color question again.

[PeepsCA]

JLeigh is correct about what Pied means. It's any amount of white chest feathers and white flights on a colored Guinea. It can vary from just a small random scattering of white chest feathers and a couple of white flight feathers, to a full on big beautiful white chest and fully white wings (50% or more of the bird can be white)... and there are even Pintos which have just a strip of color down their backs, the rest of the bird is pure White.

Guineas are seasonal layers, meaning they normally lay Spring thru Fall every season. Typically they usually start laying their first eggs early the following Spring after the year they were hatched, (so if they were hatched in June or July of 2013 you'd most likely see your first eggs from the Hens anywhere from Feb to Early May 2014), and then they will lay all the way until Fall (if the eggs are collected). Sometimes Guinea Hens that are hatched earlier in the season may lay a few eggs before the season is over for the year, and some may get confused and lay a few random eggs during the Winter even, lol, especially if their coop is cozy and they have some kind of light in there. (They are sexually mature as early as 14-15 wks, tho 16 wks old is the average age they can start laying). Once the daylight hours shorten and temps cool off for the year in the Fall the Hens molt and stop laying until they start again next Spring.

HTH

And no problem about identifying your Royal Purple Hen... Guinea Fowl (and keet) ID'ing is one of my fav things to help out with

 

[Naturegirl44]

thanks so much Peeps. You have been incredibly helpful!!!

 

[rivkas]

Though are some beautiful birds!!!! I can't wait to have more varieties and a buff dundotte is my DREAM. I also love the look of the blues -- we'll see how long it takes me to get to where you are Peeps

Ok -- I've been reading like crazy and checking charts and I'd like some confirmation about if I'm right about some colors

I got 3 guineas, 2 females, 1 male -- all pied pearl grays (I *think*... they are almost black feathered but around their necks looks purple-y, is this normal?). One female disappeared so these keets are from the same parents.


I've got a 2 week old pied pearled lavendar (among his hatchmates that died (don't know why...urgh) were pied pearl gray and whites and another lavendar (either less pied or non pied? not sure). He's easy, the one on the left, at day old (battery was for size, lol):


Now two weeks later, the next hatch has non-stripey chicks that survived (6 or 7 whites or striped died as they were hatching, wish I knew why, again, ugh!)
2 whites, easy. 2 brownish, not so easy for me Mr. Two weeker is in the middle obviously

My best guess is one violet and one slate OR two violets. The white is definitely on the wings of one and not sure on the other.

The second white that is in a measuring cup here was babied along with sugar water and now is fluffy and fine, he scared me for a day though
The toys are from my kids. When the 2 week old was alone, he would lay with the chicken toy with a wing around it. We did the best we could to provide company for him Wish we could've found a chick to keep him company but he seems no worse for it, he's socializing just fine with these youngers, not pecking or anything

Anyways, I hope I'm not bothering anyone adding it to this thread, I thought about starting a new one but decided to just jump in here to discuss Thanks!!

 

[kfacres]

no violets in there. you've 99.9 percent have keets of the same color of the parents, can't really tell, but I would say lavender on the ones you think violet. The white comes from the two pied being bred together.

is the 3rd pied, or fully pearled?

Though are some beautiful birds!!!! I can't wait to have more varieties and a buff dundotte is my DREAM. I also love the look of the blues -- we'll see how long it takes me to get to where you are Peeps

Ok -- I've been reading like crazy and checking charts and I'd like some confirmation about if I'm right about some colors

I got 3 guineas, 2 females, 1 male -- all pied pearl grays (I *think*... they are almost black feathered but around their necks looks purple-y, is this normal?). One female disappeared so these keets are from the same parents.


I've got a 2 week old pied pearled lavendar (among his hatchmates that died (don't know why...urgh) were pied pearl gray and whites and another lavendar (either less pied or non pied? not sure). He's easy, the one on the left, at day old (battery was for size, lol):


Now two weeks later, the next hatch has non-stripey chicks that survived (6 or 7 whites or striped died as they were hatching, wish I knew why, again, ugh!)
2 whites, easy. 2 brownish, not so easy for me Mr. Two weeker is in the middle obviously

My best guess is one violet and one slate OR two violets. The white is definitely on the wings of one and not sure on the other.

