Guinea keet colors?

[GumCreekGuineas]

Is there cover in your deer pen that they could use to hide from hawks?  Owls are a night predator, as are mostly coons,skunks,ect., so if you teach them to come to a safe coop at night you shouldn't have a lot of problems with them.  During the day they will see the snakes and either avoid or gang up on them, snakes and skunks are going to be more of an egg eater than the actual birds.  If you have no where for them to take cover from predatory birds you will need to run something with them to protect them from the hawks.  I don't know if they will keep separate.  But it sounds like, with a few alterations, you may have come up with a good solution to your tick problem.

There is a lot of cover as far as thick brush, swampy areas, and trees. Then there is also a bit of open pasture type environment where we plant different crops through the year to encourage the foraging of the deer. I could build a secure run for them to roost in, but I was not sure if they would actually utilize it since there are so many other places they would be able to roost and hide. I was not sure if the fence would perhaps deter them from leaving the pen and joining the other flock. I think I read somewhere there can fly between 6 and 10 feet high, so the fence height falls right in the middle of that. What would you run with them to protect them from a hawk?

 

[Starkasm]

You guessed correctly on most of them... good job

#1 Pintos. These cuties will feather out with a LOT of white on them, and most likely the dark areas will feather in as Pearl Grey (which is the most common variation of the Pinto variety so far).
#2 Royal Purples
#3 Lavenders
#4 Buff Dundottes
#5 Coral Blues
#6 Slates
#7 Pearl Greys that are possibly slightly Pied
#8 Pure Whites
#9 Pearl Greys

Okay that was impressive! Can you do me now please I'm pretty clueless. Up until this year we only had pearls.

 

[GumCreekGuineas]

I'm certainly not Peeps (she seems to be a pro) but I did okay with identifying mine. I would say the one on the left looks like a pearl grey, the one on the right a royal purple, and the one in the center at top maybe a lite blue or a coral blue (that one was kind of a shot in the dark). I will be interested to see what Peeps has to say :/

 

[Starkasm]

I'm certainly not Peeps (she seems to be a pro) but I did okay with identifying mine. I would say the one on the left looks like a pearl grey, the one on the right a royal purple, and the one in the center at top maybe a lite blue or a coral blue (that one was kind of a shot in the dark). I will be interested to see what Peeps has to say

That would be good! Was kinda hoping for a Royal

 

[Tacampbell1973]

You guessed correctly on most of them... good job

#1 Pintos. These cuties will feather out with a LOT of white on them, and most likely the dark areas will feather in as Pearl Grey (which is the most common variation of the Pinto variety so far).
#2 Royal Purples
#3 Lavenders
#4 Buff Dundottes
#5 Coral Blues
#6 Slates
#7 Pearl Greys that are possibly slightly Pied
#8 Pure Whites
#9 Pearl Greys

Why don't I see a difference between #7 and #9? They are the keets that most resemble mine, but i know what color the parents are at least what I would call their color. it is sort of a greyish purple almost lavender.....help I don't know how to tell.

 

[GumCreekGuineas]

Why don't I see a difference between #7 and #9? They are the keets that most resemble mine, but i know what color the parents are at least what I would call their color.  it is sort of a greyish purple almost lavender.....help I don't know how to tell.

Hi, sorry I just saw your post. The difference is the keets in #7 have the white on their face and chest where as the keets in #9 have more of a buff colored face and chest. As they are feathering out the ones in #7 have retained their white chests, but they are not fully feathered yet. I can post updated pics if you would like, they are a little over four weeks old now.
Your keets parents may be lavenders or another color but from my understanding most guineas have some pearl grey in their background and it is a dominant color. So they could have hatched out pearl grey keets. I am by no means an expert on guineas or their genetics but peepsca has some pretty detailed posts regarding it. I have just done some reading on it as I plan to breed some of my flock and let the others free range.
This is one of the threads I read that explains a little of it, the genetic discussion starts around post #27 https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/716392/color-question-again/20
Hope this helps

 

[Tacampbell1973]

