Yesterday was a bad day at our house. I came home and found one of my female guineas ("Mo") dead in the front yard, punctures over her shoulders. The male guinea ("Larry") is missing but there are lots of piles of feathers in the front yard and back yard. I am afraid something really ugly must have happened and he is not to return.
I have one remaining female guinea ("Curly") who happened to be sitting on her nest in the coop when all the commotion must have happened. She is VERY lonely as you could expect, buck-wheating her head off, and not eating yesterday. She was actually roosting facing the back corner of the coop this morning and let me pick her up - not normal, but maybe she was still sleeping. She grew up with a few chickens, and I put her two favorite ones (barred rocks) in with her after the attack so she is not alone, but it isn't the same for her. She is eating today, and I haven't heard a peep out of her all day, so I think she might be feeling a little better. I have been wanting to increase my flock of guineas, and trying to incubate eggs for the last month. I have two that might hatch next weekend (I say might because my hatch rate has been really poor for various reasons). I put 22 eggs from the nest in the incubator this morning, as I don't expect her to hatch any herself. She is on and off the nest all day long, and sometimes leaves it for long periods of time. Assuming I can get some of these eggs to hatch, do you think that she might accept the keets and take care of them in the coop? As I said before, she is quite lonely and somewhat broody feeling these days, and I think she would be thrilled to have some guinea company. I can put hardware cloth along the bottom of the run so the keets can't escape, and I can keep her enclosed in the coop portion if needed. The coop section she is in is 4 ft by 8ft, and the run is 16 ft by 20 f, so she should have plenty of room. I really liked my male guinea and want the new keets to be his, so don't want to mess up this chance. If this is possible, what would be the best way to give her the keets? She won't let me get close to her when she is on the nest, she normally runs out of the coop terrified if I come too close. Oh, one more question, the dead female guinea weighed 9.5 lbs, and the male was larger. I suspect that these were French Guineas, but the fellow I purchased them from did not mention this. (one of the possible reasons for low fertility I suspect...) Is a 9.5 lb guinea likely to be a French guinea? Thanks for any advice.
