Guess what showed up in the field today?

[BlueShadow]

Did I miss something....??
I wanna laugh too!

@WthrLady lives pretty close to me, but I suspect the laughter is just because its funny... I thought I had lost almost all my guineas and now I have dozens, with dozens more on the way. Sneaky birds!

To be honest though, I have no idea why this nest didn't get raided by predators. It really had minimal cover. The eggs are underneath the tire in the photo, you can just make them out in the photo. No overhead cover and only minimal tall grass around. The only reason I can think that this nest survived is because most of the birds stay on the other side of our property, so predators must search there for birds first.

 

[Kiki]

Pressies never get the easy stuff! They probably thought you set a trap under that tire to catch them. Lol

Thanks for explaining...makes sense why she is laughing now. Lol


Pressies??? Auto correct arghhh
I meant predators!!

 

[BlueShadow]

Funny thing, even though that nest was completely obviously visible, we never found it. I don't go over there often except to mow, but its been so hot and dry I haven't mowed there. And my husband goes by all the time, but he's always in a tractor over there. So we never suspected a nest.

 

[GlennLee]

OH, just got on to read the story and look at your pics. This says it all with guineas. We have our plans and they foil them again and again!

Enjoy those cuties. The keets are just precious and good luck with all the craziness!

 

[Joe Soslick]

I told my husband, you know, I'm kind of tired of the guineas. They are a lot of poop and work and poop and expense and poop and road hazard and poop for their benefit, maybe we should just send those last few to freezer camp this winter.

LOL! SO MUCH POOP.

 

[GlennLee]

ok, but I just added 8 chickens to the flock - 5 Rhode Island Reds and 3 English Orpingtons and by far, the chickens poop more, it's more watery AND they smell more. Give me guinea poop to chicken poop any day. Guess love is blind...

 

[BlueShadow]

ok, but I just added 8 chickens to the flock - 5 Rhode Island Reds and 3 English Orpingtons and by far, the chickens poop more, it's more watery AND they smell more. Give me guinea poop to chicken poop any day. Guess love is blind...

Really? I think the guinea poop smells FAR more. Especially when my little kids fall in it. I would rather clean chicken poop than guinea poop any day. Also, the chicken poop is nicely contained in their coop & run, whereas the guinea poop is all over the yard. Yuck.

 

[BlueShadow]

Well, exactly 1 month ago today I lost my first guinea, went from 16 to 15. At various times in there (not all known to me), I lost 3 more so that 1 week ago today I had 12. Now today I have no more than 9, probably only 8. They've been extremely skittish and hard to count since predator attacks last night claimed at least 3. (SO WEIRD, I would swear the coyotes/foxes and owls were hunting together, I don't know how one predator could leave all the feather trails I found...)

4 hens sitting on nests, due in 1, 2, 3.5, and 4 weeks. We shall see who survives... Fortunately only 1 nest hatching is required to replace my guinea flock (well maybe not the one due in 4 weeks, but any of the others are big enough).

Wait, was I getting rid of the featherbrains? Hmmm...

 

[BlueShadow]

Brood #2 hatched 8/11/2017

20 keets, 19 lavender and 1 pearl grey

We put them in the chicken tractor for the first few days, but mama guinea would not calm down. She kept pacing around, didn't brood them much, and didn't teach them where to eat or drink. Finally I moved her into our indoor pen, which has solid walls. She calmed down in there and is being a good mama.

 

[BlueShadow]

Brood #3 hatched 8/18/2017 Mama is a pearl grey.

Guess I did pretty good candling the eggs, when I said that this brood was a week behind brood #2.

Mama left the nest a bit early, there was one egg that was pipped. I put it in the incubator and a couple hours later, keet #17 entered the world.

They had a BAD night though. I had to put them in the chicken tractor because that was the only available pen I had, and there were storms forecast for the evening. I covered the chicken tractor as best I could with sheets of tin, but the wind, rain, and hail proved to be too much. At some point during the night, presumably when the wind got so strong that rain and hail were blowing sideways, mama guinea got up and moved. When I went out for morning chores, I was devastated to find 10 of the 17 keets laying flat on the ground, soaking wet, and stiff with cold.

I got a bucket and climbed in the pen to pick them up. I was shocked when a couple of them made weak movements when I picked them up, and one even made a quiet peep. I rushed them into the house, glad that I still had the incubator running. I put them in the incubator, went upstairs, and thought about the situation.

They were so cold, I didn't think they could warm up fast enough being held at their body temperature. Plus they were soaking wet... HAIRDRYER! Seriously, it was some kind of miracle to watch 6 of those 10 keets come back to life with the warmth of my hands and the hairdryer. An hour later, they were all bopping around and making my life difficult and jumping out of the incubator while I was trying to give them vitamins. I left them in the incubator all morning and put them back with mama this afternoon. At evening chores, they were all safely snuggled under mama. So 13 of the 17 keets have survived. As long as they keep eating and drinking, I think their prognosis is excellent.