Why are Guinea shells so hard?

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I noticed that the other day as well! I was scrambling some eggs and I tryed to crack a Guinea egg and it took me a solid minute just to crack it! Plus, I noticed their yolks were alot darker than my chickens. They both free range, but the Guineas eat alot more grass/seeds/bugs etc than the chickens do.

~ Aspen

 

[9farmgirl9]

Mrs. Fluffy Puffy :

I noticed that the other day as well! I was scrambling some eggs and I tryed to crack a Guinea egg and it took me a solid minute just to crack it! Plus, I noticed their yolks were alot darker than my chickens. They both free range, but the Guineas eat alot more grass/seeds/bugs etc than the chickens do.

~ Aspen

if only they layed large sized eggs and year round.. My guinea hens all lay an egg a day, except those on nests. And i dont even feed them unless they are pinned up. Which still they lay better than me chickens​

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Quote:
if only they layed large sized eggs and year round.. My guinea hens all lay an egg a day, except those on nests. And i dont even feed them unless they are pinned up. Which still they lay better than me chickens

Their eggs are actually pretty large. I mean not as large as my GB or JG eggs, but their yolks are about the same size as a chicken egg. I wanted to get some French guineas, they're supposed to lay all year round, but they're out of stock and I had to content myself wit the "plain" guineas!

~ Aspen

 

[9farmgirl9]

Well now i want to get french guineas too, but i also want buff, coral blu, brown, purple and any other colors idont have all i have is 4 lavendar, 11 pearl, 4 pied(pearl and white), 1 white.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Quote:
I have 2 Pearl, 3 Pied, and 2 Lavender. Did have alot more, but gave away most of my Lavenders b/c the males were so mean and noisy.

My family don't like the guineas all that well, so I'm unable to get all I want. I would like to have a flock of 20-60 but that'll have to wait!

I've also heard French guineas are bigger birds as well. I want some Buff and Chocolate guineas the most!

~ Aspen

 

[9farmgirl9]

Mrs. Fluffy Puffy :

Quote:
I have 2 Pearl, 3 Pied, and 2 Lavender. Did have alot more, but gave away most of my Lavenders b/c the males were so mean and noisy.

My family don't like the guineas all that well, so I'm unable to get all I want. I would like to have a flock of 20-60 but that'll have to wait!

I've also heard French guineas are bigger birds as well. I want some Buff and Chocolate guineas the most!

~ Aspen

I plan on getting alot more, i bot all those with my $ well i actually bot 47 total, 12 first- lost 3 to dogs, so went and got more, there were tons, a whole shed filled they weretrampling each other, some had roken legs, broken wings, so my dad said to get 30 so grab ones who looked healthy and counted outside and there were 35, my dad said hed pay half but didnt

but they were a dollar. got home put them in a rabbit hutch the the next morning one was squshed and dead i was ssooo sad.

so then i seperated them by size, the guy i bot them from had ones up a month from 1 day old, end up with about 12 in 3 different pin. Then we went on vacation and while we were gone some one took care of all our animals, horses, cows, fish, guineas, chickens, and ect.... but when we got back they never moved the pin to fresh grass and was dumping th dirty water in the pin, which caused mold. and i moved then al to a new place in the yard and after that they started dieing like flies, 11 lived. i was soo mad an d dissapointed. i did get them medicine but it was to late for alot of them.

so now i have 9 from my first batch and 11 out of 35, and we had a coon get some but they were sick and goig to die anyway but still it took me forever to save up the money, i was 14 at that time. which was just last summer but it still gets to me. I love my animals too much​

 

[SuperPeacockman]

Quote:
when i took my guineas and pinned them up they didnt have acess to grass and the egg shell were very thin, some so soft they broke and a week ago i let them to free range and there eggs are geting stronger.

Thats weird, it soes not happen for mine

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
When you had your birds penned and got the thin shelled egg from them, what was their main diet? Layer pellets, all purpose poultry feed or just scratch? While free ranging they are getting a well balanced diet overall (bugs, seeds and greens) instinctually eating what their bodies need, so it's probably not just the calcium from the grass that corrected the thin shell issue.

I always pick my penned breeding flocks armloads of weeds and dandelions plus greens from my garden every day (chard, spinach and lettuces). They also get a flake of fine stem leafy alfalfa tossed in their pen every few days, and always have free choice to 20% protein layer pellets and crushed oyster shell (plus treats of sweet feed and wild birdseed mixes). I've never had a problem with thin shelled eggs.

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
Just seeking a lil clarification here... Did you mean that Guineas don't need the supplemental calcium source in order to produce their thick shelled eggs, or did you mean that they don't need any calcium supplement in their diet at all, period?

 

[SuperPeacockman]

Quote:
Just seeking a lil clarification here... Did you mean that Guineas don't need the supplemental calcium source in order to produce their thick shelled eggs, or did you mean that they don't need any calcium supplement in their diet at all, period?

I have never given mine any and I do not have any problems, but maybe I just have super guineas