Look what hatched from a guinea egg!

What is this cutie.? it hatched a week before the others did and I thought for sure the rest were gonners LOL waited and waited I was getting worried, while I kept this little cutie inthe bator till the others hatched, I fed and watered it in there too. Didn't want it to be by itself in the brooder box.

all the rest look like the second picture. and BTW. This was by far my best hatch rate ever, I posted awhile back that the bator was unplugged for over a day . Didn't make much difference to these chicks. Out of 3 dozen. I hatched everyone that was fertile which was l8, the rest weren't fertile. Best I ever did before.

I wish I could do chickens that good. I think my humidity hasn't ever been watched as well as it was this time, I actually had a humidity guage in the bator and I think that helped me tremendously.

The guineas are suppose to be pearl guineas. Bought the eggs at the local feedstore. for 3.00 a doz. when he sold the guineas for 5 to 8 dollars each. depending on their size.

anyways, What's this one? a half breed? ugly duckling? LOL OH the poor baby going to be so made fun of all his little life.

here's what the others looked like

Wow, what a surprise! I'm not sure, but to me it looks like a RIR crossed with something else chick. How long is is the incubation period for guineas? If it is 28 days then it would make sense that this is a chick and hatched a week earlier.

Christy

put all the eggs in the bator on June 8th that one hatched out on the 28th or 29th I think may be a day later, the others started hatching on the 3rd of July there abouts. I didn't write down the hatching dates, forgot to. but the chicken stayed in the bator for 5 days before the others hatched. I don't think it was a chicken egg, but I guess it's possible. They all looked like guinea eggs and were all that same size. but could have been a small chicken eggand they though t it was a guinea and stuck it in with the guinea eggs.

The folks that sold me these eggs, only have 2 kinds of chickens at their house as far as I know. their the welsummers and the cockoo marans. I'll have to ask if they have RIR's there too.

Can a guinea cross wtih a chicken?

yes, but that doesn't look like a cross... he looks like an adorable welsummer!

congrats Kathy!

tf

Wow, guineas can cross with chickens? Wonder what those come out to look like? If the people have Welsummers I bet that's what he is. I've never had them or really ever seen any. My guess was RIR crossed with something only because a bunch of our chicks right now look a lot like yours. He is so cute! I keep clicking on his pic to see!

Chrsity

guinehens... ugly/cute/sterile

www.guineafowl.com

tf

thanks for the link tf......isn't that an odd looking critter? I wonder what the meat tastes like and how they grow? That sure is interesting! I swear, I learn a gabillion new things on here everyday!

Christy

That's an ugly bird, so glad mine is a little welsummer, and by the temperment of it, it can only be a male LOL

I may have to make dumplings out of him yet LOL

awwww what a cute surprise.

Kathy_Ann,

I've hatched many Welsumers. Your little chick looks more like a hen to me. The roos are a bit darker.

What I find anecdotal is that you believed a Welsumer egg was a Guinea Fowl egg. My Welsumer eggs are 2.5X's larger in size than my Guinea Fowl eggs. They are a deep chocolate brown color ... almost chestnut colored. Guinea Fowl eggs are pointed ... conical at one end and are SMALL pale creamy brown eggs size ... vs Welsumer eggs being Extra Large.

Welcome to raising poultry ... its great to being a beginner or a long time poultry person.

Kelly in Moxee

i was owndering the same thing about the eggs, Kelly. so it could turn out to be a cross after all...

kathy_ann,

If all the eggs were the same (big IF) ..... I'd say the chick might be a 50% guinea .... sterile. Poultry can be surprising.

Kelly in Moxee

All the eggs were the same size and shape as guinea eggs, I would have noticed a dark brown egg in there for sure.

You know, I've bought chicken eggs from this same couple before , remember I said all they had was welsummers and cockoo marans, well, not one of their eggs are dark brown. kind of weird.

but there definitely wasnt any brown eggs and chicken eggs in the bator, you know the funny shape of a guinea egg, it kind of stands out, and they all looked like guinea, wish I paid closer attention, but I swear this thing came from a guinea egg or a very small very light colored egg that closely resembled a guinea egg.

Next time I go to town (friday) i'll stop by there and ask them, about their not so brown welsummer and cockoo maran eggs. I often wondered the same thing when I go into their feedstore they got the eggs for sale and none are brown brown, just light brown.

I'll post here when I find out something about them.

I can't wait to hear what you find out!

