I'm the lucky owner of 12 keets!

[Ziegenhof]

Well lucky or unlucky depending on what you think of Guinea's.

So little background, these guys/gals where born the good old fashioned way.

Momma Guinea didn't come home one night and the owner thought she had finally been eaten. She lives way out in the country with nothing but wilderness for miles. Lots of foxes, coyote's, and I'm sure more then a few cougars roam this area.

So Several weeks later she comes waddling home with 24 keets in tow!

Lady promptly gathers them all up and places a classified ad.

So having done my research I thought these guys would be hard to raise and might expire. So instead of just getting 6 like I originally planned, I purchased 12.

Those things are growing like weeds! Healthy wild little boogers! They hate me even though I spent several hours building them a nice big brooder box, feed them turkey starter, and clean their water bottle (little quail size so they didn't drown) several times a day to make sure they stay healthy.

Looks like I have 2 more weeks before they go outside, as their feathers have really filled out over the last couple of weeks. That 2 weeks can't pass fast enough as they are loud and they are in my garage and I can still hear them!

 

[Back2MyRoots]

I am so completely jealous! I want keets! Congrats!

 

[Nike]

I am so completely jealous! I want keets! Congrats!

x2
They are so adorable!

 

[scatteredeggs]

Hi there!

Welcome to the wacky world of guineas. i got 4 guineas last year for tick control altho DH says there's hardly tick in our place - NW washington. i see deer in ourr property and i have a dog and i don't like ticks. guineas are fun. noisy, yes but it's worth it. they forage well. they're alarm sounders. they share a coop and a run of electric fence with my 21 white leghorn layers and 12 indian runner ducks. at dusk, they send out the roll call for coop in and roost up. they send out electrifying alarm when raptors are overheard, thereby calling the attention of my lab-mastiff rescue dog who appointed herself as the livestock guardian dog, which job she does splendidly.

most of all, these guineas lay eggs that when made into a flan or egg custard will get the most raves for being the creamiest and best as attested recently when i brought it to a church summer picnic just last sunday. people who tasted the flan approached me and asked for the secret. i couldn't think of any since it was made the usual way, except that i used free ranged guinea eggs.

just a note regarding taking them out of the brooder - i assume you'll be free ranging them as well. let them imprint in the coop where you expect them to go back to at night. let them stay in for at least one or couple of weeks. let them familiarize with the environment.

this year i hatched keets using an incubator. i had 4 batches. each time there's a hatch, i added it to the brooder so they were different ages. when i thought it was warm enough outside to wean them from the heat lamp, i brought the brooder (a large dog crate) to the chicken run and let them stay there for 3 days. at the end of the third day, i opened the crate and the young guineas ventured outside gingerly, only to be harassed promptly by the older male guinea. they scampered away and i caught the bigger ones and promptly put them back in crate. the smaller ones got out of the electric fence. one finally got back in, stayed close to the crate, but the other one wandered into the bush.

i saw it them following morning, but decided not to catch it hoping it will walk back into the run thru the fence. it did not. i did not know what was the best thing i could have done anyway.

we call them peepers because of their incessant peeping while i was brooding them in a tote in our dining room. and i say they were like CSI agents combing for evidence in the crime scene because they walk in line inch by inch when looking for stuff to pick. they fly out of the run every now and then and can stay outside of it the whole day, when they see me approaching the fence, they will run close to it and expect me to lift the fence so they can go in. sometimes they figure that it is also possible for them to fly in. no matter what, they roost inside the coop with the chickens every single day.