MY FIRST GUINEAS!!!!

[OHSpartan]

I am a rookie and convinced my DW to get guinea to go along with our new chickens. 10, two-day-old keets came in the mail today. They are so SMALL! We got buff orps and black australops at the same time and they tower over the keets.

I just moved them to separate brooding boxes because I only have medicated feed for the chicks and UKY said not to use that for guinea. I have the guinea on 21% meat bird instead.

Anyway, I thought I would share my excitement with the small, but loyal, guinea community here on BYC! I have learned a lot from you folks and look forward to sharing my anecdotes and experiences as the weeks progress.

PS: I would post photos, but evidently I don't have permission yet

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[daylily]

Congrats on the keets! You guys will love them. The keets need to be on a higher protein starter mix, Either a medicated Turkey starter crumble or A game bird crumble starter mix. They grow slower when they have less protein. Also add grit and crushed oyster shell. they need the grit to digest their food and the others offers them the calcium they need.

Good luck with the babes and post when you can. Sometimes it is hard to get them on but keep trying!

 

[PeepsCA]

Congrats on your new babies! Hope to see pics soon... I'm not sure why you can't post pics, but if the forum is telling you that you cant, I'd contact a moderator/staff member and ask them to look into the problem for you. I think you are supposed to be able to post pics after you have posted just 10 times, and you are well past that!

I agree with Daylily about the keets needing the higher protein game bird/turkey/pheasant starter feed... I raise mine on 27-28% protein game bird starter, medicated with Amprolium and they grow faster than weeds! (Which they should, just as they do out in the wild eating a high protein diet of bugs and seeds). However I don't agree with providing the oyster shell for baby keets... the extra calcium isn't good for them or their developing bones until they are about 10-12 weeks old and their bodies can actually utilize it correctly. The starter feed will already have the correct calcium content in that the keets will need to grow/develop properly.

Anyway, Welcome to the club! Hope you get the pic issue figured/straightened out!

 

[OHSpartan]

My precious keets aren't eating their food....they are sticking to bugs. My kids gathered a bunch of ants, pill-bugs, grub worms, etc. for them a few times today. They are barely pecking at their food. It was very warm here today, so I let 4 of them out with me in the yard. I put them near an ant hill where they wouldn't be overwhelmed and bit by the ants, but still have plenty of ants for themselves. THEY ENGORGED! I am pleased. Part of my motivation for getting guineas is because I have 8-10 very large ant hills on my property and I prefer a natural way to eliminate them.

Now they are in the brooding box, eating every moth, gnat or other bug that is attracted to their light. I am guessing each keet has eaten less than a teaspoon of feed today, though it was available all day.

So far I am surprised by 3 things: 1. how quickly they took to eating bugs (YAY!). 2. How fast they are (quick buggers) and 3. HOW LOUD THEY ARE! I knew they would be noisy when they got older, but I was not expecting their high-pitched cheep to be so loud AT 2 DAYS OLD!!!

All in all, I am very excited about getting them. I hope to over-winter 5 of them and hatch my own babies next summer.

 

[PeepsCA]

I love this lil keet/ant saga.... cuz so many people say Guineas don't eat ants

At least you have the kids to gather bugs and you don't have to do it yourself!

 

[daylily]

Amen to that! I hate bugs anyway but I did my share of catching anything that flew, jumped or scurried for those precious things! Good luck with the new babes!