Incubating Guinea eggs - What temp and for how long?

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I bid on some Guinea eggs today on one of the online auctions. I have done chicken eggs before and have an incubator. But I've never had Guinea eggs- what temp? and for how long? Thanks for your input.

-- John in S. In (jsmengel@hotmail.com), May 30, 2001

Answers

Temp and humidity should be the same as chickens, but perhaps someone with real experience can verify that. Time is 28 days. Have fun!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), May 30, 2001.

Doreen is right. They have the same requirements as chicken eggs, they just take longer.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), May 31, 2001.

Hi John, I have never had much luck incubating guinea eggs, they really need a high humidity level the last half of the incubation period though, due to their extremely tough shells! I can't keep the humidity high enough with my cheap styrofoam incubator, and always have few pip out(about 20%), but the unhatched eggs have fully developed peeps inside that couldn't get out, very sad!!!

Hope you have better luck!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), May 31, 2001.


Annie, is it possible to help them out of the shell? The fella I just purchased a bunch of keets from also has peafowl and he said it was really difficult for them to get out of the shells without assistance, which made me assume that if they had started to pip that you could give them a hand. Thanks for any more info!

-- Dreen (bisquit@here.com), May 31, 2001.

Dreen, you know, I thought about that, but, since I've read through Carla Emory that helping peeps or keets out of the shell is so touchy and you can do more harm than good, I did not try. It was horrible to see all those perfectly formed keets in their shells that couldn't get out!!! I wonder if the guinea hen helps the keets out if she is allowed to set normally on the eggs? You know, she would hear them trying to pip out, and could help them along?

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), June 01, 2001.


Well, the incubator is turned on and warming up now. I'm going to take a road trip w/ Sindy tomorrow and pick up a dozen eggs. Should be fun.

-- John in S. IN (jsmengel@hotmail.com), June 02, 2001.

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