30 Keets Born On 8/6/13 And This Is Our Story

[JLeigh]

Sounds correct to me! (Unless it gets really cold at night because the polar ice cap is melting and the prevailing winds shift causing the Gulf stream to change and El Nina is in the house of Saturn......) LOL. I have to tweak and change the temps routinely until they're six weeks. After that, I leave the little boogers at 70 degrees for an extra week because if I get cold around my house, everyone puts on a sweater. Sounds like you're doing great!

I have questions about your coop situation though. Is the 40 sq. ft. coop you're talking about the one in the picture in your previous post? Are you talking about leaving them in the coop 24/7 "forever" or just until they can free-range? Do you have a pen attached to the coop? 5 sq ft. per bird is fine if it's just for roosting. If you're going to have them in there 24/7 as adults, it's not enough for them, and they'll be very unhappy, probably fight a LOT, and increase the odds of illnesses.

JMO, but ideally, we should provide a coop for them to roost at night and a pen (covered if you can) attached to the coop. The bigger the better. Here's my feeling: you can definitely have too little space, but you can't have too much space. If you have the right setup, you can go out of town for a couple/few days and not worry (much) about them. Right now, you have, in my opinion, just over the minimum space for 8 guineas to roost in at night. You can expand by one or two birds if they're free-ranging during the day. Sorry if I missed info addressing this in a previous post, and I hope my math is right. I really stink at math LOL.

 

[bestgear]

Here's a picture of my coop and covered run. My plan is to keep them in the coop until 8 weeks old (end of September) and then give them some outside exposure in the covered run until they are 12 week old (end of October) and then begin to introduce them to free-ranging. I'm planning to release about half the flock for a few hours a day and then call them back with the bell that I've been using everytime that I give them white millet. My ultimate goal is to have them free-ranging during the day and roost overnight in the safe coop.

 

[JLeigh]

I think you can let them get sun and fresh air at 4-5 weeks in your covered run, but put them in the coop with a lamp at night. As long as it's not raining and the temps are warm enough, it will be fine.

 

[bestgear]

Thank you for the great communication JLeigh, I don't feel quite so alone with this new adventure. I plan to replace the heat lamp bulb with a 40 watt soft light bulb on a timer that will go on every night at dusk and stay on until dawn but not until week 6 or 7.

I love the idea of letting them enjoy the sun, soil and fresh air and they'll be 4 weeks old next Tuesday, I'll keep you posted on "their" new adventure. In all honesty I'm nervous about releasing them free-range (as I'm sure most new guinea owners are). They will have 60+ wooded acres to free-range that also supports a population of racoon, fox, hawk, eagle and coyote. We've already had to discourage the hawks from visiting the coop! Is there anything I can do to keep the guineas closer to the coop and my gardens vs. wandering deep into the woods? I plan to keep the door to the run open whenever they are on free-range so they can always access the coop for food, water or safety, is that a good idea?

Here's a picture of my yankee swamp cooler that I use for the coop on days over 90 degrees. I open the vent in the back and place a small bowl of ice behind the clip-on fan that I use inside the coop. It drops the temperature 5 degrees during the heat of the day.

 

[Sage874]

now that swamp cooler thing is brilliant

 

[perchie.girl]

My goal is to have 6-8 adult hens in our 40 sq. ft. coop. After Friday we will have fourteen 4-week-old keets that I hope to raise until late winter in the coop and then find new homes for the roosters leaving 6-8 hens; does this sound like a good plan or am I setting myself for failure/disappointment?

Since they moved from the brooder to the coop a week ago they have been pushing all of the straw to one end of the coop. The more straw I add the more they move. It seems as though they want one end of the coop floor uncovered with straw. Has anyone else experienced this and am I doing something wrong?

Guinea males and females pair off. So you are ok with keeping a higher male to female ratio. During the spring its a hoot to watch the Cocks show off for the Hens. They will run in single file with their wings stretched up and back to make themselves bigger. Oh yes there will be feather pulling but no one on one Cock fights. They do the same thing in masse when they attack a predator too. Plus if you are going to free range the males will help protect the females

I have had five Guinea Cocks escort a coyote off my property charging and threatining it the whole way. The Coyote would turn back and look as it was running off as if to say .... "This aint Right"

WRT the straw they may be looking for a place to dust bathe..... Put a tub of sand in for them.... Its HILARIOUS....

Here's a picture of my coop and covered run. My plan is to keep them in the coop until 8 weeks old (end of September) and then give them some outside exposure in the covered run until they are 12 week old (end of October) and then begin to introduce them to free-ranging. I'm planning to release about half the flock for a few hours a day and then call them back with the bell that I've been using everytime that I give them white millet. My ultimate goal is to have them free-ranging during the day and roost overnight in the safe coop.

Ok your setup is good for chickens but Guineas want to roost high. I have my roosts up at about six feet only because of the limitations of my own structures. So If you can get some high roosts in there this will be a good thing. Mine shoot up straight to the roosts with little flapping. AND run along them.

