16 new keets from first year pullets

[JLeigh]

That's not dumb at all. Keets aren't fully feathered until they're at least 6 weeks of age. The fact that they can fly and look fully feathered doesn't mean they don't need a heat source. You can put them out into the coop, but you should keep them heat available until 6 - 7 weeks old. At four weeks, the temp should be 80 degrees, under the lamp, 24 hours a day. Keep them that temp for a week, and then lower it five degrees for a week, then another five degrees. After that, they should be fine. If you can't rig something in the coop, you should figure out a way to keep the little rascals from flying out of the brooder. PeepsCA suggested to another poster that a wire dog crate with some hardware cloth around it to keep the keets in works really well, and that's a great idea.

What's your set up now?

 

[bantamfarm]

They are in a brooder Under my covered (soon to be porch) with 7 silkie chicks, about the same age. They get along great with them, half of the brooder has a wire bottom but everything else is wood. I have the lid cracked small enough that they can't fly out (again) the first day my son was catching them due to the crack was too wide.. LOL. I have a 75 watt bulb in there with them on a dimmer switch so during the day I turn it down and at night I turn it up. I haven't lost any, so they must be getting enough heat. I was thinking maybe just moving that brooder out to the barn (into a converted horse stall) and running extension cord from work shop area thru the wire and setting the brooder on the floor and allowing them to move around as they please and then when they get cold they can get the heat themselves.. I just don't want to kill them by doing something wrong..

 

[JLeigh]

That sounds like a great plan. Keep the temp at 80 under the lamp for the week, then lower for the next couple of weeks, and they should be fine. I ran an extension cord out to my coop (make sure bedding won't catch fire) and it worked great. I always give my keets an extra week of heat (about 70 degress) at the end of six weeks, just because I'm a real noodle. When I get cold, everyone puts on a sweater. Moving fowl to the coop is a great day for everybody .

 

[JLeigh]

I must have stood there a full four minutes before they calmed down enough for their photo op.

 

[bantamfarm]

Very cool pic.. I have 18 guinea eggs in the incubator still have 21 days to go.. ugh.. I live on 17 acres and need the tick eaters bad !!!

 

[PeepsCA]

I must have stood there a full four minutes before they calmed down enough for their photo op.

Congrats JL, nice little first hatch... how many scotches did it take?

(Sorry I am late chiming in, had a busy weekend, doing some major gardening and yardwork, and spent yesterday working on building a decent sized elevated grow out coop for my Peachicks).

Your 2 lighter keets are Buff Dundottes, (they will be buff colored, but fully-pearled) the darker one is probably a Hen, and the lighter one is probably a male (they are one of the very few colors sexable by color, at hatch). They are not Pieds tho... their center head stripes look the normal width on both keets, with a couple of sets of narrow lines on both sides (Pieds usually have 1 or both of the narrow lines missing, and depending on how Pied they are the center stripe can be a lot narrower too... covered by Pied). Plus you have to have Pieds to get Pieds. I don't remember any of your birds being Pied. Do any of them have some pure White flight feathers AND some White chest feathers? You'd need at least 1 bird that has both to get any Pied keets.

So... if those were all Mel's babies, I'd say he's a really light Buff Dundotte (which was my guess months ago), split to Pearl Grey, but maybe he shared the action with Mr Magoo (but I think Mel at least "had relations" with your Buff Hen, lol). Glad all the hatching stress, brooder cleaning, coop/pen building etc has finally come full circle for you

This is a Buff (Buffs are usually sexable at hatch by color too, tho sometimes in my flocks they will throw me a curveball and a light one will turn out to be a Hen, lol). All partially pearled keets have broken head lines and their wings are white all the way to the shoulder. Sometimes that's hard to see on the lighter colors like Buffs and Opalines

 

[JLeigh]

Thanks Peeps. They're Buff Dundottes then. No pieds in the flock, and I wasn't sure of the genetics of getting pieds. I knew that partially pearled have the squiggly headlines, but didn't know that pied have no lines down the side of the head. Or if I did know, I'd forgotten. No scotches at all this time, believe it or not! Hatches guineas is EASY compared to chickens. Sort of "Just Add Water". Already thinking about my next hatch. I'm taking steps to ensure that Mel has (ahem) "more alone time" with the ladies. I want to keep the Buff D. hen, but they're both promised

.

I did pen rearranging yesterday. The chickens & guineas, who have been living side-by-side, separated by poultry wire for months now, all get time in the new pens, and they wandered around together without incident. I knew better than to provide treats at that time though. They went into their respective coops at night. That's going to be nice for them to be able to share the larger spaces during the day.

 

[bantamfarm]

I hatched 14 keets out of 18 shipped eggs. Pearl, white, pied, lavender. 2 had straddled legs but put them in band aids and they are walking normal.

 

[JLeigh]

Congratulations, bantamfarm. That's an excellent hatch rate for any eggs, shipped or not! Whoever shipped them did a great job. As Peeps would say, "Pics! Pics!"

 

[naglady]

Hi everyone, Just shut down the incubator last night.. hatched 18 out of 27.. i have 2 buff keets in the mix. this is my first time hatching guineas
Bantamfarm congratulations on your hatch..