Christy

kathy_ann--He doesn't look like my Welsummer chicks--they looked much more chipmunky--typical little partridge colored babies with stripes down their backs.

well, it does look kind of like a welsummer

here's some baby welsummers

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=welsummer+chick&gbv=2

It does look like a Welsummer. Could it be a cross with a Guinea? It looks very chick-like.

These are my Welsummers as chicks. The picture shows a Marans (black), a Buff Orpington (dark yellow), A Delaware (lemon yellow), two RIR (light red) and 2 Welsummers (dark brown and stripey). Maybe yours is a hybrid?

LOL what's a hybrid?

new breed? would be nice if we knew who the father andmother were.

Well in breeding a hybrid is a cross between two distinct and different parents, usually different species (like a lion crossed with a tiger). But the term is used pretty loosely. Chickens aren't really different species, but they consider a cross between two different breeds a hybrid. In this case it could either be a cross between two different chicken breeds--or, and more interestingly, it could be a true interspecies cross between a Guinea Fowl and a Chicken--and if the egg looked like a Guinea egg it would mean the mother was a Guinea hen and the father was a Chicken roo. If it is a chicken hybrid it would be fertile--but most interspecies crosses are infertile (like donkey X horse=sterile mule). Time will tell:0)

gosh, learn something new every day. I didn't realize all that. This really looks like a chicken though , don't you think? doesn't look like it has any guinea in it.

I'm going to go by the feedstore tomorrow and talk to him abou t this baby. ask him if his welsummer and cockoo marans lay light colored eggs and ask if he has other chickens besides those two kinds. he once told me he only had those two but he sells allkinds that he gets off the net. so I would imagine he has to try growing all of the breeds.

he also has several breeds of dogs, pot belly pigs and several other creatures of his he sells the offsprings of LOL Those pot belly pigs are the cutest things when their babies

cat, could it be that welsummers chick markings are sex linked, and you got two roos?... this is all interesting, can't wait to hear his explanation KathyAnn...

i wounder wat he will say

Well, tf---No! Unless Fontina stops crouching and starts crowing;0) But Pecky does seem to be a roo, doesn't he? Did his sickle feathers grow back? (in other words one of the chicks in the pic is a roo and one is a pullet).

Supposedly with Welsummers you can sex the young chicks because the little pullets are darker and have more pronounced "Vs" on their heads. But I didn't notice it with these. Pecky's comb started earlier but then sort of stalled. He was always bigger.

It is similar with Barnevelders (which were used to create Welsummers) but it is easier because the little roos have big white breasts and the pullet are grey or tan there. But the pullets are darker too and feather out earlier.

I think kathy_ann's little baby looks all chick and maybe part Welsummer--but I've never really seen a guinea/chicken hybrid. This should be interesting!

did you look at y link above, where they show guin-hens? they are/were developing htem for the "perfect meat bird"...

that chicken guinea thing is so uglie its cute

josh

I can't get it to open. I think my computer wants to download some new software and it always get temperamental until I give in and let it do it.

now u have do be very firm with it and tell it NO BAD COMPUTER

in your browser type guineafowl.com then you wil have to search through ... or i could do it...

http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/GuinHen/

you wil love the part where your mouse marker is a tick and a guinea follows it around!

tf

i know i was playin with it for ages som one who was stoned would love that

My computer is very passive agressive. I will have to turn it off and let it restart. I wanna follow the tick!

yep just let it cool down for a while then come back and play with the marker thingy and on the other part of the site it rains guineas

Just the tiniest criticism--it says the "prodigy is sterile" I think they mean "progeny is sterile" unless it is a VERY gifted fowl.

Okay, I'm over it.

Couldn't find the tick----does that mean I'm not stoned?

It looks exactly like my one cross I had to hatch this spring.. I will try to get a picture soon.. My rooster was the daddy and a guinea mama.. He was the only hatch out of about 14 guinea eggs..He was hatched the old fashioned way.. Under a bantam hen, lol..

Mine is very vocal, but sounds more like a chicken than a guinea..

I have 8 baby keets that are now about 10-11 weeks old..Mama guinea sat on them in the old corn crib..Caught them up and put in the brooder..

Larkie

i thought the web site said there ment to be realy rare looks like your on lucky person larkie

That makes sense then, Larkie:0) So glad you had the experience! Have you noticed if it is sterile?

Don't know about it being rare, never thought about it.., I've had guineas and chickens to breed a good many times over the years..And yep, they are sterile..

Larkie

This message was edited Jul 9, 2008 1:36 AM

so its lik a mule then