Sorry, long post I know, but please bear with me...
We got our first Guineas 3 years ago. We lost a bunch of them, but ended up with 1 male and 6 females. Summer 2009 a few of the hens hatched out keets, but they each lost all of them within a week or less of hatching. So we had to find and collect up a couple nests of eggs and put them in the incubator to hatch. Then we raised the keets and released them. Summer 2010, a few of the hens hatched out some more keets, and so we immediately collected them up and raised them, knowing that they'd otherwise die. Fast-forward to June 2011. "Dunya" is setting on 19 eggs. 17 hatch. We collect them up and raise them. Then a couple weeks ago Dunya hatched out another 10 keets. At this point I was sick of raising any more chicks or keets. So I thought I'd try letting her raise them. I figured that if any survived they would be really valuable... Extremely hardy, great foragers, great with predators, etc.
Dunya has 3 males and another female helping her protect the babies. And boy do they take there jobs seriously! I tried to count the keets a few days ago and got attacked whenever I got within ten feet or so of the babies. And not just by Dunya, but by the males too. In the tall grass, dodging air-born angry Guineas, it was impossible to count the babies.
And impossible to get any good pictures of the babies. But this morning I was finally able to get a head count with the binoculars through the living room window while they were crossing a gravel road. And wouldn't you know it, she's still got all 10 of them!!! I was shocked, because our Guineas are pretty well feral. They just roam around eating lot's of ticks and bugs. They roost in the trees or the rafters of our barn. Or in Dunya's case, somewhere on the ground (which will hopefully change as soon as the babies can start flying).
I'm just so shocked though, after reading about and experiencing how bad of mommas Guineas are. I'm definitely keeping that first batch of Dunya's babies! Hopefully she'll have a daughter or two that are just like her!
The only things I can think of that are different from prior years is that Dunya is "Royal Purple." She's the only RP Guinea we've ever had. Do RPs make better moms? We also now have 6 males and 8 females. Maybe having a higher percentage of males helps? Back when we only had 1 male he was only interested in breeding/hanging out with the laying females. But now there's maybe some "extra" males? Or maybe Dunya is just a much better mom than average?
I'm just so excited at the possibility of never having to raise keets again!
We got our first Guineas 3 years ago. We lost a bunch of them, but ended up with 1 male and 6 females. Summer 2009 a few of the hens hatched out keets, but they each lost all of them within a week or less of hatching. So we had to find and collect up a couple nests of eggs and put them in the incubator to hatch. Then we raised the keets and released them. Summer 2010, a few of the hens hatched out some more keets, and so we immediately collected them up and raised them, knowing that they'd otherwise die. Fast-forward to June 2011. "Dunya" is setting on 19 eggs. 17 hatch. We collect them up and raise them. Then a couple weeks ago Dunya hatched out another 10 keets. At this point I was sick of raising any more chicks or keets. So I thought I'd try letting her raise them. I figured that if any survived they would be really valuable... Extremely hardy, great foragers, great with predators, etc.
Dunya has 3 males and another female helping her protect the babies. And boy do they take there jobs seriously! I tried to count the keets a few days ago and got attacked whenever I got within ten feet or so of the babies. And not just by Dunya, but by the males too. In the tall grass, dodging air-born angry Guineas, it was impossible to count the babies.
I'm just so shocked though, after reading about and experiencing how bad of mommas Guineas are. I'm definitely keeping that first batch of Dunya's babies! Hopefully she'll have a daughter or two that are just like her!
The only things I can think of that are different from prior years is that Dunya is "Royal Purple." She's the only RP Guinea we've ever had. Do RPs make better moms? We also now have 6 males and 8 females. Maybe having a higher percentage of males helps? Back when we only had 1 male he was only interested in breeding/hanging out with the laying females. But now there's maybe some "extra" males? Or maybe Dunya is just a much better mom than average?
I'm just so excited at the possibility of never having to raise keets again!