The second white that is in a measuring cup here was babied along with sugar water and now is fluffy and fine, he scared me for a day though
The toys are from my kids. When the 2 week old was alone, he would lay with the chicken toy with a wing around it. We did the best we could to provide company for him Wish we could've found a chick to keep him company but he seems no worse for it, he's socializing just fine with these youngers, not pecking or anything

Anyways, I hope I'm not bothering anyone adding it to this thread, I thought about starting a new one but decided to just jump in here to discuss Thanks!!

 

[rivkas]

I'm having trouble following, forgive me...
The first picture is the parents. (The third bird disappeared.)
The second picture is the first hatch -- only the lavendar pied on the left survived. Am I wrong about this color? He's 2 weeks old in the third picture.
The third picture is my first and second hatches together -- one 2 weeker lavendar pied, two whites, and two brownish.
I'll add another picture of the two browner ones also, just took it.


They don't seemed to me to be very stripey on their heads. Doesn't that make them slate or violet or something? And one appears to be pied and the other not so much. Is this the instance listed on the color chart about a solid widow's peak making pearling also? Under bright daylight plus flash, in this picture, you can see the faintest dark line on the right one but it's not visible when looking at him in just daylight, oddly enough. I won't be disappointed no matter what, I'm just glad some lived! But these seem to me, very different colored than the ones from hatch 1 that were pearl gray pieds.

 

[PeepsCA]

I'm having trouble following, forgive me...
The first picture is the parents. (The third bird disappeared.)
The second picture is the first hatch -- only the lavendar pied on the left survived. Am I wrong about this color? He's 2 weeks old in the third picture.
The third picture is my first and second hatches together -- one 2 weeker lavendar pied, two whites, and two brownish.
I'll add another picture of the two browner ones also, just took it.


They don't seemed to me to be very stripey on their heads. Doesn't that make them slate or violet or something? And one appears to be pied and the other not so much. Is this the instance listed on the color chart about a solid widow's peak making pearling also? Under bright daylight plus flash, in this picture, you can see the faintest dark line on the right one but it's not visible when looking at him in just daylight, oddly enough. I won't be disappointed no matter what, I'm just glad some lived! But these seem to me, very different colored than the ones from hatch 1 that were pearl gray pieds.

Hi rivkas, welcome to the thread

, we don't mind you jumping in, especially when you post pics

Yes your 2wk old keet is a Pied Lavender (as was it's hatch-mate that didn't make it, that one looked less Pied tho).

The purple-ish solid bib around the neck on your trio of adults is normal for Pied and regular Pearl Greys... tho more and more now we are seeing a lot of Pied Pearl Greys (and other Pied fully-pearled colors) hatch out keets with blended down that mature to have pearing all the way up the neck).

In your most recent pic it looks to me that you have a Slate keet on the right (might be slightly Pied, but I can't tell from that angle) and a Pied Violet keet on the left... or possibly Pied Slate ( I say possible Slate because it's almost a little too dark to be a Violet, but it may just be the lighting). It has a widow's peak because it's a Pied keet. Anything I've ever hatched out with a widow's peak (or have seen hatched out by other breeders) ALWAYS grows white flights and chest feathers, and is Pied. The narrower the strip of head markings a keet has, the heavier Pied it ends up feathering out as.


It is a little odd that you hatched these 2 keets (plus the Pied Lavender keets) from Pied Pearl Grey parents (since Pearl Grey is always so dominant), but your adults must all have some well hidden recessive genes to hatch out such a variety/mix of keets. That's more than anyone could hope for, so consider yourself lucky! It took me quite a few yrs to establish my list of colors that I now breed and hatch... plus several different coops/pens and free ranging pastures to keep certain colors out of the different breeding mixes so I could hatch out other colors it was hoping to hatch. It's a never ending addiction, and I see the bug has bitten you too, lol.

