hairy carie keet

[Granny Hatchet]

i have 2 nests side by side in my guinea/ rir coop. one nest a guinea and rir is sharing, the other one is one guinea by herself. they are both due to hatch and today i found a dead keet on the floor of the coop. i dont know what happened but i would like to prevent it from happening again. now i am a little afraid of these birds so im not sure about lifting them from the nest. i do have an incubator . i cant lock the others out. any help please?

 

[Granny Hatchet]

front is about 4in. and they are about 3ft. off the floor

 

[huntseat]

The clutch size and competition might give you a really bad hatch. They also brood different lengths.

My fear is that not all the eggs are being properly warmed all of the time and that when the chicks hatch the mother will leave the nest and stop incubating the guinea eggs.

I'm hoping others here will chime in and add helpful information for you.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

its all guinea eggs, she just decided she wanted a piece of the action. lol matter of fact, i think the rir started it first. it is a big clutch. but why just one dead on the floor? i know they ate part of it.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

the pics are the 2 different clutches, mama hadnt started sitting the other one when the pic was taking

 

[huntseat]

You could just thin it out to around 8 eggs under the hen and the rest moved into the incubator. Then maybe at night you can move the keets under her once hatched. Once she has taken a few and it works then just add more as they can't really count well.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

thats a good idea,i have candled plenty of chicken eggs but not guinea. bet its a lot harder and at this stage too. what do you think happened to the one keet that did hatch?

 

[huntseat]

I found my guinea eggs easy to candle all the way through.

No idea about the dead keet, but introductions at night should work better.

Maybe it hatched and then the broodies fought over it?

A dog crate put around the broody to divide each one from the others might limit any fighting over babies.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

thank you huntseat, that is what i will do in the morn. i will pull them all and candle , give some back then try a cage, i have plenty. and you may be right about the fight . would explain the missing head. (sorry). thanks for all your help

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i did it huntseat, just forgot to tell you.lol i left them about 6-8 eggs each and pulled the rest. the nest that is being shared only had 4 good eggs and the other nest had 15. they are all close to hatching looks like . good thing they have a home waiting on them. a neighbor lost his males and they found their way to my house. i only had one male and 11 hens, so he wanted to know if he could leave them here until he fixed his place. i told him yes but if they do anything , hehehe he was responsible. his brooder is ready. lol