienced with cabinet incubators that have the hatching trays/drawers down at the bottom at all, or how they supply the extra humidity needed for hatching.... so maybe they hold the humidity in better down there or have a water tray right under the hatching tray? Anyway, think positive... if those keets want to hatch, they will, believe me, lol.

 

[kayjan]

Hi everyone, I have been reading this thread for a while and have been enjoying it so much. I am new to guineas, we got 4 last year, one was killed by a stray dog on the place and another was killed by a bobcat....as luck would have it the 2 remaining ones happen to be male and female so we have been getting eggs. Bought an incubator to try hatching some keets. First hatch was last Saturday. Out of 12 eggs 1 was rotten, 9 hatched and 2 were developed but never hatched. I set another 10 in lockdown this past saturday, they started hatching early this morning. So far 8 hatched, 1 is cracked for sure and I swear the last one has a crack but I may be wishful seeing

I have another set to be put in lockdown on May 30th and another set on June 11th. I also started collecting more eggs yesterday. Is this habit forming or not?

I want to thank you all for your knowledge and for the willingness to help us beginners. And how do you stop? LOL Good thing I live on 60 acres.

 

[PeepsCA]

AHAHAHA, another one hooked, lol

I knew it, as I was reading your post, but your question at the bottom about how do you stop sealed the deal! Welcome to the madness! No worries, you are not alone, lol.

PS... You stop when your Hens stop laying for the season... but only until the start of the next season, then it's ON again!