Guinea behavior

[Sydney65]

For awhile I thought Brodie was picking on one particular keet, bc the keet would let out blood curdling screams. When I'd look, the keet would be running in between Brodie's feet and under him, but Brodie wasn't reacting.
Further watching assured me that Brodie wasn't picking on it. The little Dummy just randomly hops up and decides to do this routine, crouched down under the body & between the legs, blood curdling screech.
I'm in the process of sexing them, but some are able to kick off their little leg bands. I can sit and stare and them and figure it out but hadn't committed it to memory yet.
Anyway, *I think* this is a male, so is this some sort of sparing game? I've not seen this before. He's lucky Brodie claims him. Mia would stomp on him.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

For awhile I thought Brodie was picking on one particular keet, bc the keet would let out blood curdling screams. When I'd look, the keet would be running in between Brodie's feet and under him, but Brodie wasn't reacting.
Further watching assured me that Brodie wasn't picking on it. The little Dummy just randomly hops up and decides to do this routine, crouched down under the body & between the legs, blood curdling screech.
I'm in the process of sexing them, but some are able to kick off their little leg bands. I can sit and stare and them and figure it out but hadn't committed it to memory yet.
Anyway, *I think* this is a male, so is this some sort of sparing game? I've not seen this before. He's lucky Brodie claims him. Mia would stomp on him.

I wonder if he is ducking under Brodie when scared? Have you seen guineas get under their aggressor to try to appease it and limit the aggressor’s ability to peck them?

 

[Sydney65]

I wonder if he is ducking under Brodie when scared? Have you seen guineas get under their aggressor to try to appease it and limit the aggressor’s ability to peck them?

I understand what you're referring to, but Bro will be out in the run oblivious, Little Dummy in the coop, & suddenly thump thump thump (feet running on floor of coop) screeetch and dive. Brodie just looks down at him like
I don't have them comingle w/Mia much bc he has zero patience w/them & they usually take cover from him, but I'll watch to see if LD does it to Mia. None of the others do itm they just get out of the way. Lol..and when Brodie sleeps in the jumbo coop, when I open the door to let Littles out, they go running to jumbo door..they're version of jumping on the bed screaming, "Daddy Wake Up!"

 

[Sydney65]

LD cont. with his routine. I finally sat w/them for awhile just listening bc I was hearing so much buckwheating that I wondered if LD was the only male.
My chocolate, Mochie, I'll have to get pics of. Turns out Mochie is quite female.

The blonde is male, Little Dummy. I swear I'll try to come up w/something better, but their names are just popping up from their characteristics, and -well-
One slate is unnamed and male. I know the sort of name I want for him, just haven't thought of it.
Little Blue is stuck with hers.
Both violets are females, one named Gabby and the other unnamed. Gabby has that pretty single white flight feather.
The other slate is unidentified, it's very quiet on it's own.
It seems like I notice a change in their coloring every day. Mochie I wonder abt bc R2 thought it a male d/t the light coloring. So if it's a light colored female, is she really a chocolate- or will she get darker as she grows?
The "blonde" is a color I don't quite get. He had tan markings as a keet.,now the LD is always so dirty I have no idea what color he is. Lol. Not "duck" white.
As always their quirky behavior and inquisitive looks as if I'M the goofball are daily distractions.
Numi remains on her nest. She comes out in the evening to eat, drink,evacuate, and have her chin rubbed. Mama wanted to "help" one day, punctured an egg and then roosted ontop of Numi. - I don't think those 2 will ever truly be "friends".
It's funny how Brodie has become the calm "family man" & my sweet Mia has become a PIA. Every season is different.

 

[R2elk]

It was guinea wars here yesterday. The alphas got deposed last month. Looked like they were making a come back yesterday. They were so intent on their war that the males were attacking each other right in front of me. On Chocolate male was wearing a lot of blood that did not appear to be his. The Coral Blue cock that staged the first revolt was wearing a lot of blood that was coming from his head.

