collecting eggs...how many eggs or more importantly...how often does a laying guinea hen lay ? is it daily or every other day ?

[K M Edgar]

Larry,

Speaking of guinea eggs. I've been picking up 3+ eggs daily from the
test nests I made in February for the last 4 days....that's a pace of
about 100 eggs a month...from 6 hens. I'll have a 7th guinea hen by
next weekend. I really expect those 7 hens to lay about 400 more
eggs between now and mid-October. I won't be setting any laid after
August 30th. Remember...that I've found keets walking around in a few
inches of snow a day before Thanksgiving. I should be able to find
300 of them in the "nest boxes" here in my gardens. Next year I'll
have 12-15 hens and 2 roos. That will be enough to get me 500 eggs.
I'm setting 15 guinea eggs tomorrow afternoon....which will put me at
30 total beneath Game Fowl hens. I'm hoping I can find someone with
guineas who has extra eggs or an extra hen to swap for a beautiful
roo.

Don't you sorta believe a guinea hen lays an egg...every other day...
or do you think they lay an egg daily...once they begin to lay in the
spring time? I'm leaning toward the every other day routine. My
goose lays an egg...every other day like clock work. My Swedish Blue
duck hens do the same. I have 5 goose eggs pipping right now
underneath a Game Fowl hen in a nest box on a shelf in the farm
implement shed.

Kelly

--
a Message from "Guinea Fowl Assn of America" your personal guinea friends group

[Geoffrey]

Larry near Austin, TX emailed me this morning.

His VALUED opinion is "guinea hens lay EVERY OTHER DAY...mostly."
I've to have been believing 15 eggs a month from April thru Sept...but
that is in So-Cent Washington State....the Yakima Valley...famous for
apples, grapes, cherries...fruit trees in general. My guinea flock is
relatively modest 6-10 hens over the last 7 years. I have a decent
feel for what they lay. They hide their eggs really well. No kidding
it is not easy to find them when they have 600 ft in any direction to
lay eggs in grass and busghes.

Geoffrey

[moxeeguy]

Our little flock of 6 guinea hens has gotten VERY predictable lately.
The egg every other day routine is real. In fact I'd say Larry had it
perfect...in his words...just s little more. I've come to believe
they lay 4 eggs a week...probably a precise total 18 eggs each in May.
We're setting a Game Fowl hen with eggs every 6 days...like clockwork
now. Come June-July-August...we hope to be hatching 15 keets a week.

Kelly

[moxeeguy]

Well today is a BIG day....6 eggs from 6 hens...they are exceeding all
that we've wanted....thought for a while I was gonna get a 7th egg
(thinking maybe I had a hen who was quiet...no buckwheat). Determined
that the hen was just snooping around the nest sites....getting
acquainted.

I should get 120 eggs a month from this crew thru August...especially
since a 7th hen (a cousin to my flock) is arriving soon. That'll
provide 480 before September 1.

[moxeeguy]

One thing about guinea eggs...you can't count on finding them. The
weather turned cold and wet lately and those 6 hens only laid 1 egg
today and 3 eggs each of the prior 2 days. Maybe they found a new
place to lay but with rain all morning and cold weather as well...I
think they just said no...all but one. At least I have 2 new broody
Game Fowl hens to choose from once I fill up the 18 egg
container...tomorrow...1-2 days late. Oh well....we're moving on.

This is a bit off topic but I'm not gonna post any more at another
guinea forum...too much nonsense and and too many total
knuckleheads. Some folks have this idea that owls hunt by being less
than observant. How anyone could believe that owls hunt by some
method superior to sight...is beyond me. Call me old fashioned...but
I've always read and been taught that owls have the sharpest night
vision of any animal on the planet. What else might they use to hunt
prey....maybe they employ ESP? Anybody have a better suggestion? I
can see an owl flying into an open building if it sees a small animal
on the floor...but what would make an owl fly into a strange building
if there were no animal(s) in sight. Maybe nothing attracts owls.

[moxeeguy]

Salting or baiting guinea nests with eggs appears to be the thing to
do. The guinea hens see the eggs and the light bulb turns on....gee
that 's where I should lay my egg! ! ! I (with a helpful hint from
Peeps)...have the idea of a ceramic clay fired guinea egg. I can't
find any fake guinea eggs the right size. Peeps has a friend with a
kiln...where there's a way...there's a hope.

[Peeps]

I am fairly certain my (10) free range Guinea Hens lay daily, and then
maybe once in a while they will skip a day. At least that's how it was
at the beginning of spring... for a while I was getting 9 eggs a day,
religiously, the 10th Hen was busy brooding a pile of eggs in my goat
shed. Lately the numbers have been decreasing, but I think they are
laying in places I haven't found yet. Even tho I am pretty sneaky
about letting them see me collect eggs, I think they still know I am
collecting their eggs and leaving them marked eggs in the nests, and
so they keep finding new places to lay. I am guessing the eggs in the
new nests that get left out over night get taken by a predator, hence
my decreased numbers. It is possible there is one huge community nest
somewhere, but I have tromped up and down this 10 1/2 acres and have
not found any mongo nests yet. Salting their nests only works for a
few days for me now before they start laying elsewhere again, farther
away. The extended daily egg hunts are becoming less and less fun for
me... grrrrr.

[Peeps]

Oh and no news on making ceramic eggs yet, I am still trying to get
ahold of my friend with the kiln.

On May 18, 1:19 pm, moxeeguy <k.m.ed...@gmail.com> wrote:

[K M Edgar]

Peeps,

Excellent feedback !

Thanks,

[moxeeguy]

Geez,

I was out walking today to look for guinea fowl eggs because its a
beautiful hot day and so there's not 1 reason under the sun that I
shouldn't have found 6 eggs in the guinea nests placed discreetly in
the flower gardens. Well, well, well....I found so many guinea eggs
in one big nest pile 40ft outside of the perimeter fence...these hens
are right back to the 5 egg/day average. I'll be setting 36 eggs
total today and tomorrow beneath 2 broody Game Fowl hens. And I was
getting really worried about not hitting my goal.

[Peeps]

Uh huh, SEE how those dang Hens are!!! I know there's a huge pile here
somewhere too, I am about to hire half a dozen neighbor kids to come
scour my 10 1/2 acres for me, lol.

Glad you got a good number of eggs to set. From now on you know, if
there's eggs missing from your daily average, they are layin' them
somewhere else lol.