1 keet with chicks? *pic added in post 6

[itsy]

I have my first eggs in incubation. It's mostly Polish Chicken eggs.... I had two Guinea eggs in there and one was a blank. The other is coming along nicely. If the keet ends up hatching - will it be ok with the chicken chicks?

The farmer I got the eggs from threw in the guinea eggs and a few royal palm turkey eggs. Two of the three turkeys are blank and the remaining one may have gone bad (it's hard for me to tell and I hope it doesn't explode). Either way... I'll have several chicks and one keet....

opinions? Thanks!

 

[prairiehen74369]

your keet will be fine with the chicks. the keet will go to roost at night with the chickens which will be a good thing when they are older. I always put a chick in with my keets as a trainer to teach them to eat and drink. I have two
keets with a baby silkie right now. you will learn as you go.......... enjoy. you do know guinea eggs take 28 days to hatcha week longer than 21 for chicks.

 

[jcatblum]

My last chick hatch I sat 6 dz eggs acquired from auction. Only hatched out 2 chicks. Was sad and had a big empty box for them. Didn't want the chicks to be alone so I threw them in with the keets. They do great together. They have all the same behaviors except for the flying. The keets can fly 10+ ft already while the pour chicks can't even get to the roost hardly.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I have raised my keets with the chicks. They seem fine with them and they are now 5 weeks old.

 

[itsy]

Thanks for the replies!

I hope the keet hatches!!!

 

[itsy]

Wow! It hatched!

To be honest - I lost track of my days. 7 of the Polish eggs hatched, but one weak chick died yesterday.

I've been turning the guinea egg up until yesterday morning - alone in the bator. I completely lost count of my days - thinking that lockdown was much further away. When I went to bed tonight, we found the little keet hatched.

I didn't ever do lockdown or increase the humidity or stop turning the egg. I'm a worse mother than a guinea hen!

Putting him in with the week old Polish chicks is like entering a brooder of giants. I was a bit nervous last night because one of the Polish was pecking at him at first. Every time he pecked, I picked him up the bully and held him for a minute. After a little while, everyone settled down and cuddled up to sleep.

I have a cold and got up way too early this morning because I couldn't sleep. I went to check on the little ones and the Polish chicks were running around like pinballs. The lil keet was peeping away and pecking at the pine shavings. I was surprised to see this, because I didn't think he'd be pecking for food so soon. I have the Polish on a medicated chick starter, but I know that the keet needs a higher protein. I happen to have a bag of 28% gamebird starter on hand (from feeding my meat chickens) so I put a little dish of that in front of him. To my surprise, he ate right away.

Now I have a dilema. Do I keep BOTH feeds in there or remove the medicated chick feed and feed my week old Polish chicks the 28% gamebird starter. Generally, I don't like medicated feed at all - but since this was my first hatch, I wasn't going to take any chances. I was nervous about sanitary conditions for my first incubator experience - otherwise the chicks would have been on unmedicated.

I'll take a photo of the keet in daylight. I'd like to know what color he is. I need to see if I can get an am appointment with my doctor first, though. I think being sick as an adult is worse for me than as a child! I'm a big baby!

Edited to add:
Apparently I was the only one up at 4:00 am and doctors don't get in until 8 or 9. SO - I took a photo. How cute are they all sleeping together? Is my guinea a traditional Pearl Gray?

 

[itsy]

Any opinion on my feed question in the post above? So far, I have both food in there. The chicks actually prefer the higher protein food - so the medicated may not be eaten anyway.

 

[StevenW.]

I have my Keets on Chick Starter since we don't have any mills around here that make GameBird starter only Adult GameBird Feed. I've even asked if I could special order it and they said they weren't able too..

 

[PeepsCA]

Yes your keet loos like it is a Pearl Grey, but next to those dark chicks it almost looks like it could be a Brown. I'm gonna say Pearl Grey tho.
I'd go ahead and feed everybody the game bird starter... but I'm partial to Guineas, so I'm automatically going to advise what's best for the keet (and doesn't hurt the chicks, of course).

 

[itsy]

Thanks for the help, guys

I love the little keet!