Brooding and Hatching
I promised to write a blog on brooding hens and hatching eggs in light of our guinea clutch . Please keep in mind that this is our first time going though this so I'm no expert!
Let's start with the basics. Unlike chickens that have been bred to lay an egg once a day no matter what time of year it is, guineas still have the more natural cycle of getting "frisky" each spring, mating and laying a whole bunch of eggs within a short time frame. You probably could have guessed that much, right? During this egg-laying time, each guinea hen probably lays one egg every one to three days. It is common for several hens to lay in the same nest, but that's not the rule either.
The laying of the eggs is fairly simple, but the hatching isn't quite so straight forward. You all know that an egg needs to be sat on by the hen until it hatches, but that doesn't happen right away. For a while, the hens sit on the nest just long enough to lay an egg and then they get up and go about their business. A hen must turn broody before she'll sit on the eggs for a long period of time. It's a hormonal change that makes a hen "go broody" - most people guess that is triggered by the presence of a large number of eggs.
From our research, it seems that guinea hens will lay eggs for about 20 days before they go broody. Ours have been laying eggs for about fourteen days, so we're getting close! Not all hens go broody, though, no matter how many eggs they may lay, so we still feel the need to cross our fingers.
Some of you are probably wondering what's happening to the eggs in the meantime. They're just sitting in the nest waiting. Are you wondering now how the eggs can sit for that long without rotting? Good question! Despite our refrigeration-obsessed society, eggs are actually good in cool, dry conditions for a long time. As long as the temperature doesn't change dramatically and their shells don't get cracked, they won't rot. Rot is the key word, though, because the eggs will start to lose the ability to produce a healthy keet after 7-10 days.
So, the guineas lay eggs for 20 days before they start sitting on them, but the eggs laid in the first ten days are likely to be duds. Is that not the most unfortunate and inefficient timeline?
Once a hen turns broody, she'll sit on the pile of eggs until they hatch, which takes at least 23 days. Remember how I said that several hens may lay their eggs in the same nest? Well, it's likely that those hens will go broody around the same time (not all of them, but some) and they'll sit together on the nest. A communal nest is pretty large, so there's lots of room!
A brooding hen might get up once in a while to eat and drink, but mostly she sits. Her mate will watch over her protectively in that time. When the keets hatch, she'll mother them by keeping them clean and warm, leading them around to find food, and teaching them how to defend themselves.
To make things even more interesting, it's possible that one of our chickens could go broody and start sitting on the guinea eggs! Crazy, right? But it's all a hormonal response to the presence of a large number of eggs. The chickens don't care that they're guinea eggs. That motherly instinct seems to ignore species boundary lines!
Whew! This is a longer lesson than I thought it would be, so I'm going to end it for now. In my next post, I'll tell you what our plans are for the pile of eggs that is still building! It involves an incubator . . .
In the meantime, if you want to read my previous blogs about our chickens and guineas go here .
Or if you're looking for a good guinea resource, try the Guinea Fowl Forum .
Let's start with the basics. Unlike chickens that have been bred to lay an egg once a day no matter what time of year it is, guineas still have the more natural cycle of getting "frisky" each spring, mating and laying a whole bunch of eggs within a short time frame. You probably could have guessed that much, right? During this egg-laying time, each guinea hen probably lays one egg every one to three days. It is common for several hens to lay in the same nest, but that's not the rule either.
The laying of the eggs is fairly simple, but the hatching isn't quite so straight forward. You all know that an egg needs to be sat on by the hen until it hatches, but that doesn't happen right away. For a while, the hens sit on the nest just long enough to lay an egg and then they get up and go about their business. A hen must turn broody before she'll sit on the eggs for a long period of time. It's a hormonal change that makes a hen "go broody" - most people guess that is triggered by the presence of a large number of eggs.
From our research, it seems that guinea hens will lay eggs for about 20 days before they go broody. Ours have been laying eggs for about fourteen days, so we're getting close! Not all hens go broody, though, no matter how many eggs they may lay, so we still feel the need to cross our fingers.
Some of you are probably wondering what's happening to the eggs in the meantime. They're just sitting in the nest waiting. Are you wondering now how the eggs can sit for that long without rotting? Good question! Despite our refrigeration-obsessed society, eggs are actually good in cool, dry conditions for a long time. As long as the temperature doesn't change dramatically and their shells don't get cracked, they won't rot. Rot is the key word, though, because the eggs will start to lose the ability to produce a healthy keet after 7-10 days.
So, the guineas lay eggs for 20 days before they start sitting on them, but the eggs laid in the first ten days are likely to be duds. Is that not the most unfortunate and inefficient timeline?
Once a hen turns broody, she'll sit on the pile of eggs until they hatch, which takes at least 23 days. Remember how I said that several hens may lay their eggs in the same nest? Well, it's likely that those hens will go broody around the same time (not all of them, but some) and they'll sit together on the nest. A communal nest is pretty large, so there's lots of room!
A brooding hen might get up once in a while to eat and drink, but mostly she sits. Her mate will watch over her protectively in that time. When the keets hatch, she'll mother them by keeping them clean and warm, leading them around to find food, and teaching them how to defend themselves.
To make things even more interesting, it's possible that one of our chickens could go broody and start sitting on the guinea eggs! Crazy, right? But it's all a hormonal response to the presence of a large number of eggs. The chickens don't care that they're guinea eggs. That motherly instinct seems to ignore species boundary lines!
Whew! This is a longer lesson than I thought it would be, so I'm going to end it for now. In my next post, I'll tell you what our plans are for the pile of eggs that is still building! It involves an incubator . . .
In the meantime, if you want to read my previous blogs about our chickens and guineas go here .
Or if you're looking for a good guinea resource, try the Guinea Fowl Forum .
Posted by Susan at April 29, 2010 
Categories: Rural Living, Poultry
Tags: brooding keet hatch nest broody hatching egg chicken guinea clutch
Categories: Rural Living, Poultry
Tags: brooding keet hatch nest broody hatching egg chicken guinea clutch
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