Hi, sorry I just saw your post. The difference is the keets in #7 have the white on their face and chest where as the keets in #9 have more of a buff colored face and chest. As they are feathering out the ones in #7 have retained their white chests, but they are not fully feathered yet. I can post updated pics if you would like, they are a little over four weeks old now.
Your keets parents may be lavenders or another color but from my understanding most guineas have some pearl grey in their background and it is a dominant color. So they could have hatched out pearl grey keets. I am by no means an expert on guineas or their genetics but peepsca has some pretty detailed posts regarding it. I have just done some reading on it as I plan to breed some of my flock and let the others free range.
This is one of the threads I read that explains a little of it, the genetic discussion starts around post #27 https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/716392/color-question-again/20
Hope this helps

Thank you, it does. They are growing up so fast. I have handled them from day one but they dont'seem to like me except for food. They act like Im trying to kill them or something. My husband says they probably won't be lap-pets like my chickens, but I still have hope. Thank you again.

 

[GumCreekGuineas]

Thank you, it does. They are growing up so fast. I have handled them from day one but they dont'seem to like me except for food. They act like Im trying to kill them or something. My husband says they probably won't be lap-pets like my chickens, but I still have hope. Thank you again.

You are very welcome, I am still learning myself so anytime I think I can help out I try! If it make you feel any better mine all hate me too, I think it is a guinea thing and maybe they will get friendlier as they get older idunnoI hope). I have also handled mine from day one but I don't think they even like me for food, they all run to the other side of the brooder and like you said act like I'm trying to kill them. At this point I kind of feel like it stresses them out more for me to try to handle them daily. I am envious of the poster, I think the thread was called friendly guineas, there is a pic of three guineas sitting in her husband's lap. At this point, I don't think mine will ever be that friendly. I will be lucky if I can get them in the coop at night once they are old enough to free range.

 

[Starkasm]

Thank you, it does. They are growing up so fast. I have handled them from day one but they dont'seem to like me except for food. They act like Im trying to kill them or something. My husband says they probably won't be lap-pets like my chickens, but I still have hope. Thank you again.

They will if you want them to be. When we got our original 3 guinea keets, my mom said these are wild birds, they'll never be as tame as the chickens. I heard a challenge...
Well having a, then 4 yr old, raise them was all it took. She carried them, played in their pen with them. As keets they would hide under her bum when she stooped down.
Since she has made the others just as friendly. She can still walk over and pick up the adults. They come when she screams "Bee awwk, Bee awwk Bee awwk" across the pasture, like Mama is calling.
My sister has been taking daily pumpkin pics..each day with a different animal, for her fb page. My daughter brought her 3 month old guinea up to get it's picture taken. She had it pose then it just followed her around my sister's yard. And yes she sits in her lap too! They can be very tame!

 

[Tacampbell1973]

They will if you want them to be. When we got our original 3 guinea keets, my mom said these are wild birds, they'll never be as tame as the chickens. I heard a challenge...
Well having a, then 4 yr old, raise them was all it took. She carried them, played in their pen with them. As keets they would hide under her bum when she stooped down.
Since she has made the others just as friendly. She can still walk over and pick up the adults. They come when she screams "Bee awwk, Bee awwk Bee awwk" across the pasture, like Mama is calling.
My sister has been taking daily pumpkin pics..each day with a different animal, for her fb page. My daughter brought her 3 month old guinea up to get it's picture taken. She had it pose then it just followed her around my sister's yard. And yes she sits in her lap too! They can be very tame!

I want mine to do this, but they act like Im killing them when I pick one up to put him back in the pen withhis bretheren. They are stilll small enough to squeeze out the holes in the chicken wire when they have a mind to. maybe because there are 11 they are still more interested in each other. Althoughlike all of my chickens, they go bezerk over meal worms, so i guess when i have money i will have to get another bag and work with them some more,. they eat them out of my hand. seems like when its their choice to come to me their fine, but if i try to capture one they panic.come to think on it, my chickens are the same way, they eat meall worrms and hot dog chunks out of my hand, but i go to pick one up and they freak. there must besomething to this, sorry about all the typos and uncaps,just waking up