Looking forward to it!

It may not matter how high the humidity is in the final stages of incubating. I'm going to quote from a post that Cindy made when discussing this same topic.

Cindy said, "According to Texas A&M's hatching expert Dale Hyatt, you almost can't have too much humidity during pipping/hatching."

I don't think Jane intended to put a limit on how high the humidity should be at that point. "Cranking it up" implies that one should add enough water to spike up the humidity as much as possible. (There is probably a limit as to how much of a difference adding water and sponges can make anyway).

I understand your point, HH. I like to deal with set figures and instructions myself, but in this case, I don't know if there IS a set limit that can be stated.

Selid, I understand the reason for not candling after the first week, since you can pack them in and go from there. I might try that at some point.

There is one problem with Jane's article. She gives good advice on the RH in the turner bators, but when she talks about transferring to the hatching bator she says "crank it up". That is not very useful information. Cranking up is in the eyes of the reader. It might have been more useful to give a range and for certain, a not to exceed range. How would a new comer know what cranking it up means?

You've lived close to me, I'm in Gloucester!!

Chris

Thank you Cindy and Heritage do you have some photo that could be put in comparison bronze with RP faded?or some other has it?(it can be interersting compare it also with chocolate also because i've not a good knowledje of it and i've seen a long topic on it by there wasn't a very clare conclusion)
Thanks.

I'm sorry. I just wasn't sure how to answer your question. I've not had the experience that others have with fading in my guineas. My guineas haven't faded much at all, but I think that's because of where I live. We have lots of trees here on our property, and most of our lawn is shaded.

Can somebody answer jhonL.'s question about how to tell the difference between a royal purple with sun fading and a bronze?

however thank you Barbara!!!you always are very kind and helpful.

.... a full copy of Italian standard of guineafowl, fully translated into English Can you get this for us jhonL?

Yes it can be a very intersting opportunity of confrontation also because, as i told before, in italy there have been made also standards of colourations that haven't it in US and also to compare this standards with the standard of perfection on the three american recognized colours.
I can try to do it but i need of soem time for because the official standard there isn't online but only on book (because it was write some years ago online there is only the standard of African white because it has been written rcently after the book .)I had found three years ago onlinte a trascription made by a breeder on a forum and I have printed it (now i has searched it online but it seems to be dispappeared) and i have some notes and trascriptions on the standard because i have had occasion to read it some years ago but i have the opptunity to borrow it and so if you have patience i could try to do a translation i could also try to ask for help to a teacher of veterinary english ( a techer that teach scientific english at university in the facoulty of veterinary) cause my not very good knowlege of the language.
So if you have a good patience to waiting some time I would do it with very pleasure!!

I lived all over the state of Virginia...Norfolk, Chesapeake, Va Bch, Newport News, Richmond, Charlottesville, Staunton, Harrisonburg, Roanoke. I have 2 cousins who are VMI grads. I liked every place...very pretty countryside...I believe I enjoyed Staunton the most.

(Oh, and to answer your question, like Barbara said, Sid. He is really nice guy.)

I forgot to add that the seller said that this group of browns will sometimes produce a bronze? Is that correct or incorrect?

Chris

OK, I forgot about her article.
Based on this, I need to continue to reduce the RH in the turning bators and then raise it a little in the hatcher.

It was 19 hours after I saw that first pip hole before I rescued it. It shouldn't have taken that long. So that was a clue.

OOOOH cinnamon is gorgeous. I've only seen them in photos. I am in Virginia, and it's surprising but not many people have colors other then pearl, pied, blue and purple for some reason.Well, locally to me anyway.

I hatched a buff (WOOHOO) and a few purple a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping to add a few new colors.

It's interesting about the brown, they are all different shades, one has very little brown coloring and lots of grey. I bought mine at an auction and the man called them "red". I knew that wasn't true from doing a google search for "red guineas" but I knew they were different then what I have seen so I bought them anyway!

