how many guineas make a happy flock?

[naturespace]

Thanks everyone.

Tomorrow is the big day. We are going to pick up 6 guineas from a guy who is about 45 minutes away. They are around 7-4 months old and slate in color. We just got the coop and run finished. I plan on keeping them penned for at least 6 weeks, so they know where home is. I even got them some white millet.

 

[PeepsCA]

Ooooh Slates! Congrats, please post pics!!!

 

[Kevin565]

Congrats on the guineas

. Please keep us updated

 

[naturespace]

Got our Guineas! I said they were going to be slate, but that's because that's what he wrote on Craigslist... I think they are Coral Blue. Take a look and tell me what you think.

the new coop and run

Everyone - so far, I figured out there are 4 boys and 1 girl. One of them isn't feeling too well after the trip. It just sits in the sun with it's head under it's wing. It ate alittle, but I'm not sure if it's going to be ok.

 

[cgmccary]

Beautiful birds & good pictures. I have five that look like that & I call mine Lavenders.

Check out this site: http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/colors/

What was interesting with mine was that I begin with 14 which were mostly Pearl, a few Pied (Silver-Wings) and one White. Their offspring were all over the place: Pearl, Pied (with some Buonapartes (Pied with the location of the white patches on the breasts), Lavenders and the occasional Royal Blue (so I figured a recessive gene is carried by a lot of my Pearls). One thing I noticed was that my lavender keets seemed to be weaker in the first couple of days & I lost a few before owning up to this fact [I couldn't leave them with mother hens as they weren't hardy enough early -- they were dropping like flies.] Once past about a week old, they are as strong as their clutch-mates

I have 34 all together but I have a lone female Guinea that was raised with chicks, and she wants to stay with her pullet sisters and gets along fine penned with them. What I like about her is she protects the pullets when I occasionally let them outdoors (against the other Guineas, the rogue rooster, etc.)

 

[PeepsCA]

Yep... they are Coral Blues

(One of my my FAVS!) They will be gorgeous birds when they mature and feather out to adult plumage

Congrats again and best of luck with them. Looks like an excellent, safe, secure pen for them too, major kudos to you for all the hard work! And your property looks like Guinea Heaven too! What Lucky Birds!!!

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
I SO love varied hatches... it's like Christmas with every harch, lol.

Did you mean you get the occasional Royal Purples or Coral Blues in your hatches? 2 different colors.

Interesting that you mention your lavenders being less hearty than the rest... I have seen quite a few other breeders mention this too. I've never had a problem with any of my Lavender (or Lite Lavender) keets being any less hearty than any other color... the one thing I have noticed about them tho is that they have some major LUNGS (loud peepers) compared to the rest of their hatchmates, lol. Maybe it depends on the genetics, and the breeding stock that hatched them

 

[cgmccary]

PeepsCA: Did you mean you get the occasional Royal Purples or Coral Blues in your hatches? 2 different colors.

Yes, what I meant. What I cannot discern is the difference in a "Coral Blue" and a "Lavender." What say you? I thought the Coral Blues lack most of the spot underneath while the Lavenders have spots, lightly underneath== mine have some spots but they are very, very light.​

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
Yes, what I meant. What I cannot discern is the difference in a "Coral Blue" and a "Lavender." What say you? I thought the Coral Blues lack most of the spot underneath while the Lavenders have spots, lightly underneath== mine have some spots but they are very, very light.

Coral Blues do lack pearling over their entire body (they have barring on the wings and pearling in the flank area when they mature):

And Lavenders definitely have pearling over their entire body, (except usually not on their neck and part of their back area where the neck blends into the back):

(Sorry the blue colors are so different, these pics were taken at different times of the year and the lighting was way different each time).

The head stripes/markings on keets help to ID them when they are still young enough to have down and visible stripes/markings... (a wide solid stripe in the middle with a couple sets of narrow stripes on each side of the wide stripe indicatee a fully pearled bird, while squiggly/broken narrow stripes indicate a partially pearled bird).

But as they get older, start losing the down and are feathering out is when it gets confusing unless you are used to seeing the differences. The Coral Blues have quite a bit of pearling when they are still feathering out, like naturespace's do (but it's adolescent pearling, larger and different shaped pearls, not the fine, even pearling)... it will take them at least one more molt to lose their adolescent pearling and finally feather out with just the barring on the wings, some flank pearling... and the variegated, almost lace looking but not pearled feathers on their backs. It's the same with the Pearl Grey keets and Royal Purple keets, Buff Dundottes and Buffs, and Chocolates and Browns... it's very common for fully pearled and partially pearled birds (that are in the same color shade) to look really similar to each other until feather out into their mature feathers (this of course applies to other colors too, I was just using these colors as some of the most common examples of fully pearled and partially pearled birds).

Hope that helps!

 

[cgmccary]

Thank You PeepsCA! That is about as clear as anyone can explain and show. Those are some great pictures. OK, I know now that my five are LAVENDERS (from how they look now and how they looked as keets). I love all the different colors. Those Coral Blues are really beautiful. What a color!

I know Guineas aren't for everyone, but I have to say, "I love mine." BYC is the only place that I have been able to get real good information on Guineas & about 90% of that comes from you, Peeps. I read all your posts on Guineas & find that I am educating people who obtain Guineas from me. Again, thank you for explaining & showing.