Chicken hatched guineas 10 weeks ago

[Anita Scott]

My last couple of guinea nests had been hit and lost both moms. I had the good eggs under a couple of broody hens with golf balls under the guinea moms. I pretty much write off a guinea hen when she goes broody. A few times I had one return injured and they ended up dying anyways.
My first 2 chicken hens hatched out a couple of dozen keets and were very proud moms. Every few days we would have 1 less until there were none. The chickens were great moms, but keets seem to get lost or eaten easily. I have had a guinea mom take care of a keet and after about a week she lost it too.
The 3rd chicken went broody and hatched out 12 keets in the middle of September. She is still caring for the 3 that have survived. They roost with my turkeys at night. They sit on the roost either beside her, under her or on top. Occasionally one of the other mothers helps keep the babies warm at night. For some reason these 10 week old keets are no bigger than 5 week old keets, but are feathered and getting their spots. They still follow mom everywhere.
Has anyone had a chicken stay with her babies for this length of time? Usually my chickens want to get back to the flock ASAP. I had one chicken go about 5 weeks before.

 

[R2elk]

My last couple of guinea nests had been hit and lost both moms. I had the good eggs under a couple of broody hens with golf balls under the guinea moms. I pretty much write off a guinea hen when she goes broody. A few times I had one return injured and they ended up dying anyways.
My first 2 chicken hens hatched out a couple of dozen keets and were very proud moms. Every few days we would have 1 less until there were none. The chickens were great moms, but keets seem to get lost or eaten easily. I have had a guinea mom take care of a keet and after about a week she lost it too.
The 3rd chicken went broody and hatched out 12 keets in the middle of September. She is still caring for the 3 that have survived. They roost with my turkeys at night. They sit on the roost either beside her, under her or on top. Occasionally one of the other mothers helps keep the babies warm at night. For some reason these 10 week old keets are no bigger than 5 week old keets, but are feathered and getting their spots. They still follow mom everywhere.
Has anyone had a chicken stay with her babies for this length of time? Usually my chickens want to get back to the flock ASAP. I had one chicken go about 5 weeks before.

When I have a chicken hatch guinea eggs I remove the keets from the hen as soon as they are dry and move them to a brooder. There are just too many things that can go wrong with the tiny keets when they are in the general population. I get nearly 100% survival if I put them in the brooder.

I also don't like to have my keets imprinted by the chicken hen since the imprinting can cause problems later when they are mature.

 

[Anita Scott]

I have 25 adult guineas, mostly from this year's hatches. I was down to a couple of males, when my last 2 hens went broody. Every Jan I have around 25-30 guineas and end up with a new flock each year, thanks to my incubator and brooder. I do need to get ahold of someone and exchange some males to get some new blood in the flock.
I really didn't want a lot more going into winter, especially over 30. My experience with the chicken hens is the same as my experience with a guinea hen. Either way we loose the keets. This one still has mini guineas at 10 weeks.
The difference is that I kept this hen in the brooder box for the full 5 weeks. I only took her out because I had a turkey starting to lay in October, and mimicked her nest with dry leaves. She would go to the garage and beg to come in to lay in the brooder box. The box is about 3x4x3. She would come in, lay her egg and then go back out to the flock.