Post by Lannie on Jun 11, 2019 8:03:21 GMT -5
I have all these blasted broody Welsummers sitting in nest boxes or in corners of barns all over the place (current count that I KNOW OF is four, plus the one we gave the orphaned chicks to, so she's now graduated to mama), and I've been searching in my spare time (HA!) for a guinea nest so I can steal some of their eggs and have one of my Welsummers hatch and raise some keets. We have eleven guineas right now, but most of them are very old, and we just lost two this past winter to old age. The grass is SO long here this summer, any keets hatched by guineas won't have a chance in hell of surviving, so I want a chicken hen to raise some. They always keep the keets alive and well to adulthood.
Anyway, I was having no luck finding any of the guineas' nests until yesterday, I saw a guinea roo out in the cow pen, just sitting there all by his lonesome. In my experience, the only reason a guinea roo would be sitting around in the summertime, and in full sun, would be if he was keeping watch for his lady. So I went over to him, and sure enough, just inside the old broken down hay ring the cows used to use until they smashed it all to smithereens, was a guinea hen sitting on a very large pile of eggs. Woohooo! The stars finally aligned!
The few I could see sticking out from under her looked like they were getting shiny, so I wasn't sure if she was still adding to the pile, or if she'd begun sitting them yet. So later in the afternoon, we went out to check, and she was gone, but there was a pile of about 40-ish eggs, so we snatched half a dozen and gave them to the broodiest broody. Rich has to get eggs out from under this particular broody every evening and she always fights him for them, so I figured she'd be a good mama. He'll still have to pull out the chicken eggs every evening, but now she has six eggs of her own that she can keep and hatch.
So, with any luck, in 28 days, we'll have a fresh addition to our guinea flock. Not to mention the two other broodies that ARE sitting on piles of eggs themselves, so there should be more chicks, too, and any day now. I'm not sure when they started sitting them, but it seems like it's been almost long enough. Maybe we should snatch some more guinea eggs today and put under that last broody that has no eggs yet. Never hurts to have a few extra, right? Since we never kill any of our hens (we do eat annoying roosters on occasion), we're feeding this aging flock of very nice, but eggless, chickens, and not getting very many eggs for our trouble. There are some girls from the last couple of years' hatches that are currently laying, but the majority of them are "retired." So the more the merrier, I say!
Anyway, I was having no luck finding any of the guineas' nests until yesterday, I saw a guinea roo out in the cow pen, just sitting there all by his lonesome. In my experience, the only reason a guinea roo would be sitting around in the summertime, and in full sun, would be if he was keeping watch for his lady. So I went over to him, and sure enough, just inside the old broken down hay ring the cows used to use until they smashed it all to smithereens, was a guinea hen sitting on a very large pile of eggs. Woohooo! The stars finally aligned!
The few I could see sticking out from under her looked like they were getting shiny, so I wasn't sure if she was still adding to the pile, or if she'd begun sitting them yet. So later in the afternoon, we went out to check, and she was gone, but there was a pile of about 40-ish eggs, so we snatched half a dozen and gave them to the broodiest broody. Rich has to get eggs out from under this particular broody every evening and she always fights him for them, so I figured she'd be a good mama. He'll still have to pull out the chicken eggs every evening, but now she has six eggs of her own that she can keep and hatch.
So, with any luck, in 28 days, we'll have a fresh addition to our guinea flock. Not to mention the two other broodies that ARE sitting on piles of eggs themselves, so there should be more chicks, too, and any day now. I'm not sure when they started sitting them, but it seems like it's been almost long enough. Maybe we should snatch some more guinea eggs today and put under that last broody that has no eggs yet. Never hurts to have a few extra, right? Since we never kill any of our hens (we do eat annoying roosters on occasion), we're feeding this aging flock of very nice, but eggless, chickens, and not getting very many eggs for our trouble. There are some girls from the last couple of years' hatches that are currently laying, but the majority of them are "retired." So the more the merrier, I say!