Baby Keets - resting?

[vicknick]

I should have looked! I actually put my other chickens in the tractor so the broody hen had the whole coop and run to herself - and I never looked for broody poops (facepalm) I just noticed that there were many days when she didn't touch the food or water - that's when I started waiting on her hand and foot, lol. I even went and picked her blackberries for a treat! LOL!! She did a good job of hatching them, even if she did turn against them when they hatched. No one was badly hurt, and alls well that ends well.

On another note, whenever I or my kid pick up a baby to snuggle it, the baby tunnels in behind my hair, and snuggles behind my neck - it's the cutest thing. One of the babies likes us better than he likes the other babies, and will stand on top of the house, hopping up and down trying to see us, yelling at the top of its lungs until one of us picks it up to snuggle it. He's the only one who was injured by chicken-mama, and has a big patch of blu-kote on the side of his face so it's easy to identify him. (Mama picked him up by the head in her beak and tossed him!! He got a bloody scratch on the side of his head, but once I blu-kote'd it, he has been fine. He was the first baby we pulled, thinking maybe it was just him she was going to reject, but no, she went on to reject 3 more before I just went ahead and stole them all back from her. Poultry drama never ends, lol!)

 

[R2elk]

I should have looked! I actually put my other chickens in the tractor so the broody hen had the whole coop and run to herself - and I never looked for broody poops (facepalm) I just noticed that there were many days when she didn't touch the food or water - that's when I started waiting on her hand and foot, lol. I even went and picked her blackberries for a treat! LOL!! She did a good job of hatching them, even if she did turn against them when they hatched. No one was badly hurt, and alls well that ends well.

On another note, whenever I or my kid pick up a baby to snuggle it, the baby tunnels in behind my hair, and snuggles behind my neck - it's the cutest thing. One of the babies likes us better than he likes the other babies, and will stand on top of the house, hopping up and down trying to see us, yelling at the top of its lungs until one of us picks it up to snuggle it. He's the only one who was injured by chicken-mama, and has a big patch of blu-kote on the side of his face so it's easy to identify him. (Mama picked him up by the head in her beak and tossed him!! He got a bloody scratch on the side of his head, but once I blu-kote'd it, he has been fine. He was the first baby we pulled, thinking maybe it was just him she was going to reject, but no, she went on to reject 3 more before I just went ahead and stole them all back from her. Poultry drama never ends, lol!)

I would let the chicken hens hatch the guinea eggs but would not let them brood the keets due to the problems that imprinting can cause. Your hen attacking the keets is an individual trait of hers. My hens never attacked any of the keets or poults i let them hatch.

 

[vicknick]

SO cute!!!!!! I was hoping they'd imprint and would follow her into the coop evenings... Ah well, I'll have to train them myself I guess. LOL

 

[Sydney65]

No one is acting funny anymore - but I've got such a range of ages! 3 newborns from overnight, and 7 from 4 days ago when the hen hatched them out, and a variety in between! Chicken-hatched babies all popped out of their shells at 25 days, and incubator babies came out between 27 and 29 days. I wonder why the chicken-hatched babies baked so much faster!! I'm keeping the newborns separate bc they are so much less coordinated - hard to believe 4 days can make so much difference, but there is a big difference. Hopefully the newborns will catch up quickly, lol - it'll be easier to have them all together!
Out of 14 fertilized eggs (I candled at 2 weeks and chucked all the ones with nothing but clear egg showing) all 14 hatched and are happy babies! 7 under my hen and 7 from my incubator.
Thanks to everyone for all your help - this was my first time, and so nervewracking!

Congrats ! Great job!

 

[Sydney65]

SO cute!!!!!! I was hoping they'd imprint and would follow her into the coop evenings... Ah well, I'll have to train them myself I guess. LOL

Working on that myself. Took them out to the run to play today and one was having no part of it, clinging to me before roosting on my head.

 

[vicknick]

Working on that myself. Took them out to the run to play today and one was having no part of it, clinging to me before roosting on my head.

LOL!!!

 

[vicknick]

So the babies are well - but the one chicken I hatched with the keets goes back and forth between being one of the gang and being ostracized. I’m cuddling him right now because he was sleeping all by himself out in the flight cage! ( I connected a flightcage my kids parrot rejected to the side of their play area so they’d have room to run and flap) I think he gets tired faster than the keets maybe and they just leave him behind. I love the sounds the keets make - my house sounds like a soundscapes thing of birds singing! Tweet tweet chirpchip sooo cute. And boy do they poop a LOT!!! I have a mix of brown striped keets, grey striped keets, and ones with white wings/chest/stripe down sides of head/face -and the ones with grey are half the size of the brown ones. I hope they catch up eventually!!!!
That’s all the update I can think of - love these little guys!!!