MissTee2373
Hatching
- Feb 15, 2020
- 2
- 3
- 1
Hi, I have very little experience raising guinea fowl, so am wondering if someone could give me some advice. I acquired 3 x 2 week old keets recently & successfully raised them inside until they were 6 weeks old. I then transfered them to a brand new, never before used outdoor pen. I had weaned them off the heat lamp about a week prior & it's mid summer where I live so the night temps are warm, on average around 22 to 25°C. The very next morning one of the keets died. It was very sudden & I couldn't see any obvious injuries, so I have no idea why. They were all strong & healthy the day before. Two weeks later a second keet died, but this time, before it did, I noticed it didn't look well & had marks on its head, so I took it to an animal hospital. They said it was badly injured & that they thought it was hit by a car, which was impossible as I hadn't started allowing them to free range yet, so they had not left their pen. I was baffled & now had only one keet. Being flock animals I had to get at least one more, so I picked up another one today. I kept them separated for a few hours but my original keet was desperate to be in with the new one, so I put them together & all is well so far though the new one is understandably a bit nervous. My original keet is accustomed to free ranging now though, so how long should I wait until I let the new one free range?
sorry for the problems that you have been having with your birds. Guinea fowl tend to be travelers/explorers. I think that I would keep them penned for a couple of weeks until the new bird feels completely at home.
