Guinea show!

Actually, we hatched them in an incubator...when we let them in with the rest of the flock...they just took to her...and she to them...(she wasn't even old enough to lay eggs yet either) LOL
 
I wish I had pics of my old guniea hens. I have had it all just about when it comes to fowl, and guinea are one of my favorites, but you know how they say good fences = good neighbors, well bad guineas = bad neighbors so they had to go
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My journey started when Boot's mother, Fruit Cake, started to lay, I was extremely excited when I found the nest and decided to incubate some of the eggs. So into the old homemade incubator four eggs went, followed the next day by three more. I can't remember how it happened but I ended up with fourteen eggs in my homemade incubator by the time I got my shop bought incubator (along with a dozen Light Sussex eggs). Two weeks later, Fruit Cake’s sister-Flower got killed by a snake. The next day, Fruit Cake’s partner- Fred and Flower’s partner- Bark started fighting over Fruit Cake, the last female. They were fighting to kill. So we decided that one of the boys had to go. The most aggressive, Fred was chosen and taken to a friend who wanted more guinea fowls. Bark and Fruit Cake partnered up and I started incubating three of their eggs. Two weeks later the Light Sussex and four guinea fowls hatched out. All I wanted was a silver. And all I got was pearls. Day after day I would sit by the incubator with my face pressed up against it watching, waiting for a silver and getting nothing but pearls. By the end I had given up on getting a silver and didn't take much notice when the last three hatched out, expecting there to be only pearls. When I came back to the incubator a few hours later, what should be sitting there but a tiny silver keet! Out of the three, I got a silver, a pearl and a pied, it was so fantastic! When they had dried I took them out of the incubator and put them in a brooder of their own. I discovered that two of them had curled toes. So I set out on another challenge... putting little boots on them. It took around six tries to successfully get one boot on. The attempts got less and by the end the two keets were shoed in three hours and I was an expert, nearly. This is how Boots got her name. Her siblings where named Grosby and Tiger.
Boots was the odd one out in her little group but the others didn’t seem to notice, I was glad. Only a week ago we moved both of the groups into their newly built coop. The first older group consisting of five chickens and two guinea fowl ( I had sold the others ) and the second younger group of nine guinea fowl. They seemed to be fine, just a little afraid of their new home, so not taking much notice of their coop mates.
The next morning when I checked on them they were all happy, having settled in nicely to their new home. All except Boots, who was sitting on the window sill. A few minutes later I discovered why. When she flew down all the chickens and the two older guinea fowl started to attack her, chasing her around and pecking her. The two older guinea fowl were the worst, they would grab her feathers and not let go, swinging her around. I was extremely saddened by this and tried to think of ways to put an end to the meanness. But I only came up with one solution-separating her. I knew she would not like to be separated, so we could only leave her there and hope that the others would eventually stop.
This morning I was extremely happy to find Boots on the floor when I entered the coop. The others still pick on her from time to time but not nearly as much. We are hoping to sell all of the guinea fowl, except for Tiger, Grosby and of course, Boots!


Boots at two weeks old.

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Boots on the window sill.

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Boots, Isn't she cute.

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