I posted about a month ago on how happy I was with our mamma who hatched eggs in the coop and was raising her own keets with the flock. I just wanted to give the update.
All right, so taking it from the top:
25 eggs
21 hatched
Deaths:
5 total to date.
2 were in the first couple days
-one was weak
-the other got trampled (I think) on the third morning, when the gate to the giant overnight tractor-dropped cage was open but facing in a direction the guineas aren't used to. I think either my neurotic chicken Cruella or one of the guineas probably trampled it after wandering into the cage with the mamma and babies group and then being confused about the gate.
3 to unknown, but I'm figuring hawk. And possibly one more today to a hawk as I think I just counted 15 earlier instead of 16. But they are fast little buggers, maybe I counted wrong. Hawks are kind of a given here...you can't shoot them and they live down at the bottom of our field.
The flock continues to do well with guiding them, getting them under cover, etc. Everyone continues to coop at night without any more trouble than usual (they have their little ways, which must be catered to!). We had to get them all out of a tree one night, but we got mamma out, the keets followed, and there has been no more of that.
The keets have started to separate now, choosing which adult guineas they'd like to follow, though sometimes they are still all in one big group. Mamma can no longer be identified in this last week since the whole group hangs out with the keets at one point or another throughout the day. Great fun to watch them find a giant bug for the little ones or teach them how to grab bugs out of the air.
This is the dangerous part from my point of view. The keets are still snack-sized and they are not small enough to freeze and hide in the grass when the adults call danger. They are good at flying into a tree, hightailing it for long grass or brush, etc but can't hunker down in our shorter grass any more. No rain = short grass!
So that's what going on here. A good outcome so far. At this point I absolve mamma of all responsibility, I think she did just great. I hope the flock as a whole will continue to teach them how to not get killed.
In other guinea news, one of my other females got run over a few days ago. Sigh. Not a good role model for keets. Plus her mate was very upset. This is not a busy road, but some folks travel fast.
All right, so taking it from the top:
25 eggs
21 hatched
Deaths:
5 total to date.
2 were in the first couple days
-one was weak
-the other got trampled (I think) on the third morning, when the gate to the giant overnight tractor-dropped cage was open but facing in a direction the guineas aren't used to. I think either my neurotic chicken Cruella or one of the guineas probably trampled it after wandering into the cage with the mamma and babies group and then being confused about the gate.
3 to unknown, but I'm figuring hawk. And possibly one more today to a hawk as I think I just counted 15 earlier instead of 16. But they are fast little buggers, maybe I counted wrong. Hawks are kind of a given here...you can't shoot them and they live down at the bottom of our field.
The flock continues to do well with guiding them, getting them under cover, etc. Everyone continues to coop at night without any more trouble than usual (they have their little ways, which must be catered to!). We had to get them all out of a tree one night, but we got mamma out, the keets followed, and there has been no more of that.
The keets have started to separate now, choosing which adult guineas they'd like to follow, though sometimes they are still all in one big group. Mamma can no longer be identified in this last week since the whole group hangs out with the keets at one point or another throughout the day. Great fun to watch them find a giant bug for the little ones or teach them how to grab bugs out of the air.
This is the dangerous part from my point of view. The keets are still snack-sized and they are not small enough to freeze and hide in the grass when the adults call danger. They are good at flying into a tree, hightailing it for long grass or brush, etc but can't hunker down in our shorter grass any more. No rain = short grass!
So that's what going on here. A good outcome so far. At this point I absolve mamma of all responsibility, I think she did just great. I hope the flock as a whole will continue to teach them how to not get killed.
In other guinea news, one of my other females got run over a few days ago. Sigh. Not a good role model for keets. Plus her mate was very upset. This is not a busy road, but some folks travel fast.