I'm not sure you if know this or not but newly hatched keets really should not be raised on newspaper... it's too slippery and they can slip and injure their hip sockets or hock joints really easily, then you have splayed leg issues or slipped tendon issues to fix (of possible), and if the injuries are not caught in time you have disabled birds that may end up needing to be put down if it's not corrected right away (if i can be corrected that is, not all injuries are fixable). So it's really important to provide them with good traction/footing for the first week or so, until their joins and bones harden up a little and are less fragile/prone to injury. If you can get to a dollar store, or even walmart and pick up some rubberized shelf liner to put over the newspaper for the next few days, or even use some old towels with no loose strings for them to attack/eat for their bedding that would be much better for them. After a few days of that I usually use straw or grass hay without any seeds, leaves or grains in it for their bedding, and it works pretty good. I try to avoid using shavings until they are 10 days to 2 wks old, and then I make sure to buy/use the large flake shavings, not the fine fluffy stuff... keets can be obsessive little shaving eaters, get impacted and die from that. I've also been using pine pellet bedding lately, tho with as active as the keets are they break it down into sawdust pretty fast.

Anyway, hope I answered your questions.
Congrats and good luck with your pretty babies!

 

[PeepsCA]

Oh and how long ago did your 2nd Hen disappear? If it's been 4wks or less, she may be hunkered down on a clutch of eggs somewhere, well hidden... and may show back up with a colorful brood of keets in tow!

 

[rivkas]

Hi rivkas, welcome to the thread

, we don't mind you jumping in, especially when you post pics

Yes your 2wk old keet is a Pied Lavender (as was it's hatch-mate that didn't make it, that one looked less Pied tho).

The purple-ish solid bib around the neck on your trio of adults is normal for Pied and regular Pearl Greys... tho more and more now we are seeing a lot of Pied Pearl Greys (and other Pied fully-pearled colors) hatch out keets with blended down that mature to have pearing all the way up the neck).

In your most recent pic it looks to me that you have a Slate keet on the right (might be slightly Pied, but I can't tell from that angle) and a Pied Violet keet on the left... or possibly Pied Slate ( I say possible Slate because it's almost a little too dark to be a Violet, but it may just be the lighting). It has a widow's peak because it's a Pied keet. Anything I've ever hatched out with a widow's peak (or have seen hatched out by other breeders) ALWAYS grows white flights and chest feathers, and is Pied. The narrower the strip of head markings a keet has, the heavier Pied it ends up feathering out as.


It is a little odd that you hatched these 2 keets (plus the Pied Lavender keets) from Pied Pearl Grey parents (since Pearl Grey is always so dominant), but your adults must all have some well hidden recessive genes to hatch out such a variety/mix of keets. That's more than anyone could hope for, so consider yourself lucky! It took me quite a few yrs to establish my list of colors that I now breed and hatch... plus several different coops/pens and free ranging pastures to keep certain colors out of the different breeding mixes so I could hatch out other colors it was hoping to hatch. It's a never ending addiction, and I see the bug has bitten you too, lol.

I'm not sure you if know this or not but newly hatched keets really should not be raised on newspaper... it's too slippery and they can slip and injure their hip sockets or hock joints really easily, then you have splayed leg issues or slipped tendon issues to fix (of possible), and if the injuries are not caught in time you have disabled birds that may end up needing to be put down if it's not corrected right away (if i can be corrected that is, not all injuries are fixable). So it's really important to provide them with good traction/footing for the first week or so, until their joins and bones harden up a little and are less fragile/prone to injury. If you can get to a dollar store, or even walmart and pick up some rubberized shelf liner to put over the newspaper for the next few days, or even use some old towels with no loose strings for them to attack/eat for their bedding that would be much better for them. After a few days of that I usually use straw or grass hay without any seeds, leaves or grains in it for their bedding, and it works pretty good. I try to avoid using shavings until they are 10 days to 2 wks old, and then I make sure to buy/use the large flake shavings, not the fine fluffy stuff... keets can be obsessive little shaving eaters, get impacted and die from that. I've also been using pine pellet bedding lately, tho with as active as the keets are they break it down into sawdust pretty fast.

Anyway, hope I answered your questions.
Congrats and good luck with your pretty babies!

I did NOT know that about the newspaper... I just ran in there and added a towel. There's so much to learn! We got chickens and guineas this spring, I had never been around either, ever before! (One of our chicks was splay legged but he wasn't hatched here.) I hope that's not why one of the whites died last night. They were all on wire for the first 2 days in the incubator except that one, I moved him before he fluffed, he was weak to begin with and the last keet in there I hate not knowing why they die... they seem so fragile. But you're right, I'm clearly bitten and I hope that I'll be understanding them better and better soon. And hopefully I can set up breeding cages someday or convince the hen to lay in the coop next year, somehow -- I'd love for her to do the incubating! I ended up doing these eggs because she went broody in the woods on the same night as a rain storm. (The first set of 7 eggs were ones she laid in the coop and then kicked out, they were yucky poopy, weren't gonna eat em, decided to incubate, second set of 20 was from the woods). I was lucky I found her eggs! After they go broody but break like that, do they take a break from laying like chickens? 2 weeks give or take for hormones to reset?

