TrueStockFarms
In the Brooder
Last night I received my very first guinea keets. There are six of them that were raised in the same brooder as ducklings. The keets are 3 weeks old this week, have been off the heat lamp for almost two days now, and had an hour drive to my house with the ducklings in the same box. I have never had keets before so I didn't know exactly what to expect but these are SO TINY! They are beginning to get the feathers and according to the lady I got them from they have been growing them for a bout a week now. When I received the box with the keets and ducklings in it there were several keets that were hiding in the corners and not very active. Those ones were also the smallest ones. In the box I noticed that the ducklings are just running the keets over! The keets are only like half the size of the ducklings. One of the keets was holding his head down kinda funny so I watched him for a minute and he seemed somewhat active and aware of his surroundings so I figured he might just be tired. This morning the ducklings were still trampling the keets so I separated them. The two smaller keets are still very frail and slightly less active that the others. I also noticed that the bag of feed that came with them is only 20% protein. I have heard that they need at least 24%? I plan to stop and pick some up for them tonight. According to the heat schedule that I read, the keets do not need supplemental light any longer during the day as it is 80-90 degrees during the day in my area and they have about half of their feathers in already. However, they just seem so small and frail! Is that normal for keets? Is there anything I should be doing to help them?