 

[Sydney65]

It was guinea wars here yesterday. The alphas got deposed last month. Looked like they were making a come back yesterday. They were so intent on their war that the males were attacking each other right in front of me. On Chocolate male was wearing a lot of blood that did not appear to be his. The Coral Blue cock that staged the first revolt was wearing a lot of blood that was coming from his head.

Is your coral ok? The quiet slate took a hit last week and had a lot of blood. Obviously a very vascular area, bc once cleaned up, it was superficial. Mia and Brodie don't really fight, just a lot of posturing.

 

[R2elk]

Is your coral ok? The quiet slate took a hit last week and had a lot of blood. Obviously a very vascular area, bc once cleaned up, it was superficial. Mia and Brodie don't really fight, just a lot of posturing.

Blood was all dried up this morning. Haven't heard any commotion today but I've been inside mostly.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

LD cont. with his routine. I finally sat w/them for awhile just listening bc I was hearing so much buckwheating that I wondered if LD was the only male.
My chocolate, Mochie, I'll have to get pics of. Turns out Mochie is quite female.

The blonde is male, Little Dummy. I swear I'll try to come up w/something better, but their names are just popping up from their characteristics, and -well-
One slate is unnamed and male. I know the sort of name I want for him, just haven't thought of it.
Little Blue is stuck with hers.
Both violets are females, one named Gabby and the other unnamed. Gabby has that pretty single white flight feather.
The other slate is unidentified, it's very quiet on it's own.
It seems like I notice a change in their coloring every day. Mochie I wonder abt bc R2 thought it a male d/t the light coloring. So if it's a light colored female, is she really a chocolate- or will she get darker as she grows?
The "blonde" is a color I don't quite get. He had tan markings as a keet.,now the LD is always so dirty I have no idea what color he is. Lol. Not "duck" white.
As always their quirky behavior and inquisitive looks as if I'M the goofball are daily distractions.
Numi remains on her nest. She comes out in the evening to eat, drink,evacuate, and have her chin rubbed. Mama wanted to "help" one day, punctured an egg and then roosted ontop of Numi. - I don't think those 2 will ever truly be "friends".
It's funny how Brodie has become the calm "family man" & my sweet Mia has become a PIA. Every season is different.

I love the name Mochie! More pics are definitely in order!!! Is Numi on real eggs? When will they hatch? When I went out of town last week, I left six eggs for the hens to incubate in the coop nest. My chickens haven’t been laying much due to our crazy hot summer, so I’ve been selling Guinea eggs for table eggs. Wouldn’t you know I came back to a fridge full of Guinea eggs and only FIVE marked Guinea eggs on the nest! I candled all collected Guinea eggs and found the partially incubated egg. TG I didn’t sell it to my customer to eat! I was very happy with my pet sitter but that was too close… I stuck the egg in the incubator but don’t have much hope it didn’t die on the fridge.

Anyway, now THREE hens are broody on the five eggs!I haven’t had much luck with communal nests so that’s not what I wanted to happen…

In other news, I have kept the guineas and all birds locked up for two weeks due to a bobcat that grabbed two guineas and a rooster. The guineas were taken while I was out of town, and I thought they were broody on a wild nest, so I didn’t lock them up until I saw the rooster taken a few days after my return. Goodbye to Violet and Surplice, my first violet Guinea and my only pinto! I loved them both but I really had a soft spot for Surplice. I wish I had gotten video of the hilarious way she took mealworms from my hand! She loved the mealworms but was scared of me, so she’d get all ruffled up like a threatened broody hen and then stalk towards my hand and grab some treats, threatening me the whole time. It really was incredibly cute. I also lost my favorite roo, really the only one that I liked, a salmon faverolle that I’ve had for three years. He was also super cute and would flirt with me and make the cutest little noises. I’m going to really miss that bird! Guineas were let out yesterday so that the bastard bobcat has moved on!

