Saturday, July 23, 2011

Guinea Update

Our guinea keets that we hatched from eggs are turning into teenage guineas.  They've been integrated with the chicken flock for a while now.  The mama chicken hens no longer are mothers to them.  Just recently we've encouraged them to start sleeping outside the chicken coop in the tree that's inside the chicken pen, so they are still protected from night monsters.  They are starting to make guinea sounds, too, and are losing their baby voices.  Raising keets from eggs has been a great experience for me since I raised their parents, too.


We appear to have 7 lavender (gray colored with white dots), 4 pearl gray (the dark ones), and 1 all white keet.  The dark ones are changing from brown feathers to dark grey, and they are looking rough right now.  They will be beautuful they they are adults.  Right now we don't have any adult pearl gray guineas - I'm so happy we got some eggs that belonged to our pearl gray guineas before they were killed. 


I love the light blue eyes!



Yesterday it was over 100 degrees F outside.  Randy was feeding the birds frozen corn.  We appear to have quite a few birds right now, but most of them are teenage keets and chicks. 
I love how the rooster stands back on the right and lets everyone else eat.


Here are the 2 adult boy guineas.  They are very lonely now.  The White Boy is the leader, but there's not much of a flock, with just 2 of them.  They finally have become friends.


And here's our 1 female adult guinea.  She's broody.  She's sitting on a clutch of 15 eggs.  We've decided to let her hatch out her own keets.  We'll see if she makes it.  It's dangerous for her to sleep alone out in the woods overnight, sitting on the ground, blind.  Guineas are very blind in the dark.  Sometimes we discuss taking half her eggs and giving them to a broody chicken hen, so we know at least half of them may live.  We have heard it's tough for keets and mama guineas in the wild, with fox and owl and coons out there in the woods.
Bella the chicken hen is broody again.  She was the mama to half the guinea keets which are now teenagers.  Bella's always broody.  I guess she likes being a mommy.  She's very hormonal right now.  She would be the bird that we give the guinea eggs to hatch, if we give guinea eggs to anyone.


So we'll see what we decide to do with the additional guinea keets, if they live.
We're taking it one day at a time in this summer heat...

13 comments:

Denise at Autumn Sky said...

Did you know that corn is a hot food and shouldn't be fed to the chickens in the Summer? Mine like it too, but I quit feeding it when I learned about the heat.

Farm Girl said...

Could you put a milk crate or something on the guinea at night to keep her safe. What about that scarecrow guy that ran the monsters off with his radio? She just seems so vulnerable sitting there, I didn't know they were blind at night. No wonder they get picked off. I hope she does get to hatch her own eggs it would be funny to see a guinea hen with her keets.

LindaG said...

That's what I was wondering. If you could put a kennel or something around her for a bit of protection...
Too bad you can't use a rooster or something. I am, sadly, clueless about these things.
I thought it was cool the way the rooster stood off, too, like he was watching everything. :)

Kessie said...

I love that picture of Randy feeding all the chickens and guineas out of his hands. It's so sweet. Isn't it funny when the teenaged chicks and keets all have their voices change? It's a rough time for humans and animals alike. :-)

CaliforniaGrammy said...

Those baby guineas have grown up right before our eyes! I worry about the brooding mama too, and will just send good thoughts your way in hopes that she is protected from the nightly predators. Part of me wants you to take some of her eggs and let broody hen snuggle them. . . just in case. Such a dilemma you must be feeling!

Razzberry Corner said...

AutumnSkyRanch - Thanks for the info. No, I didn't know that. We wont feed them corn in the summer again! They didn't like the frozen corn, anyway!

Farm Girl - If we go up to Girl Guinea she jumps off her eggs in the pitch darkness in the woods and runs blindly, screaming. Andy the scarecrow has been dismantled and the old clothes washed and put away. His straw innards had gotten wet from rain too much and he was getting moldy on the inside! But the radio is a good idea!!! Maybe we should put the battery operated radio out near her? We still turn it on to protect the guineas in the pine tree near our house.

LindaG - A good rooster is an amazing asset to a chicken flock. The hens always listen to the roosters when they tell them they found food, and the roosters work hard to take care of their flock. The roosters are supposed to always eat last. Muffin (the dark rooster in the picture) is a very rooster, he plays his part very well as provider and protector of the hens.

Kessie - Lol, yes, it is rough to be a teenager, no matter if you're a human or a bird! The guinea keets still want their mama hen, especially the smaller ones like the white one. It's hard for them to not have a mama anymore.

CAGrammy - My concern is that I cant handle anymore responsibility right now. I recently changed jobs and my new one takes much more of my time. I'm gone over 12 hours a day now. Randy's changing jobs soon, and will be so very busy soon. We want to take a vacation real soon. I was planning on all the baby birds to be grown already and integrated into the flock before all this happened. And now there's 15 eggs out there. 15 babies. Having baby birds takes alot of time and work. We separate the mama hen with her eggs, we keep them separate after they hatch to protect them from the other birds. Before the eggs are hatched we give the mama extra attention because it's so darn hot in the coop and she doesn't get off the nest much. They get fed special baby food after the infant birds hatch. It all is alot of work, although it's all worth it in the end. But right now I don't think we can give the babies the attention they would need. Maybe the mama guinea would be able to take care of them. We are thinking of building a large fence around her that she can fly out of if she needs to, but that will keep foxes away. It's just a thought right now... And we are discussing taking away her eggs. I feel bad doing that to her. We have to workout a timeline of when her babies are due still. I do hope they hatch...
~Lynn

theblackegg said...

Wow, they are growing up so quickly! I would love the keep guinea fowl, but the only problem is that we have a lot of foxes and have had three attacks in the middle of the day, and our next door's have a dog that all ready killed one of my hens, and I don't want them to flying onto their property. I'm pretty sure the will fly over, because their property is so much nicer. For the birds and the eyes. Our coop makes you eyesore.

theblackegg said...

Currently we have 6 hens, 1 rooster and a duck. I heard my mum saying on the phone that we will be moving from our farm at the end of this year or next year. I told my mum I don't want to move. We are due to build a new coop this year, because the old one is horrible, but my mum isn't willing to drop very many pennies. And we will probably be getting more hens and maybe another rooster. I don't really like my rooster now, he is a bantam and he doesn't care for anyone else except for himself. Should I give him away? What should I do!!!!!!! I'm so stuck on this one!

John Going Gently said...

they are still so tiny arn't they?
lovely loud little devils
x

theblackegg said...

Hi! Sorry for commenting twice, but I would love you to come and follow my site! I've been following your blog for a long time and all I can do is just stare and admire your flock and property! Wish mine was the same... *sight*

Knatolee said...

Too bad I can't trade you some Muscovy ducklings for some keets! :) Hope the wild mama guinea manages okay out there. Your pearl guineas are gorgeous.

AJ-OAKS said...

Love all your keets! Mine are growing so fast and they crack me up. They are such clowns. They go inside the hen house every night along with the chickens. In fact, they won't go anywhere without the chickens. If they get too far behind the flock they start screaming and running towards them.
i sure hope your mama keet makes it through the hatching of her eggs.

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