Chris

He's listed on our Breeders List under USA - Weatherford, Texas. You can also visit his website at: www.texaspeafowl.com

I don't know if he has any vulturines for sale right now, but I know he was breeding them not that long ago.

As stated in Section 11) of her "Setting Up Your Incubator" article:

"...you should aim to run your incubator at about 55-60% humidity from setting until internal pip, and then crank it up pretty high for hatching, to help the keets hatch more easily."

Going on that, I'd say you are right in your assumptions, HH.

I could be wrong, but I don't remember any discussion about all of them being pied. That would have stuck out in my mind. All I remember is that Michael Mason had some pearl grays and royal purples that freely intermingled, and the TBs were a result of those matings.

Cindy and Carl, were all of your TB keets pied?

I have used the weed/feed granules, then ran sprinklers over it for 2 days until they dissolved before letting birds out. No ill effects.

From the wonderful guinea owners on this site I was told to increase the size of my flock... didn't make sense to me at first but that is ultimately what has helped. I went from 4 birds to 8, now have 7 and more individuals made a big difference. I first added more females, then removed bully males, and anyway, having multiple feeding/watering stations, areas to hide inside the coop, and multiple doors/exits/entrances.

I did read that, and without going back to read again (I'm at work and supposedly working...) I seem to recall that was an issue of confinement in a coop and exposure that way. This would be granular lawn treatment where they would look at a something on the ground and decide to eat or not to eat.

Does anyone know where to purchase any vulturine guineas in Texas??

Chris;....Peeps knows...and they are extra dark as well. One thing interesting about the brown is the variation in background shading. Yours is extreme. The Brown also are very similar to Cinnamon. The difference being the Brown colors are dark "dunn or khaki" colored. The Cinnamon are a buff/orange/rust with the identical pearling. They too can vary in light to dark. I have an orangish light colored Cinnamon.

So where in the world are you?

My hatch this week was a full 1/3 pied pearl greys and no other pied colors even though half of my hens in this pen are not pearl grey. Still not a controlled hatch, next week I will hatch all the eggs from this group seperate from the others which will be a much better indication of what the results are. On a side note of the other 2/3 not a single standard pearl grey and without fail every buyer asks for some of the "normal" color. Hope they like a pied version.

I remember complaining that my original Royal Purple stock had gotten washed out in next generation. That's when we suspected that perhaps the "faded" ones were Bronzes.
I don't remember what the conclusion was. I know that mine that seemed washed out were not from too much sun since mine aren't exposed long enough to direct sunlight to have that much damage to the color.

Yesterday morning early, I noticed an egg had pipped that was still on the turner in one of my Hovabators. I immediately added it to the hatching bator.
It had pipped a decent hole. THis wasn't due until today.
It may have been in a batch of eggs that I was storing and somehow that embryo got a head start.
By end of day that keet had started the zip, maybe a quarter of an inch. By nightfall, maybe a half inch.
In the middle of the night when I checked it, around 1 AM, I noticed it hadn't made any progress. I could see the beak trying to work it.
That's when I decided to help it out. After finishing the zip, the keet started struggling to get out. It's eye was wide open. I took off the cap and opened up the membranes.
I kept it under control from totally coming out until I was sure the umbilical cord was just that thin string. It was.
Fortunately it was still strong and healthy and it went back into the hatcher to finish drying off.
This keet was so big that it did not have enough room to turn in the shell and finish the zip.
Based on the Brinsea RH advice, I am guessing this was a case of over humidifying. I have already reduced the RH to 60% but I bet that a lot of those eggs in that batch may have problems. It will be interesting to see how the chicken eggs fare compared to the keet eggs.

I've never hatched a Teddy Bear so I have not experience, but I thought from looking at pictures that all Teddy Bears were pied. Is that not the case?

As of this morning 58 of the 70 eggs have successfully hatched, 4 have pipped, 7 still show no indication of hatching and 1 died in its shell after pipping. The one that died was your typical sticky keet, got it's beak poked through a hole but to big to zip around the shell. Hope to get a few more today. I expect several of the eggs had stopped developing early on, I had not candled this batch since week one.