How To Keep Keets Clean?

[R2elk]

oooh you have chickens! do you have chicks? throwing them together is a big confidence booster for the guineas. it only works if they're similar in size though...eitherway, I'm sure they'll mimic the older guineas when they grow up, so I wouldn't be too worried!

I do not recommend brooding chicks and keets together due to the issues that imprinting causes later on. It is best to let the keets grow up as guineas.

 

[newb1rdmom]

When they become adults, the imprinting has removed their ability to understand that chickens aren't guineas. The problem usually appears during the first breeding season when the guineas go nuts with their races and chases including the attacks from behind with the feather pulling and feather breaking. Other poultry do not understand this behavior and can become very stressed. Other poultry do not know how to show submissiveness to the attacking guineas which makes the situation worse.

oh wow i didn’t know that! i’ll keep a note of that as well for future reference if i happen to get more chicks and keets. if i were to raise them together would you suggest separating them before the breeding season? currently all our adult guineas are free range and only our chickens are kept in a coop/fenced area so once the keets were old enough they would be separated anyways but would breeding season come before they’re old enough to be released to the rest of the flock?

 

[R2elk]

Oh my. I live in Texas so would they probably start around the fall this year? They only just hatched a few weeks ago though would it really happen so soon?

It is possible but not guaranteed. I know people that have had young of the year guineas in Texas, that have temporarily laid eggs in November and December.

 

[My2butterflies]

I live up in Minnesota and the guineas I got in May started laying eggs in early September of the same year. They stopped laying in February and started back up late March I think it was.
I had a light in their coop on a timer through the winter.

 

[R2elk]

Do you think it’s harmful at all to give the extra light in the shorter months?
I don’t open the coop door when the temps drop below zero, so we didn’t want to make them live in such dim light from the windows.

I don't know. My coop has a huge skylight. I also open the guinea door daily and let them choose whether or not to venture out. They seem to venture out for a little every day.

 

[R2elk]

Thats.. scary to think about That feels so soon! Will they lay only if they’re in like a well insulated coop? Around the 6 month mark is when you can start letting them out right? If they’re out free ranging will they still lay eggs or only if they stay in the coop?

Depending on the weather and time of year, I start letting them out at about 6 weeks.

Whether they are out and about or in a coop doesn't really matter other than you may never find their eggs if they have a hidden nest.

 

[yakitori]

My younger keets are a bit warmer to my hands being inside the box but the older ones are the ones I'm most concerned about. They were store bought so I'm not sure how old they are and I don't know if they're too old to work on building a trust with them or not. I try and be as gentle when I put my hands in their box but it doesn't seem to matter much. The second they even see me open the door to the room they all run into the corner to get away from me and whenever I step near the end they're on (because the smaller ones are in a box next to theirs) they run to the other end. They just seem to want nothing to do with me.

Generally if we were going to keep them in a pen like our chickens I wouldn't worry so much but our adult guineas are free range so I'm nervous that if I don't get a decent trust/bond with these keets whenever we turn them loose to free range with the adults -- when they're of age ofc -- that they may run off and not come back. Hopefully, knowing home is where the food is they won't run off but I'm just worried if they stay scared of me that they will eventually run off somewhere else and then it will have been for nothing.

oooh you have chickens! do you have chicks? throwing them together is a big confidence booster for the guineas. it only works if they're similar in size though...eitherway, I'm sure they'll mimic the older guineas when they grow up, so I wouldn't be too worried!

 

[yakitori]

I do not recommend brooding chicks and keets together due to the issues that imprinting causes later on. It is best to let the keets grow up as guineas.

Oh! good to know! What kind of issue would they have? I think I’ll need to readjust what I’m doing...

 

[R2elk]

oh wow i didn’t know that! i’ll keep a note of that as well for future reference if i happen to get more chicks and keets. if i were to raise them together would you suggest separating them before the breeding season? currently all our adult guineas are free range and only our chickens are kept in a coop/fenced area so once the keets were old enough they would be separated anyways but would breeding season come before they’re old enough to be released to the rest of the flock?

Breeding season is usually the spring after they are hatched. The farther south a person lives, the earlier that breeding season can begin including the fall of the same year they were hatched.

 

[newb1rdmom]

Breeding season is usually the spring after they are hatched. The farther south a person lives, the earlier that breeding season can begin including the fall of the same year they were hatched.

Oh my. I live in Texas so would they probably start around the fall this year? They only just hatched a few weeks ago though would it really happen so soon?