Advice please! One guinea keet left…

[NewtonZapple]

Hi, A couple of years ago I raised 7 guinea keeets with 100% success. Recently I decided to let one of my broody hens raise four of her own.

I know Guineas don’t make great parents, but each day I wake to a new dead baby and now I just have one left. Her “nursery” is fine and she stays with them, so I don’t know exactly what she is doing wrong.

My question (s) for this group is this: should I step in and take over raising this one keet or do I just let nature take its course? If I do, should I order some new ones so that he/she isn’t raised alone? Also, (if I do) will the mother/rest of the flock accept it later if it is raised separately in a brooder vs mama?

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Hi, A couple of years ago I raised 7 guinea keeets with 100% success. Recently I decided to let one of my broody hens raise four of her own.

I know Guineas don’t make great parents, but each day I wake to a new dead baby and now I just have one left. Her “nursery” is fine and she stays with them, so I don’t know exactly what she is doing wrong.

My question (s) for this group is this: should I step in and take over raising this one keet or do I just let nature take its course? If I do, should I order some new ones so that he/she isn’t raised alone? Also, (if I do) will the mother/rest of the flock accept it later if it is raised separately in a brooder vs mama?

If you take the keet it would be best to add more keets as keets need companionship. How old is the keet? I’m wondering if they could have coccidiosis? Or maybe another bird in the flock is attacking the keets? I would think that if your hen was killing them, she would kill all in a short time, not one person day, but it’s possible she is directly killing them in an odd way. My separated Guinea hens will sometime get nutty trying to get back to the flock, so she could be trampling the babies. Tough decision to make!

 

[Sydney65]

If you take the keet it would be best to add more keets as keets need companionship. How old is the keet? I’m wondering if they could have coccidiosis? Or maybe another bird in the flock is attacking the keets? I would think that if your hen was killing them, she would kill all in a short time, not one person day, but it’s possible she is directly killing them in an odd way. My separated Guinea hens will sometime get nutty trying to get back to the flock, so she could be trampling the babies. Tough decision to make!

I'm pretty sure Numi was stepping on hers. She lost 5, I think, one a night.

 

[BauerWFarm]

If you take the keet it would be best to add more keets as keets need companionship. How old is the keet? I’m wondering if they could have coccidiosis? Or maybe another bird in the flock is attacking the keets? I would think that if your hen was killing them, she would kill all in a short time, not one person day, but it’s possible she is directly killing them in an odd way. My separated Guinea hens will sometime get nutty trying to get back to the flock, so she could be trampling the babies. Tough decision to make!

We would place a whole nest into an incubator because we have found nests of 60+ eggs and like three hens on top… it’s humorous….. after they hatched I believe we may of waited 1 week before letting them join what ever chics popped on their own and were accepted by the flock…. It’s definitely easier once there is an established free range flock based on what I am doing trying to establish them on the property.