Re: Guinea Keets

[bee_pipes]

When we got the turkeys, we had hopes of sliding them under a hen that had just recently gotten over going broody. The fellow I talked to said that would work about two out of three times, but you had to get the chicks under the hen while they were still wet from hatching. I guess it's more a matter of the chicks/keets patterning on the mother, more than the mother accepting the babies. Kind of makes sense - they need to run to her or come to her when she calls. Otherwise the hen goes crazy trying to chase them down when they head in every direction.

I have also heard of them being "over-mothered" by hens. Maybe this has to do with them not being responsive enough to her calls and wandering. Having recently chased down two clutches of guineas, I don't think they do well after they pattern on mom and she gets to know their distress call. We surrendered to the inevitable and put them in a brooder. They made quite a racket for the firs day or two, calling for mom. Eventually they settled down and went about the business of being keets - running around, playing keep-away with the straw, etc.

The brooder was getting so crowded, we had to move them to the turkey hootch between one and two weeks of age. The older keets were trampling the younger ones, rushing from side to side in the brooder. They are all doing well, and yesterday we got the last batch of birds out - 17 buff orpingtons. Must be 40-some-odd birds in that hootch now. The orpingtons were getting a bit aggressive with the keets, I was guessing conditions were too crowded in the brooder. The new keets were huddling up to the poults in the hootch to stay warm at night and we didn't lose any to chilly nights.

Yesterday we moved the poults in with the adult chickens. The first thing they did when they hit the ground in the chicken pen was dust themselves. All seemed to go well, no major pecking order readjustment. On a sad note, three keets were dead. Seemed to have been smothered. A shame, if we had moved the poults a few hours earlier, they might not have died. The poults were just too big, and oblivious to their little cousins. We should have moved them a week ago.

Today is the first day the poults have been turned loose to graze. All seems to be going well - they really are good looking birds and have interesting personalities.

Regards,
Pat

[bookwormom]

well, so far so good, we have a Buff Orpington mothering four guineas. Husband got them at the fleamarket, they must have been a couple of days old, but they sure wanted a mommy. the
Buff O was not sure if she wanted the job, pecking them at first, but now she is being a very good mother, they are very active and she has to be on the go all the time. we had a stray chicken set on a dozen eggs, the just hatched and since it was evening we did not want to put her in the new chick run. We should have, next morning she was dead and all chicks but one were gone. so we have one single chick, Buff said no way, so husband put it in with a gosling that has a hurt leg. It did not want this chick trying to crawl under it, but, knock on wood, they seem to have adjusted, the little ones craw is full and goosy seems to get better, too. Maybe tmorrow it will go into the new, empty chickenrun with our buff Orpington rooster, who seems to be some kind of nice chicken uncle. the barred rock rooster is the big man on the place. we had another single chick and it followed the rooster around and he sort of took care of it, not like a mother, but better than nothing.