Keets are 8 weeks old now.
When I wait too long to get them into their coop, they roost on top of it (despite the open door) and go to sleep. I feel bad rousting them, but they gotta go in and it is kinda neat to be able to touch them. They're so heavy now! It's very hard to hold them and get them through the opening. I can press the wings against their body, but they kick and struggle, and I don't even try to restrain their legs (both because legs are a guinea's weak spot, and because their flailing claws are terrifying).
Sunday was the day for moving birds out of the house...
Lavender keets (4 weeks old today) went into the coop I had the pearl grey keets in before. The Guinea troop came by to inspect them and moved on just like the adults did when the other keets were younger. They're curious, but they have Important Guinea Things to do.
I had some black Jersey Giants and 3 barnyard crosses (now 7 weeks) and Buff Orpingtons (6 weeks) out already, and tried introducing some Silkies (also 7 weeks) and GLWs (going to be 5 and 4 weeks tomorrow) to them. The smaller / younger birds got picked on... so my girlfriend suggested moving them in with the keets. I reminded her raising them together was a bad idea, but she wasn't hearing it so I complied.
The Lavs huddled in a corner and screamed. They kept at it for a while, so I grabbed an outdoor brooder I'd made for some Rouen ducks (now 8 weeks and free all day) and put the Lavs in that, and they calmed down. I'm not sure anyone picked on them, but they really, really did not like the foreign invaders.
I would have liked to keep them in the coop instead, but it's 5 keets vs 19 chicks. The outdoor brooder is still bigger than the one I had them in inside the house, at least. And there's no chickens in there. Aside from the standard downside of raising them together, I wasn't too thrilled thinking about how much gamebird starter those things would have gone through.
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Hopefully the adults will take a shine to them, too. Can't wait to hear them try out their big kid calls.
Question to the more experienced guineafolk - what age do they start to settle on their preferred mating partners? Does that only happen in their first mating season? I'm assuming my two adults will continue to be a couple... but is the 5 week age difference enough to keep the pearl grey keets from getting interested in the lavenders? Or will they all start mating around the same time? Will the long period between now and their first mating season make all of the keets see each other as potential mates, or are they likely to pair off within their subsets?
I'd like to hatch more lavenders next year... but I don't intend to keep them separated or confined to do it. Just wondering where to calibrate my expectations. I want to hatch more guineas period, but it'd be nice if it weren't all genetic lottery over generations.
Your lavenders are so lovely.
We hatched and introduced keets last summer and had the most incredible staggered hatch - almost 2 months between the youngest and oldest! The youngest were low ranking for awhile, but in the spring, they all took their place in the pecking order by their natures more than age. As for pairing, our preexisting guineas mostly stayed in the same harem, though there was some pairing between older and younger guineas. As for the 2 month age difference, I don’t think that mattered once they were mature.
Overwhelming, but very cool!
