A few of my guinea hens would sometimes start laying eggs again when their keets were only a month or two old. Usually the keets would all pile in the nesting box with mom while she layed her eggs. It was comical to see..they would all be crammed in there with her with some sitting on her back, completely oblivious to the fact that she may like a little privacy to do her business. Once she stated laying on the eggs full time, most of the keets would lay just outside of the nesting area a lot of the time, but would sometimes venture outside to free range with dad/male who helped raise/teach them. My guess is that that your older keets will continue to stick close to where mom is but may go hang out with dad some if he ventures away from her for a bit while she is broody and sitting on the new batch of eggs. They may seem a little lost for awhile without mom wandering about with them, but will eventually mature and get brave enough to leave her side.I’m not sure if this is a “hooray” moment or an “oh dang it” moment. The keets will be exactly 2 months old tomorrow. They all stick close to the parents, so I’m guessing they will create a flock of 11.(?)
However, yesterday we found a guinea egg in the run! We picked it up and placed it in the nesting box Gertrude had used to hatch her eggs back in May. Today there was a 2nd egg! I’m not very good at understanding guinea behavior but it would seem to me that wanting another batch of keets this soon doesn’t make sense. Not that anything they do makes sense.
Is she lays a clutch of eggs for the next 4 weeks or so, then sits on them for another 4 weeks, that would put the hatch out around the end of September (I think).
I know Gary didn’t stray far from her when she was sitting on the nest the last times. I assume he will do the same this time too. Then will the keets go off on their own or still stick close to mom and dad, in the coop, all September? Maybe this is her way of weaning them?
I’m not opposed to more keets. Several people wanted us to give them some of this last batch, but I just couldn’t do it, since they were our first keets.