Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Keets!

Uncle John's guineas have been guarding a nest for about a month now. We knew it was full of eggs, but didn't have a lot of hope about the eggs hatching. 

Boy were we wrong!


On Monday, 21 keets arrived in the garden! (Keets are baby guineas)

We considered letting the mother guinea keep the young hatchlings to raise, but after consulting with a couple of people we decided to put them in a brooder box instead. Catching them was a quite an ordeal. The mother guinea attacked all of us while we were trying to snatch them. Uncle John got some bloody scratches on his arm and Farmer John got flogged in the face. We felt bad for the mother, but there are too many predators and other natural hazards around the farm to let them run free just yet.

The keets seem to be drinking water and maybe nibbling on chick starter. The ever-vigilant mother guinea perches next to the brooder to ward off any creature that would mess with her babies, including us.

5 comments:

  1. Well, now we know at least one of the guinea hens is not a hen!

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  2. Keep sending us pics of their development... I wonder how long till they get those gorgeous polka dot feathers!

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  3. For the record, the collective noun for guinea fowl is "confusion", so what you have there is a mighty fine confusion of keets!

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  4. Do your adult guineas perch outside at night or do they stay in a coop? Where was the nest made? We would like to get guineas someday...

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  5. Also, do your guineas eat the plants?

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