 

[Sydney65]

I love the name Mochie! More pics are definitely in order!!! Is Numi on real eggs? When will they hatch? When I went out of town last week, I left six eggs for the hens to incubate in the coop nest. My chickens haven’t been laying much due to our crazy hot summer, so I’ve been selling Guinea eggs for table eggs. Wouldn’t you know I came back to a fridge full of Guinea eggs and only FIVE marked Guinea eggs on the nest! I candled all collected Guinea eggs and found the partially incubated egg. TG I didn’t sell it to my customer to eat! I was very happy with my pet sitter but that was too close… I stuck the egg in the incubator but don’t have much hope it didn’t die on the fridge.

Anyway, now THREE hens are broody on the five eggs!I haven’t had much luck with communal nests so that’s not what I wanted to happen…

In other news, I have kept the guineas and all birds locked up for two weeks due to a bobcat that grabbed two guineas and a rooster. The guineas were taken while I was out of town, and I thought they were broody on a wild nest, so I didn’t lock them up until I saw the rooster taken a few days after my return. Goodbye to Violet and Surplice, my first violet Guinea and my only pinto! I loved them both but I really had a soft spot for Surplice. I wish I had gotten video of the hilarious way she took mealworms from my hand! She loved the mealworms but was scared of me, so she’d get all ruffled up like a threatened broody hen and then stalk towards my hand and grab some treats, threatening me the whole time. It really was incredibly cute. I also lost my favorite roo, really the only one that I liked, a salmon faverolle that I’ve had for three years. He was also super cute and would flirt with me and make the cutest little noises. I’m going to really miss that bird! Guineas were let out yesterday so that the bastard bobcat has moved on!

So..yeah, I just teared up. I'm sorry that happened. I've enjoyed watching those two grow up and the color variations.Surplice black on white was stunning from the get go, and Violet's patchwork.
I think Numi has about 2 weeks left? I marked it from the day she actually stayed on it all day/night. She didn't come off at all today, or atleast if she did, she didn't make a deposit, bc I've removed one of those every day except today (NOW I understand what ya'll were talking about. Thank goodness she doesn't do it in the nest.) Ofcourse she can't run off to the field to keep it far from the nest like Mama did, so she waits until I open up then goes over to the jumbo coop to leave her package.
I've been letting mine out when I'm w/them. We haven't had anything in the traps lately- a lot of babies this yr- and it's a bean year so no corn, but I'm still having flash backs of the killing field. I'll be happy if the Littles learn to stay in the garden until next mating season. My 1st crew always stayed over in the flower garden until the hormones kicked in.
I did separate the unidentified slate today and confirmed he's a male. Yes, I do need to get pics. I know it's been said that it's hard to id keets in the inbetween stage, but after sitting with them today & then going back over GF pics and my order list...
Mochie has the creamy tan/brown ,not as brown as Bella was. But she's also fully dotted.
LD had the tan markings on his back and rear as a keetand the rest was white...honestly he just looks like a dirty white bird now.
I may have forgotten what we decided, there were 2 that looked alike except one's skull cap was darker- so I'm not sure if we decided 2 slates or one slate, one pewter. They look similar except one seems more faded gray. Both still have a lot of rust in them.
The violets are gorgeous. I'll miss their dark faces when the headcaps come in. The unnamed I'm debating on, bc you had Violet and my Grandmother was Viola, so I considered Vi. Her sister is Gabby,and everytime Gabby gets started,the other chimes in, so considering Echo as well.
I had forgotten what it was like to have 7 juveniles flying at you at once. Lol

 

[Sydney65]

Ok, Little Houdinnis removed their leg bands, so lets see if I can get through this (zip ties coming up.)
So this is Mochie,female,fully dotted. Still chocolate?
Lil Blue, for the moment, female, CB. She had me baffled bc her head said CB but she sure looked Lav. But her blue is coming up, and she's getting that swirly finger painting affect on the front.
Still LD, for the moment, male. Supposed to be blonde. Think I have a close up that shows very faint tan streeks. That big blob is the two "slates"(?) Both male. Next pic shows them not conjoined.
Ld,the slates, and the 2 female violets. The one on the end is Gabby.

Gabby
Mochie
Little Blue
The coop (tarps take away appeal, but necessary for the moment)
I thought I got a close up of LD. He must of walked away at the last moment.