![]() ![]() The guinea egg hatching process starts around day 25 as the keet gets ready to hatch. Once the membrane dries, the keets are unable to move and can get stuck in their shells. If you open the incubator during this time it can let the humidity out drying the membrane of the hatching keets. This is the crucial time while the keets are hatching. Rubber shelf liner works great for this, or a thick washcloth.įrom day 25 till about day 31 is considered "lock down". I like to put a piece of non-slip material in the bottom of the hatcher (under the eggs) so the keets can get a good grip with their little feet. You'll probably have to add water during the days of lock down so try to position the sponge to make it easy. If you can’t get the humidity high enough with the water reservoir alone, you can also add a piece of wet sponge. Raise the humidity in the incubator to 65% by adding water to the water reservoir. This movement can trigger a bad egg to pop. It's especially crucial at the end stage of incubation to remove bad eggs since the keets will be hatching soon and the will start running around inside the incubator. Candle the eggs one last time and remove ones that have quit developing. If your eggs are in suspended turning trays (like in a cabinet incubator) move them to the hatching area. Make sure you do this by day 25 as keets seem to hatch early for many breeders, and you don't want to have problems with one getting stuck in the turner or falling out of the egg trays! You will have to carefully adjust the incubator temperature if it gets too low. Once you remove the turner make sure the temperature in the incubator doesn't drop, since egg turners sometimes have a motor that creates heat and adds to the incubators temperature. If you have a removable turner, take it out. You want to remove these before they have a chance to pop as they smell really bad and are hard to clean up. If an egg breaks open inside your incubator it could ruin the rest of the hatch. ![]() This can cause pressure to build up and the eggshell can pop open. When an egg stops developing it starts to decompose. Removing eggs that have stopped developing is important during incubation and right before lockdown. Try to move quickly so the eggs do not get too cold. Return the developing eggs to the incubator. It might also have a black spot in it.ĭispose of any eggs that are not developing. You should see a darkened blob with what looks like a red spider inside. Using a strong flashlight or a candling light, look inside the egg. I like to candle guinea eggs after 10 days of incubation, though you can often see development after just 5 days. If your incubator does not have an egg turner, turn the eggs 3-5 times a day. Keep the humidity in the incubator between 45-55% for the first 25 days. Don't touch the controls, it will come back to the correct temperature as soon as the eggs warm up. The temperature inside your incubator will drop when you first put the new eggs in it. The incubator should be kept at 99-99.5 ☏ for forced air and 101-102 ☏ for a still air incubator. Check the temperature several times and make sure it stays steady for at least 12 hours before setting eggs. Turn your incubator on (and the egg turner if it has separate controls) 24-48 hours before setting eggs. Place your incubator in a draft free room out of direct sunlight. Guinea fowl are a ground nesting bird that like to hide their nests and many times the eggs seem particularly dirty (compared to chicken eggs) Chose the cleanest eggs you can, or lightly buff off dirt with a dry cloth. Here's more information on how to handle hatching eggs before incubation. Do not incubate cracked, damaged or misshapen eggs. ![]() Washing eggs removes the 'bloom' which is a natural, protective coating. Here is a list of Egg incubation terminology and their definitions to help you out.Ĭhose clean, fertilized eggs that are less than 10 days old to incubate. If you don't have a broody hen though, you'll have to chose and use an incubator.īefore we get started.if you're not real familiar with hatching chicks or keets some of the terms I use can be confusing. I'm pretty sure they lose more keets than they manage to raise! My solution is to give the guinea eggs to a chicken to hatch and raise. Even though many guinea hens are excellent at hatching their own eggs, they aren't the best mothers at all. Of course the easiest method is always to have a hen hatch the eggs out. With a few tweaks though, I started to get a better hatch rate and I was hooked on hatching my own guinea keets. Other than the longer incubation period, guinea hen eggs and chicken eggs are quite similar in incubation procedure. The first time I incubated Guinea fowl eggs I just popped the eggs in my incubator along with chicken eggs and used all the same settings as I do for chicks. ![]()
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