I'm excited I got so many colors! I hope they'll survive winter and be girls so I'll have even more eggs next year The little slate guy has white on his belly and under chin but none on wings or top of his head, so maybe pied... maybe not... we'll see THANKS so much for your help with colors!

Oh and how long ago did your 2nd Hen disappear? If it's been 4wks or less, she may be hunkered down on a clutch of eggs somewhere, well hidden... and may show back up with a colorful brood of keets in tow!

She disappeared about 2 weeks after their 3 week sequester after they arrived. That was in April? We searched for her hoping she was laying but never found a feather. They had stayed out that night and only the 2 returned -- and they came from across the pond! I think she was going to her old "home" and they followed her partway but returned. They were both yearlings, while she was 2 or 3. The yearling female didn't start laying until about a month later.

 

[PeepsCA]

Glad you got the newspaper issue corrected. I always feel like such a harpy nag when I have to let people know that's not good for the keets (I made the same mistake my very first year with hatching keets and ended up with a few with splayed legs that I had to fix, so I try to prevent it for everybody else, if I can). Seems raising Guineas (or poultry in general) is always a lesson in progress tho, no matter how new or old you/we are to the experience. I am still constantly learning something new, daily. But when you kinda jump in feet first you just do the best you can for the birds, research like crazy and get all of the dos and don'ts figured out along the way. I literally started from scratch when a friend gave me 7 young gangly Guineas for snake control after 3 of my dogs were bitten by one little tyrant of a baby rattle snake the first summer after I moved here, and then my adorable little Buckskin filly got bitten in the nose the following Spring by an adult rattle snake... I was ready to move until I got the Guineas, lol. Needless to say it's been all downhill (but NO snakes) for me from there on, lol. There have been a few major potholes and/or speed bumps here and there along the way of course tho...

Yikes, your second Hen's been missing since April... so it's not looking too hopeful that she is sitting on eggs or will ever return (she probably did wander off looking for her original flock/home). BUT looking on the bright side, that means you have an AMAZING pair of Pied Pearl Greys with LOTS of goodies in their genetic make-up bag, because they hatched out some gorgeous keets for you. I am not a huge fan of dominant gened birds in my breeding flocks because I love to see lots of assorted (recessive) colors/varieties in my hatches, but with all the hidden genes your 2 birds are obviously carrying (and their offspring are also now carrying) you are golden for next season.

Keep those 2 under lock and key, and those babies too, lol.

And yes, after a week or so break from being broody there's still plenty of this year's laying/breeding season left, so it is most likely that your Hen will lay again, soon. My flocks will typically still breed and the Hens will continue to lay eggs all the way thru late August or mid Sept, depending on how bad the heat is here. Once it gets too hot, for too long they give it up and decide to be lazy in the shade until it's time to molt tho, lol (and I cannot blame them one bit!).

 

[rivkas]

Well I'm hoping for at least one more batch of eggs but I can't find any. Her broody break was a month ago. I found one lone egg by a tree. Then tracked her to a new nest with three eggs and she hasn't laid there since (even though I didn't look at her and walked away immediately and didn't touch a thing! just came back later to peek and then a week later peeked again and only 3 still!). I'm thinking there's a dozen out there somewhere It's been cool up here already and I don't know how long they lay into fall up in the north here.

We only have garter snakes here... we got the guineas for ticks. We've got lyme bad around here and my older kids had it as babies/toddlers. I didn't want my youngest to get it this year and thank goodness, so far, so good. We would pull a dozen off ourselves last year and 2 dozen off the dog, in one day out walking. With the guineas, the dogs are nearly clean and we've only had one or two ticks at a time out romping. It's really amazing!!
I have seen the guineas go after smaller snakes but not the bigger ones yet And I wish they went after chipmunks too, we've got a major problems with them

Thanks so much for your wisdom!

I'm so excited to have guineas now, I can't imagine not having them!