Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Guinea and Chick Update ~ Teenagers


The chicks are now 39 days old today.  They are teenagers!  There are 2 gray chicks, one golden brown, one yellow and one black.  I'm sure the black one is a son/daughter of Betty, our black hen (pictured below).  He looks just like her, except he has a black comb.  His comb and wattles are larger than the other chicks, I think he may be a cockerel.  Time will tell!







The yellow chick used to be the largest, but now the others have caught up.  I think the golden brown chick is very pretty with her gray eyes.



I didn't get a picture of one of the gray chicks today, she was too fast for me.  The one gray one I photographed above has a large comb.  The other one doesn't have that large a comb yet.  All the chicks except the black one have gray eyes, which is unique because the pullets and roosters all have brown eyes.

The chicks have been totally integrated into the flock for several weeks now.  Their mama hen, Zoner, has already stopped caring for them.  Zoner is also trying to lay eggs again.

The guinea keets are now 52 days old today.  They also are in that teenager phase.  There are 7 light blue/grey keets and 1 all white keet.


The keets are very active little guys, it's tough to get a picture of them.  They like to stick together and walk around in a guinea keet group.  The adult female guinea hen is in the photo below, so you can see the keets are still small compared to her.  And the adult male guinea is a little larger than the female.

Bella, the adopted mama hen, has already moved on and doesn't mother her keets anymore.  The keets still follow her around if given the opportunity.  Bella has already started laying eggs again.





If you looked closely at the small picture of Betty in this post, you may have noticed a little newborn chick in the picture.  Your eyes didn't fool you, there were new chicks born this weekend!  My next post will provide an update on the newbies to the flock!

7 comments:

Country Girl said...

Wow! How many are in your flock now? The teenager chicks are cute!

Carla said...

Beautiful flock!
I wouldn't be too sure about the combs/wattles making a chick male. I have a couple Buff Orp hens that have great big combs and wattles.
It's funny, but that yellow chick has a roo look about it to me, though.

Gail said...

I LOVE the color of the first hen.

Growing up, guineas use to drive me crazy with all their pot-racking! They do make good watch dogs. Nothing goes unnoticed.

Very healthy looking flock and great pictures.

Foothills Poultry said...

The black chick and the gray one are definately Roos in the making.

The other 2 pictured are you best hopes of future hens.

~~Matt~~

Farm Girl said...

Just lovely! The Guineas look really great too. Congrats on new chicks.

AJ-OAKS said...

Whew, glad you said that there was a baby chick. I kept looking at that picture and was certain it was a new baby, but then again, my eyes may have been playing tricks on me and it was just a clump of straw.
Oh my those babies have grown up so fast.
All the colors!! Love it. :)

Razzberry Corner said...

Hi Barb - I really don't know how many are in the flock now. We got rid of some roos a while back, and plan on getting rid of any future roos, too.

CeeCee - That's funny you mention the yellow chick being a roo. I originally thought it was a little roo because he was bumping chests with the black one when they were really small. They would just go at it bumping each other, I would break them up when I saw them. But since then that behavior has stopped, and now the yellow one's comb isn't growing much. I hope it's female, it's a big chick, going to be a big bird. which means big eggs.

Gail - I love to try to have lots of different colored birds. I don't want them to all look the same.

The baby guineas have just started developing their voices in the past couple days - they are getting NOISY! They're so cute when they make a racket because they're so small still!

Matt - That's what I thought, too! Sad the black one's a roo, I wanted another black hen.

Farm Girl - Thank you!

Cindy - You are observant! Yes, the chicks do grow fast. I wonder where the hens will figure into the current hen pecking order? Do they start at the bottom bc they are younger???

~Lynn