The best of both worlds
At the end of last week, I explained about the brooding and hatching process for guineas. Roy and I really want to have some keets hatch out of all the eggs that the guineas are laying. We went over our options several times. Letting things proceed naturally was preferable to both of us, but we also ran the chance that none of the hens would ever turn broody. It may be a small risk, but it would be such a huge waste of eggs. And then, even if a hen turned broody, the time it took for her to get to that point would mean that about half of her eggs would no longer be viable. So we decided to compromise . . .
Roy did some shopping and bought an incubator. It holds 42 eggs.
We decided that we would take 5-10 eggs from the guinea nest each day until we had enough to fill the incubator. By doing it in increments each day, we hoped that the guineas wouldn't notice as much. The rest of the eggs we will leave to the guineas to hatch the natural way.
The upside of an incubator is that hatching should be more successful because the temperature and humidity are closely controlled. The downside is that there will be no mother hen to raise these babies when they hatch. We'll have to keep them in a protected area until they're old enough to join the rest of the flock.
I kept count of the eggs in the guineas' nest as I collected each day. Whether it was the skunk incident (the chicken house still stinks) or my non-stealthy thievery, I don't know, but something had slowed down the laying of new eggs in the nest. Roy and I started keeping watch to see if the guineas had established a new nest somewhere else. When I finally collected my 42 eggs for the incubator, there were 26 eggs still in the nest and at least one new egg appears each day, so hopefully that hen will decide to sit on it.
Yesterday, Roy told me that I should sneak a peek in the rhubarb patch next time the guineas weren't watching. They started a new nest there and we are determined not to cause any disturbance to it. We will just act normally and let nature take its course . . . fingers crossed!
By the way, it will take about 26 days for the eggs in the incubator to hatch. Today is day 4. I'll keep you up-to-date on their progress!
Roy did some shopping and bought an incubator. It holds 42 eggs.
We decided that we would take 5-10 eggs from the guinea nest each day until we had enough to fill the incubator. By doing it in increments each day, we hoped that the guineas wouldn't notice as much. The rest of the eggs we will leave to the guineas to hatch the natural way.
The upside of an incubator is that hatching should be more successful because the temperature and humidity are closely controlled. The downside is that there will be no mother hen to raise these babies when they hatch. We'll have to keep them in a protected area until they're old enough to join the rest of the flock.
I kept count of the eggs in the guineas' nest as I collected each day. Whether it was the skunk incident (the chicken house still stinks) or my non-stealthy thievery, I don't know, but something had slowed down the laying of new eggs in the nest. Roy and I started keeping watch to see if the guineas had established a new nest somewhere else. When I finally collected my 42 eggs for the incubator, there were 26 eggs still in the nest and at least one new egg appears each day, so hopefully that hen will decide to sit on it.
Yesterday, Roy told me that I should sneak a peek in the rhubarb patch next time the guineas weren't watching. They started a new nest there and we are determined not to cause any disturbance to it. We will just act normally and let nature take its course . . . fingers crossed!
By the way, it will take about 26 days for the eggs in the incubator to hatch. Today is day 4. I'll keep you up-to-date on their progress!
Posted by Susan at May 2, 2010 
Categories: Poultry
Tags: brooding keet hatch nest broody egg incubator chicken clutch guinea hatching
Categories: Poultry
Tags: brooding keet hatch nest broody egg incubator chicken clutch guinea hatching
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