My guineas are just now laying eggs (well, at least one is).She is sitting on them, but I heard that it is not a good time of year to let her hatch them...is this true? How long does it take to hatch? I had planned to gather some and MAYBE hatch some if a guinea wanted to. They are awfully noisy birds...my neighbors have commented on them....Actually, only one is noisy..the others seem real quiet. I think we have one male and 3 females. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

-- Cindy Cluck (ldsmomof6@yahoo.com), August 13, 2000

Answers

Cindy I have had guineaus for years and have found that I have much better luck taking the eggs away and hatching them in an incubator. For some reason and I'm not sure why they don't seem to make good mothers. They are so busy foraging that they just walk off and leave them, they fall in holes or get drug through wet grass or the mother just plain old loses them. So I raise them in a brooder till they are old enough to fend for themselves. Good Luck.

-- sallyp (sally@cvalley.net), August 15, 2000.

Cindy, I have never let my guineas set but at one point on this forum I heard of a neat web site for just guineas, my kids and I love it: WWW.Geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/9463/raising.html. Good luck!

-- Emily (bellyacresfarm@kyk.net), August 15, 2000.

Hi Cindy, you probably have 1 female and three males if I read this right. The females are more noisy. The males can be distinguished by their waddles being larger and more cupped than the females. The legs on males are longer as well. Not a lot longer but noticeably longer if you really look at them. I bought the book "Gardening with Guineas" and highly reccommend it!

-- Doreen (liberty546@hotmail.com), August 15, 2000.

Hi Cindy, I believe it takes it takes 28 days to hatch guinea eggs. We have had the same experience with the guinea mommas, horrible mothers! They have "set" wonderfully, but once they hatch out the keets, argh.... no mothering instincts! The last group of guineas eggs that we had, we let the 2 mommas "set" until they hatched out the keets. We then took all the keets except 2. We left the 2 with their momma. Put the others in our brooder and raised them that way. The 2 we left with momma made it almost 2 days, then each died. I think from exhaustion, lack of water, etc.. The ones we raised in a brooder did great, not one loss!! Hope this helps, also, I do not know why hatching out keets at this time of the year would be bad. It is hot, but they need high heat to begin with. Good Luck! Wendy

-- Wendy@GraceAcres (wjl7@hotmail.com), August 16, 2000.

Thanks for the responses! I am finding two different sizes of guinea eggs, the bigger eggs are all double yoked ( we just HAD to taste some!). Is this normal? we are finding equal amounts of little brown eggs and bigger more oval shaped eggs that are cream colored with brown spots. We have 4 guineas...they all look the same to me...same leg length etc...I can't tell...we know that when the roosters get close to the eggs, this one guinea goes nuts!!! Do we need to get the chickens and roosters out of the pen?

So many questions..so few guineas. :-)

Cindy

-- Cindy Cluck (ldsmomof6@yahoo.com), August 16, 2000.

Most folks I know (and I'll soon join them) put the Guinea eggs under the broody chicken hens. The Guineas grow up much calmer and tend to stay home. A friend is presently collecting Guinea eggs to give to me. I should have them soon. Due to the heat (90's to 100:) mama and the eggs will be in my air conditioned house. My flock of chooks lay all year 'round and will hatch eggs all year 'round if I let them. I live in the sunbelt.

The Guinea eggs take 26-28 days to hatch. The girls make a 2 syllable sound ~ sounds like 'buck-wheat' and the boys make a one syllable sound.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), August 16, 2000.

Ok, I have three girls and one boy then. It is the boy one that is so loud. :-) Oh, do tarapins eat guinea eggs? We lost an egg from the nest yesterday and we can't find it.

THANK YOU so much for all the help!

Cindy

-- Cindy Cluck (ldsmomof6@yahoo.com), August 17, 2000.

From what I've heard, one of the big problems with Guineas is 'wet.' The first 2 weeks of life are the critical time. Following mom thru the dewy grass will do them in (so the literature says), so keep 'em dry the first 2 weeks. (Makes ya wonder how all those wild Guineas have survived! )

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), August 17, 2000.

When theyre a year or so old, its rather easy to sex guineas. The males have much larger gills (wattles) and slightly larger helmets (or combs.)

After raising guineas for years, I didnt know this until I read Gardening With Guineas (see the book review in Countryside 84/3:84). Learn more at www.guineafowl.com.

Fascinating birds!

-- Jd (belanger@tds.net), August 19, 2000.

Thanks so much!! I raised this first batch of guineas in my bathroom until they were a month old. They are laying their eggs in the pen...but kicking them all over the pen...so we are going to try to incubate them and see what happens (at least a couple) we are also saving them up and eating them. One of my sons found a baby rattlesnake and one of my sons and I almost got bit by a large rattlesnake...this has made me want to run out and buy some more guineas!!! They may make a lot of noise, but I have seen the way they go after a grass snake, they would do the same on a rattler wouldn't they?

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE HELP!! You guys are great!!

Cindy

-- Cindy Cluck (ldsmomof6@yahoo.com), August 20, 2000.