Half the flock may work but it may just have half on the outside wanting in and half on the inside wanting out.... Play that by ear. Probably a good way to introduce them to the outside.

Your plan of the feed bell is excellent. White millet is like crak to them. But they also go for COB..... which is cheaper (corn oats barley) you can buy it wet or dry. COB wet has molassis added to it Non sweet.... a by product of the sugar making process. I use dry because it keeps longer.

I also fed my Chickens and Guineas a leafy flake of Alfalfa about once a week.... Oh My GAWD such happiness.

deb

 

[bestgear]

September 9, 2013
Our keets were born 34 days and 2 hours ago and they have forever changed our life but I know I'm simply writing the thoughts of the millions of guinea owners that will read this (lol). In all seriousness if your reading this and are thinking about guineas for the first time I highly recommend it. So we made the hard decision to divide our flock due to the size limitations of our coop but our decision was made somewhat easier knowing the family and situation where they were going. On Friday August 30th we gave up 17 keets to become residents of a family farm in West Virginia to be raised along with 45 hens and 1 rooster which now leaves us with 14 keets with a planned final cull of males ones we are able to sex them.

Our guineas are doing very well including "little" who is no longer any different in size than her brothers and sisters. They were out of sorts for the remainder of the day that the flock was divided but a couple of grasshoppers and some green grass got them working as a flock again. The past week they really bonded as a flock and as a reward they were cut loose from their coop into the attached covered run. Here's some pictures of their first adventure outdoors (sorry for the funny angles):


On The Lookout



Our First Dust Bath



Sun-bathing Beauties



Who will win the watchdog battle?

Keeping the temperature of the coop moderated continues to be the biggest challenge. My goal is to keep it as cool as possible during the sunlight hours and not have it drop below 75 overnight. So far our coldest night has been 52 degrees and the coop was a comfortable 72 degrees with all windows and vents closed and the 250W heat lamp 30" off the floor of the coop. If we get a really cold evening in the next few weeks I may consider lowering the heat lamp another 6" but I'm worried about kicked-up straw catching fire on the lamp housing and then dropping to the coop floor, disaster. Working the fan, windows and fans collectively has been the answer to moderating temperatures.

A few new additions have made their way to the coop:
1). a wireless thermometer mounted near the floor adjacent to where the heat lamp shines. This allows me to monitor the coop temperature knowing that the keets could get a bit warmer directly under the heat lamp.

2). 2 new roosting rails both higher than the ones previously shown. So far only the third rail (sorry, transportation humor) has been occupied but the fourth rail is pretty high for the size of the guineas at this point.

3). an Internet camera that allows me to monitor the coop 24/7 with pan/tilt/zoom. I will be adding sound in the next 30-days. If you have interest in seeing the Internet camera, private message me and I will give you the visitor login and password. Now that the keets are outside using the run I guess a second camera may be in the works, stay tuned for that (assuming I can get it past the guinea budget committee)!

4). a 4" brass bell mounted to the coop that we ring loudly and call out "Guineas Want Some Seed?" when we give them their while millet treat.

and many other simple alterations like a man-door shield to defend against the keets rushing the door and a coop thermometer that the camera can zoom in on so I can monitor the temperature from anywhere in the world. I'm working on a plan to take the coop off the local power grid using solar energy, I'm sure I'm not the first to think of that.

But I still have a few questions about guinea health and wellness that hoping some kind reader can assist. Basically, what should I be looking for and how often should I be looking? I've heard about worms and worming but I'm not really sure what to look for and how to treat it. I've also heard about foot and leg disorders but again I'm clueless about treatments. Is there a good book that I could read or a forum on this site that might give me the information that I need at this point without becoming a vet?

 

[perchie.girl]

Beautiful happy looking Tweenagers.... LOL.

Just a question.... why are you going to cull males?

deb

 

[bestgear]

Good question about why are we culling males. So our original guinea objective was to help with insect control (mainly ticks - 2 family members had Lyme disease) with weed control and edible eggs being a great bonus. We got into this knowing that we would not eat our guineas and we prefered not to raise more keets beyond our initial flock if we could prevent it. Is there a way that we could keep our boys and not have to worry about cracking open a fertilized egg too?

 

[perchie.girl]

Do you have a problem eating fertilized eggs? When collected daily you cant tell they are fertile unless you know what to look for. And you don't have to let anyone know if they have an issue.... LOL.

How to tell a fertile vs infertile egg

They don't develop unless a hen broods them and for Guineas that takes 28 days. But if you keep the guineas in till all the egg laying is done before sending them out to free range you can collect the eggs minimizing the chances of a hen going broody. They go by clock work too. So once you determine an approximate time they lay their eggs you can work the free range schedual from then.

The other deal with Guineas and eggs is Depending on your seasons they only lay eggs for about four months out of the year. Also Guinea Hens are notoriously bad at raising clutches of keets. They refuse to use nest boxes so you will find eggs scattered about in the coop..... I swear they lay them then play football with em.

So even if you dont have any males at all then its possible a hen would go broody out in the field or woods somewhere and you would loose her to predators. Another good reason to collect the eggs before allowing them out.

deb