My guinea hen has successfully begun hatching her keets!(+ PICS!)

[Debbienmousey]

Twenty-five short days ago I found our white guinea hens' nest. Lucky me because that was the same day she decided to set on her nest. She had 24 eggs but I haven't had as much as a peak to see if any of the eggs were taken by snakes. (She's out nesting in the field but has a large dog crate over her for protection from large predators, snakes could still get in)

Anyway, when I checked her today I saw 3 little white keets peeping out from under her!! I was amazed because this is our first time hatching keets under a guinea hen. I checked her a couple more times and I'm pretty sure I saw a total of 6 keets, 1 pearl and the rest white. Once she hatches them all (Or decides she doesn't want to sit anymore) we're moving her to a big bird cage with the keets. I want to see how bad she really is at being a mom. (We don't even let our hens free-range with young chicks, simply because we know the chicks will be easy targets for hawks and such.)

Up till now we have had horrible trouble hatching and keeping these white keets alive. We've only ever hatched about 7 white keets, and most died 1-3 days after hatching. From the last batch of keets we had to help both the white keets out, and they both died. (One at about 3 days old, the other about 3 weeks old) I am hoping and praying this natural incubation will do a better job at hatching healthy white keets than we can. The guinea hen (Mary is her name actually) has done a beautiful job setting on these eggs. The other day when Dad put the small wiring on the lower part of the cage the hen actually hissed at Dad! That's a first for us

Here's the pics of the proud momma and her keets.

See that little head on the bottom? I'm thinking that's a pied lavender but I don't know how it would have come from her. (I know diddly-squat about genetics)

And you would never believe what our dog alerted us of as we (Mom, Dad and me) were standing there admiring the keets.

Yep, a snake! He was about 30 feet away from the cage with the guinea hen and her keets! Dad thinks he's probably a king snake. We relocated him a fair bit away so he hopefully won't come back.

And on top of all this excitement, 2 days ago 4 pearl pied and 1 pearl keet hatched in our incubator. (These were the last of our white-pearl pair, from our last pearl hen) Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of them after I moved them to the brooder but I will hopefully have some tomorrow along with more pics of the white hens keets.

I am just so happy right now

ETA: I had to make some spelling changes, lol.

 

[toredano]

WOW nice birds..
And that snake.. ewwwhhh
I have 2 lavender keets.. i am hoping they are girls

 

[fishman65]

congrats!!!! They are so much more fun when mom does all the work. I am working on two weeks now and momma has taken great care of her keets. I took a lot of her keets away from her and let her raise just a handfull of keet, making it easier on her. If you do take some away from her get some help as she gets real upset when you mess with her babies. Good luck and enjoy, they are a blast.

 

[morninggloryhatchery]

Congrats! I put 16 of my guinea eggs in the incubator. I can't wait cause they are pied and Lavender but also carry the White gene. so hopefully i get all 3!

 

[Debbienmousey]

Thanks guys! We plan on caging the hen with her keets, at least till they're 4+ weeks.

toredano, thank you. And I'm just amazed we found that snake so close to our newly hatched keets! It was definitely a blessing that we found him empty-stomached and outside of the cage and not full-stomached inside the cage.

fishman65, ah yes, the ones hatched in the flower bed? I saw the pics of them and they are adorable! We're planning on moving the hen into her cage tonight, so I think my Dad will be carrying her and I'll be helping move the keets. Wish us luck that they all get moved safely.

Thanks, I have raised keets inside and I know that I'm going to love watching the mommy guinea raise these guys. I can't wait to watch her with her keets.

morninggloryhatchery, thank you! I hope your hatch does well

UPDATE: Mary, the guinea hen, has 20 keets I think. I did not count them but when I finally saw her off her nest I only saw 4 un-hatched eggs. (None were pipping, she had 24 eggs to start) She has 2 pearls(1 pied, 1 not), 2 lavenders(1 pied, 1 not), and the rest are white with various degrees of black spots on their heads. They are so amazingly cute and so far all are still alive! I didn't get any new pics yet but later on I hopefully will. I'm going outside now to finish preparing their new cage and to hopefully get some of the eggshells out of Marys nest.