Guinea hatched 14 keets and is on the move!

[kmwsbabe]

We've been through this before....generally mama ends up with one lone surviving keet. So.....

we left her with 3, and removed the rest to a brooding pen.

They are one day old, we think.

Thing is, they are just NON STOP calling for her. ZOINKS!

They are drinking a little, but hardly eating, if at all.

We've tried both game starter and even finely chopped egg.

Any suggestions?

Oh, there's not really an effective way to pen her and the keets. The tractor is in use by ducklings. The rabbit cage is being used by baby chicks. And the only other brooder is pretty small. Maybe a foot and a half tall, 4 feet by 2 feet. She would fit in there, but would be pretty confined. I think we could catch her, though, if we put her keets in the hen house. I'm sure we could get her in there, and then catch her. We can't really just keep them in the henhouse, though. We didn't build it with any type of enclosure inside of it.

Ok, NOW any ideas?????

 

[austinhart123]

i would give the keets to mom and maybe keep her in the small brooder till u have a better idea like a shed or somethin

 

[kmwsbabe]

Ok, that's what I did. Out of sheer desperation, lol. The poor keets were just hollering to high heaven. So, I took them out to the henhouse, which lured the mom in. I put them in the little brooder, with the door open. Maybe I can catch mama in there later, and shut the door on it. But for now, the whole henhouse is shut with them all inside.

 

[turnerstar31]

You really need to pen her up at least for a week or two till the keets can keep up. I have lost quite a few keets because of not being able to catch the mom and she takes off with them and they just can not keep up with her when they are really young. Good luck with them and that is a pretty good hatch. What colors did u get?

 

[kmwsbabe]

I'm pretty sure they are Pearl, Buff Dundottes, and maybe a couple of lavender (hopefully)!

Sadly, one of the three that were tagging along with her into the henhouse was plowed by another adult, and I guess it's neck was broken. It died within about a minute.

So, yeah....I feel really relieved with them penned.

Thanks for the help!

****now to get the mama to go into the pen with them. *sigh*

 

[turnerstar31]

Nice color assortment I have lavenders and just got some whites. They are pretty cool birds. Honestly if you can not get her penned no biggy you really are better off to raise them yourself. Good luck with them.