Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Girl Guinea's Secret!

Girl Guinea has a secret!
And she's not going to tell!
The other guineas know, but they wont say a word!
Boy Guinea sings about the secret, but only the guineas hear.
Hush, now, don't don't talk in front of the chickens.  They have loose lips.
If the chickens knew, you know they'd tell the humans, and the secret would be gone!!
You know those chickens, they can't hold onto anything. 

Girl Guinea smirking at me today
Notice how the other guineas respect Girl Guinea more now.  She has become the flock leader.  She's the dark one right out in front.  Boy Guinea lets her take charge!  Everyone follows her lead.
They know about her secret.

The guinea flock today
This morning we walked out by the brush pile.  The one that's near the ice house, which is near our back yard.  The Guineas spend a lot of time in the mornings near this brush pile.

Brush pile
And to our amazement, what did we see in the high grass?


Fifteen Girl Guinea eggs!!
We found a Girl Guinea nest!

Girl Guinea eggs
It appears she's been laying out here ever since we found her last egg on October 22 (19 days ago). 
She used to lay about one egg/day.  15 eggs in 19 days would be about right for her.  It also appears she's learned how to lay eggs without weak spot in them, like she used to lay.

Too bad it's been going down below freezing at nighttime! 
In the spring when the temps are warmer we'll have to let her hatch some guinea keets!!!

Sadly, I collected her eggs today.  I'm going to leave 2 in the nest to encourage her to lay in the nest.  I'll have to mark them.  I don't want to leave an entire nest of eggs for the raccoons to find.  And I don't want a nest of rotten eggs by my backyard!  I'm surprised the coons haven't found these eggs in the past 2 weeks, anyway!

Girl Guinea, I wont tell your little secret. 
It's just between us!


12 comments:

John Going Gently said...

my little ivy did the same thing, just feet from the field gate...and I never noticed

Terry said...

What a nice secret!

IsobelleGoLightly said...

My goodness! In the Springtime, when Girl Guinea lays more eggs, you are going to have many, many Guinea friends! Weeee. I'm still working on laying an egg but it's not going so well. Maybe I have to start eating Layena!

Knatolee said...

Ooooooo!! Look at her lovely nest!!!! I hope she can bring up some babies in spring. What a time of year to be nesting...

What a sweet post!

Farm Girl said...

She looks so proud of herself. Maybe in the spring she can be a mommy. If you want that many guineas I mean. :) Very cute pictures!

Kessie said...

Wow, she's been very busy! Yes, come spring, you'll have lots of little keats. :-)

Chai Chai said...

Amazing, little keats is something to look forward to in the Spring.

Will you have the chickens hatch them out?

Dog Trot Farm said...

What a wonderful surprise!

CaliforniaGrammy said...

Good for you, Girl Guinea. Good practice for warmer springtime! Way to go!

Carla said...

Yes, it's just too late in the year for keets. I hope she has a 'secret' next spring. :)

morningbrayfarm said...

Wow! We have a guinea that's been sitting on three eggs for a month now... I'm not sure what to do about it since it's so cold now?!

Razzberry Corner said...

John Gray - Did Ivy's eggs hatch?

Terry - I was surprised!

IsobelleGoLightly - Lol, I'm glad you can't lay eggs! That just wouldn't be right!

Knatolee - I hope she can raise some babies in the spring, too. If it's as easy as it looks, we'll have ten thousand guineas!

Farm Girl - I'll have to figure out how to limit the number of babies somehow. I will also have to research if guineas go broody like chickens. I don't know much about guineas.

Kessie - It looks like it. We have 10 guineas now, if approx 5 are females, and they all lay like Girl Guinea does, that makes alot of keets! And I think we have mostly female guineas, from the sound of their squawks (I think males and females make different noises).

Chai Chai - That's a consideration. We did very well letting Bella the hen raise the last keets.

Julie - It was a surprise!

CaliforniaGrammy - Yes, it was good practice. I hope all our guineas live thru the cold winter till springtime!!!

CeeCee - me too!

Morningbrayfarm - If it's too cold wont the eggs die before hatching? And if it's too cold the infant keets will die if they manage to hatch? I remember that guinea keets need to stay warmer than chickens. In the beginning, we raised keets and chicks together, and had to keep everyone warm enough for the guinea keets. Sometimes I thought it was too warm for the chicks - they would always sleep flat on their sides like they were dead, like a pile of dead chicks. I always thought it was too hot for them. but the keets needed it that warm when they were newborns, or so I read!

~Lynn