Broke down and added new hen

[melroseladi]

I picked up my new hen yesterday and noticed she has white wing feathers and her wattles are flatter and closer to her head. My hen's wattles look like the males, dangling and cupped, but not nearly as big as the males. Is she a different type of guinea, she looks like my pearls other then the white feathers and wattles. What would her keets look like if bred with my pearls? Will the keets also have the white wing feathers?

 

[PeepsCA]

The new Hen has normal wattles (and correct, according to the "Guinea Standards" description), cupped dangling wattles aren't the norm for Hens. Some of her keets will probably have white wing feathers, and the female keets may or may not inherit her flat wattles. And if she is carrying recessive genes of other colors, you could end up with some new colors hatching out, but the majority of your keets should be Pearl Greys.

 

[melroseladi]

Thanks for the info peepsCA. I read what people say about the hens and my original hen certainly isn't like the way they seem to be described. She is not the noisy one at all, she is very mellow, easily handled and petted. Now the new hen is much more vocal but that could be because she is in a new place and doesn't know which dogs, kids, adults, are supposed to be around, and she has always been allowed to free range.

I have her in a big cage in the run with the other guineas. My flock leader, Rocky, who is not very nice, keeps pecking her cage trying to peck her. My other cock, Bob, is much nicer, less aggressive, and seems to be my first hen's mate. I was hoping that Rocky would take to the new hen in the hope that he would stop being so aggressive to Bob, pulling out his feathers, and chasing him up into trees when I let the two of them out to free range.

My hen did finally start laying her eggs in the nest though, which is a good thing. I did see Bob go into the nest and cover the eggs with pieces of hay, picking up each piece of hay one at a time and laying it over the eggs. She now has 9 eggs in the nest but so far no sign of her wanting to sit on them yet.

I love, love, love my guineas, with all their quirks and annoyances. They have been such a learning experience for me and I spend as much time with them as I can. Now if I could just get Rocky to understand that I am the leader and not him, things would be much more peaceful for the other guineas.

 

[PeepsCA]

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Me too!!!

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Maybe it's Rocky that needs to be caged for a while, it might knock his attitude down a peg or 2! I'm dealing with 2 ding dong Royal Purple brothers that peck each other bloody all of a sudden over the last 2 days. Neither one gives in until they hurt each other bad enough that one finally backs down

I've caged the most injured one and smeared neosporin on his helmet and nostrils so he can heal, (the smaller of the 2 of course), but after he recovers... I'm caging his bully brother. He'll have to make a choice, tone it down or end up on craigslist. And he better choose quickly, lol

 

[melroseladi]

Thank you so much for that bit of advice PeepsCA. I would never have thought of that. I think I will try that when I bring the new hen out. That just might be the trick. The man that I got them from came to visit them yesterday, (he has visitation rights), and he told me that Rocky has always been "bossy" from the start. He ripped off part of his helmet and broke his beak fighting with his cage, thus the name Rocky. He "minds" me pretty good but he has charged and flown up at people he doesn't know. I think that maybe, just maybe, caging him up while the rest of the flock are free in the run just might do the trick. While he is aggressive and can be a pain, he has so much character and spunk and is really fun to watch. He charges, fluffs up his feathers, then stops on a dime....ooops it's only a leaf.