Guinea Advice

[txcarl1258]

They might be able to make it up the plank, but I would keep an eye on them to make sure they make it. Congrats on a another baby. Hopefully the other 3 will hatch I am surprised she is still sitting on the eggs

 

[KAZROB]

Hi there, well just as you said you are surprised she is sitting on the eggs, today is the first day that she has decided not to sit, so I am suspecting the others are not viable, I did find one in the middle of the hut? I will wait a day or two or do you think I should just take them away? I am never sure about this....The same with my duck, she hasn't sat on her eggs today, but I took her eggs away, as one had hatched and had the duckling in it and it was so stinky, so I decided to freshen it all up and make it nicer for them.....As for the plank, I will have to see how they go, I figure they can wait a few more days it is Wednesday early evening here and I am working Thursday and Friday so I will spend the weekend getting them out and watching them, do you think this may be too soon, but I am sure mum will be wanting to take them on some kind of adventure...I just hope they stick with mum and don't get lost, they are sooooo tiny.....I may consider making a closed off run area for them just to give them some time out... I put mum out each day and she only stays away long enough to do a poop and then back in! I sit and watch so the babies do not follow, as I am worried they may fall out of the hut.... Thanks txcarl258.....

 

[txcarl1258]

I would take the eggs away since they haven't hatched yet. It is likely they won't hatch. As far as letting them out on adventures if you can keep them in a confined area that would be best for the first few weeks. Most chicken hens are excellent mothers. Sounds like you have a lot of babies running around! Sounds like me two years ago when I had 45 baby muscovy ducks! Be on the lookout for the other guinea hen to go broody as well it seems like it's that time of year.

 

[KAZROB]

OH NO, I so hope she doesn't go broody, I will have to take her eggs away and how sad is that! I am going to keep all my new keets and of course the 2 adult ones I have, but I don't think I could have anymore than that.....I have 9 ducklings at the moment, plus the two mums and my drake, along with my hens and teo roosters, so I need to stop having babies.....I let them be mothers as I thought I should, but now I have all the little munchkins and wont give them up, I need to not have anymore lol lol, in saying this, is it cruel NOT to let them become mums? Or do they get over it in time? I just find it disheartening when they sit and nothing transpires, my mum duck whom has the 7 ducklings had this issue and soon after not one egg hatching, she started collecting all over again and I felt I needed to allow her to become a mum....

WOW 45 baby muscovies...wow...I have Muscovy ducks and just love them, but I only had two and the drake, now as you know that has increased...I think what am I going to do with all these ducks...I suppose they will hopefully live a long and healthy life with us!

One other thing, I took my foster mum out of her hut and put the baby keets out for about 20 mins today and just stayed with them...mum did not take them far, they just hung around the hut and then we have had such a change of weather from fires and extreme heat to wearing a coat and scarf today, so babies did not want to be out to long, they were all trying to hide under mum for warmth and as she does she just sat on all 7! So they had a little time out under strict supervision....

Kaz

 

[txcarl1258]

Well I only had 3 muscovy hens! Each ran off
and hid their nests and came back with 15! Muscovies think they need to repopulate the earth! It isn't cruel to not let them brood, but you have to watch for hidden nests. The more times you break up their nests the sneaker they get about hidin them! My girls nested inside a huge wood pile. I couldn't get to them so I had no choice but to wait for them to emerge with the babies.

 

[KAZROB]

Hi There,

Well it is a week tomorrow since my keets started to hatch, it has completed and I have 7 keets...I have put some pic up, but I am wondering do I need to take my Keets to the VETS and get them vaccinated for anything? Do I need to supplement with anything? They range from 5-7 days old as of tomorrow being (Sunday) here in Australia

 

[txcarl1258]

Nope no vaccines needed. Keets are very hardy once they get past the baby stage. So glad you were able to get 7 babies. That's great results considering the circumstances.

 

[KAZROB]

Thanks txcarl1258, I feel very fortunate to get 7 keets and they appear to be doing well....they are away from most of the other birds, and they have been out today for quite awhile. Mum took them for a dirt bath and a big scratch around. I didn't get to spend to much time with them although they were being supervised. I was busy tackling a redmite issue out in our paddock coop! I have never had them before and no matter what, even after spraying twice this week, they are still there.....Its just awful and I try and do the right thing on a daily basis... I am so glad that this mum that is fostering has not been out in the paddock as she had 2 babies a couple of months ago and then gave them the cold shoulder and went broody, so they have been in the back yard.....the two she had are with another mum and her baby who is a few months old, I haven't integrated them as yet and I am so glad I didn't!. Anyway as I have food around, there appears to be a lot of other regular, wild birds around and more than likely they have brought in the red mite..Well that is what someone told us?

I clean their coop out daily and refresh and then monthly it gets a good clean out and a complete refresh I attend to the birds often, but I have them! Recently also I have lost 3 birds with similar symptoms, but nothing I can put my finger on...one was so ill I moved her into another section of the yard into a nice dogs kennel away from the others....she just lost so much weight, but was still trying to eat and was drinking, but she just didn't get there, well we put her out of her misery today. My beautiful rooster called Ringo, just stopped crowing, wasn't interested in his ladies anymore, but was still eating and drinking, but then I went out and he was just laying next to the waterer and just had no life in him, it was really sad as he was beautiful and was a fabulous rooster, anyway I am not sure what is going on. Now tonight one of my girls in the back yard, didn't seem to be herself, she had a baby almost 3 months ago,. At fisr I moved her into my backyard as she appeared not well, she had what seemed to be a cough which was in conjunction with moving her head, I say appears as I am not sure, she just make a raspy sound, I think cough like, possible sneeze? Anyway, then she just became broody so I let her sit on three eggs and we got one baby.......Well today she is back to that, I will go and buy some basil and feed it to her, as one of them have eaten all my basil out of the herb garden LOL....I read that this helps...I feed her some cat food tonight and she loved it, she is still eating and drinking, but not her perky self, just wondering around at a slow leisure....I really do not know what is going on, now she too has not been out in the paddock with the other for awhile and she did start laying a while ago, but has not laid an egg for a few weeks now, just like the mum that went broody, she hadn't laid for a bit, but she was broody, she is the one on the Keets...Ia m not sure what to do as Cocoa, shares a hut with the three younger ones and I hope she is not contagious, as I have run out of huts to put her in, we are in the midst of building another one, I suppose I could put her in the dog kennel in my other yard, but I though she may get more stressed......I suppose the long and the short of it all is do you have any ideas?????? it is really hard this end with worry at the moment and I would hate for the keets to have a problem, as they did share the yard a little earlier today, but then I put them back in an area of their own, with their foster mum, but they all had a lovely scratch around together for a little while, but not too close....

 

[KAZROB]

Excuse the grammar and typo's

 

[DufferChick]

@KAZROB: how are your keets faring? Are they still staying with the hen? I have 8 keets, which are about a week old, in a brooder pen. The keets seem so vulnerable at this stage.

Feeding them crumbled hard boiled eggs with chick feed right now. I offered them fermented chick feed yesterday.. They gobbled it up, not leaving a speck! They hardly touch the dry feed.
Next week I will need to make a larger pen with a cover. I understand that they can fly at two weeks.