Lyme Disease

[Lexiluke]

Brookhavens, thanks so much for the info and your personal experience. I will look into that book. It will certainly give me something to do while contemplating when to start with keets. My avitar is my 5 year old son who has lost the ability to walk and talk on two separate occasions. He currently is on some heavy duty meds and I am looking forward to the day he can wake up and go to bed without having to take so many meds. Between the 3 of them, they take over 30 different medications for various aspects of lyme.

 

[daylily27]

I am so sorry to hear this! This is such a travesty! Something has to be done about this. I am so sorry for your experience and so much pain.

 

[Lexiluke]

So tomorrow I am picking up 8 keets. A person near me has 5 week olds for sale at a great price so I will be picking them up in the morning. Now to decide if they will eventually live in with my turkeys or if I need to build them their own wnclosure. Any thoughts? My turkey hoop house would be plenty big to house them with my turkeys but I do not know how the two would interact together.

 

[daylily27]

Oh I am so excited for you! I wish I could offer some help in advise about the turkeys but I haven't owned or had much to do with turkeys so I really do not know how they would interact.

I do know that your children and you will be so taken by these unusual birds! Please keep them out of any drafts and with a heat lamp for another couple of weeks they may look like they are feathered out but they will molt those angain and get their lovely final feathers and the ones one the necks. They have a hard time regulating body temp til thiose come in. On hot days you can raise the lamp upand watch for them breathing with their mouths open. They are too hot then and need cool water to drink with some electrolytes mixed in. Always have a way for them to be able to move from warm areas to cooler ones in your brooder. Ask the owners what they have been doing and follow that til they are a bit older. At about 8 weeks they can be moved to a coop area outside. Once they are around 12 weeks old they should be ready to be let out for short periods to free range and letting them get used to going in and out of the coop. This will be good training for them to go in when you need them to. They are very skittish by nature and are very curious but timid of any change in their environment. They don't take well to change and will let you know it! LOL

It is still hard for me to believe mine are just over 1 year old. They are such wise little guys and still make us laugh everyday. 8 is a great number. Have the kids catch grasshoppers and moths to feed them by hand. They are so funny how they will run around with them in their mouths and every other one will be trying to play keep away with them before they finally eat them. LOL.

I would go over to the turkey thread and ask if they can be cooped with turkeys and how to do it. Many of them have Guineas as well.
Most of all enjoy them! They are quite funny and can entertain you for hours! Check out "Guinea Fowl TV" on You Tube for some highlights on what you can expect week to week from your new best friends against Lyme Disease! ENJOY! And post pictures when you get them!

 

[javamilk99]

Now to decide if they will eventually live in with my turkeys or if I need to build them their own wnclosure. ... My turkey hoop house would be plenty big to house them with my turkeys but I do not know how the two would interact together.

As long as the keets are not too small, and they are properly "introduced" to the turkeys, they should be fine. I have 4 guineas, 2 turkeys and a chicken all in the same coop and run.

 

[Lexiluke]

I have a 3x4x4 brooder that I use to grown out chickens in. I think I will place this inside the coop for a week and let them all get to know each other. I have another small brooder in there with a recuperating Bourbon that was picked on to the point of an open wound. This is another reason I am somewhat hesitant. I am on vacation for a couple weeks so I will have time to observe and make sure everyone gets along. If not, I guess I am building another coop. That will make 4 and a somewhat displeased spouse. Oh, well! And by the way, we will be getting 25 more layers in two weeks! Chicken math is aweful!

 

[PeepsCA]

Since the keets are so young I'd house them side by side for longer than a week... you'll want to give the keets some time to get a little bigger/smarter/agile. Plus the longer they are side by side the less aggression issues there will be when you finally do integrate. If you see the Turkeys being aggressive to the keets thru the cage, obviously you'll want to wait longer. And when you finally do integrate them you'll want to make sure that the keets have places to duck behind/hide behind but not get trapped behind and perches to fly up to just in case the Turkeys do get cranky with them.

When the Turkeys are young I've had no issues integrating them all together, but I have 1 older/adult Turkey Hen that will whoop the snot out of any new Guinea that I integrate to "her" flock of Guineas too quickly, and if any Guinea from one of my other flocks happens to fly into their free ranging pasture... it's on until she finally chases/harasses them back over the fence. Works out good tho, because her flock consists of certain select colors and I prefer that no other males hop the fence to breed those Hens and pollute the hatches, lol.

Once the Guineas are mature, and the breeding season comes around next Spring you may end up with some aggression issues from the male Guineas, directed at the Turkeys... so you may not need a separate coop right away but I would keep it in the plan as a possibility. Usually plenty of free range time when the hormones kick in helps Guineas burn off pent up energy/aggression. But if your Turkeys have "schooled" them well as keets and the Guineas respect the Turkeys then your Guineas may never act aggressive towards them at all. Hard to say tho, some male Guineas lose their minds during breeding season no matter what. After the Guineas are free ranging regularly they will hopefully go off on their own as a flock, working on the tick problem for you and earning their keep.

Good luck, hope it all goes smoothly and you are soon tick free.

 

[Lexiluke]

They are home. 5 week olds certainly have some serious energy. I love the picture with the turkey looking in.

 

[PeepsCA]

The look on that Turkey's face is like "Mmmhmm, great. Look what she brought us this time you guys".

 

[Brookhavens]

So glad you took the plunge.

Follow what PeepsCA and daylily have said and you should have no problems. I agree that you should leave them penned up for longer than a week. They need to know where "Home" is. I found that they love millet seed. If you start bringing them that certain treat at the end of the day they will soon learn that they get the good yummy stuff the same time every day. This way when you finally release them to free range you can call them at that certain time and they will know it is treat time and come back to their coop. I trained mine this way and there were many a time that they were lined up waiting for me before I had to call them in for the night.
I used to watch my males chase each other around the outside of our house and laugh. They would go zooming by the patio and then a few minutes later they would go zooming by from the other direction. Thankfully there were never any serious aggression issues, the chasing seemed to be about it. Good luck with your babies you are in for a treat.