# Guinea sitting on eggs this time of year - problem or not?



## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

I have decided that the only way guineas don't go extinct as a species is that they produce eggs in brute force.

I have several guineas and they laid countless eggs all over my property and left them for the most part. I would have eaten these but had no idea how long they had been in the tall grass, woods, etc. hidden before I found them. I know there were at least two nests and I suspect maybe a third this summer. One of the nests hatched out with 25-26 keets and 15-16 of these seem to have survived. One was just dead for no apparent reason. One drowned in a goat water trough right after it figured out how to fly, and other one got trapped in woven wire fence and died. The rest are unknowns.

Anyway, there looks to be a nest. I had seen the bird sitting at least a week ago so I don't know how long it has been there. Even if this nest hatched in the very near future, how likely is it the keets would survive this fall? I am not really setup with incubators to raise them. I do practice predator control and most of my property is now surrounded by electric fence so that really has helped keep many of them out. I spilled some dog food in the grass 3 days ago and notice that nothing has come and eaten it so that is a good sign.

The goat pastures on my property are all surrounded by electric fence. On a map this would resemble a Pac Man. My house would be deep inside the mouth part and my driveway leads out of the mouth. That is why this shape so my yard, driveway, and house are outside the fence. The nest is not far from my house so surrounded on 3 sides by the fence. I am not too concerned about predators.

How well can these things survive cooler weather? How old do they need to be in order to really do well? The next several nights are going to be in the 40's for lows. They seem to start flying at about 3-4 weeks? I figure they are somewhat hardened to the weather by that time and usually the really cold weather doesn't come for a while longer.

Conor


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

I am thinking they will be okay. Mama will keep them warm for as long as they need it. I have a chicken on eggs right now. (The only broody hen I have had all season.)


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## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

That is good. I figured that they might be OK as long as there wasn't a really hard freeze. I hope she has been sitting a while and will hatch them soon.

Conor


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## luvmyherd (Apr 9, 2011)

Good luck!
We tried guineas a few years ago. Our place is just not big enough and some got out a sacrificed themselves to the neighbors dogs. The remaining ones flew to the top of trees and the barn.
Now we are doing turkeys who only hop/fly about 5 feet.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

We had a major hawk predation problem when we had a small flock of chickens. Are Guineas equally prone to hawk kills?


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## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

cwatkin said:


> I have decided that the only way guineas don't go extinct as a species is that they produce eggs in brute force.
> 
> I have several guineas and they laid countless eggs all over my property and left them for the most part. I would have eaten these but had no idea how long they had been in the tall grass, woods, etc. hidden before I found them. I know there were at least two nests and I suspect maybe a third this summer. One of the nests hatched out with 25-26 keets and 15-16 of these seem to have survived. One was just dead for no apparent reason. One drowned in a goat water trough right after it figured out how to fly, and other one got trapped in woven wire fence and died. The rest are unknowns.
> 
> ...


 I think they would be fine, they feather quickly.



SalteyLove said:


> We had a major hawk predation problem when we had a small flock of chickens. Are Guineas equally prone to hawk kills?


I believe guineas are actually supposed to help with hawks. I gave my poor broody hen, who had been desperately trying to hatch her golf balls for a few months, some keets...no matter how many times I tried to get her to stop. I ended up caving and got her a box of guineas from efowl. I got them mainly for the ticks, my goats and llamas get them everywhere! But as I was reading more up on them, they help alert the whole flock to aerial dangers. Plus the sound they make might help too, annoying to the hawks too? idk

They are quite comical little guys, mine are only about 2 months old and they still follow mama around, but they are starting to make their goofy noises (which can get annoying sometimes, but they usually only do it when they see something out of the ordinary or are excited...like when they see the sunflower seed bucket, yay!) They also do like to be up high, they've mastered all the chicken coops...sitting on the roofs while their mama is down on the ground clucking what sounds like warnings/threats at them.


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## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

I don't know about hawk predation but I have found a couple of mounds of feathers where a guinea bit the dust. I see them but don't know how big of an issue it is. If I stay at an even level with new hatchings, I don't worry about the loss of a few too much. I know they make decoys to scare off predator birds but the guineas room pretty far.

Yes, all my keets stay together too and still follow the rest. That is funny about them trying to hatch golf balls but they aren't the smartest birds.

Also, I thought these were seasonal egg layers. When will they stop laying? I got them last year and it took them a better part of a year to figure out how to do just the basics. They finally hatched a nest and now have another.

I saw her off the nest for a short while and there are quite a few eggs. At least 15 but I wasn't able to count because she quickly returned when she saw me.

Conor


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## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

I have also had the famous issues with neighbor dogs. These people hoard dogs and seem to think they can just let them run wherever. They keep them in a few months after all the surrounding neighbors shoot a few but then start letting them run again. We are entering the phase where they are starting to be seen outside running again so that is another concern. You call the law and all they do is say to shoot them.

Conor


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## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

I noticed at times when I was around that the mother guinea would leave the next for a while and come back. I don't know if this is a big deal but the other nests always had two taking turns if one mother needed to leave. There is only one bird on this nest. How common is that?

Conor


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