questions about raising Guinea keets.

[Roseheart16]

Hi all! Well, I have two broody guinea hens sitting on 14 marked eggs. (Plus some fresh ones but I do my best to collect those when my hen goes to eat. Not sure how I'm going to get them both off of the nest with two now though.) I left the eggs in ten days apart though, 7 at a time and the first seven left in weren't sat on at night or all of the day until the day the other seven were left in.
But if the second batch of eggs left in there do hatch, this will be my first time with guineas under four weeks old.
Can I leave the keets with my guineas when/if they hatch? I keep all of my guineas in a pen for now so I don't have to worry about the trip back from the nest where it seems like guineas lose most of their keets.
But will the other guineas kill the keets if I leave them in there or how will two guineas hatching the same keets turn out? And if I do have to brood them, how in the world do I keep them in a box with how quickly they can fly? And how would I reintroduce them to the flock safely?

I'll be greatful for any other information/tips on the necessities of raising them from babies. I did a lot of research last year when we looked into getting them but I don't know much about what to feed them or anything like that.

 

[Roseheart16]

The weirdest thing just happened, I brought my guineas some treats and one of the broody hens got off the the nest. I went inside afterwards for maybe 5-10 minutes and then went back out. Both guineas were on the nest again and one of the eggs marked to hatch on the 25th was just a strip of broken shell a few feet from their nest. No yolk or anything was near it, juse the strip of eggshell. Anyone know what might have happened?

 

[malinois]

I will be watching this thread as i am in a similar situation...( not the egg shell thing but ) letting hens raise keets with other guineas from the flock. I would hope that since geese and other wild birds do it successfully, guineas can manage also. Will see.

 

[Hmarie0608]

Most of the people I know who have guineas let the parents raise them in the flock without any issues.

 

[DabbsFarm]

I had a similar experience. I have two hens, who were both laying in the same nest. Neither were broody. As the clutch grew near thirty, I started seeing pieces of egg shell a short distance from the nest. Eventually the nest was abandoned. I soon found a new nest, and the whole process repeated itself. Clutch grew past 25. After that point, I found an egg or two a day that seemed to have been intentionally broken and removed from the nest area. That nest was also abandoned soon thereafter. Then the two hens split up, and nested in separate locations. One nest I couldn't find, and suspect it was a complete loss. The other hen successfully hatched 21 keets a few days ago. I suspect the hens were removing bad eggs from the nest, but I don't actually know.

 

[chickenmadness7]

I have my guinea keets in a make shift "coral" type enclosure inside a small baby pool. You could do the same with cardboard pieces all around to keep them from getting drafty and flying out. My keets are about 11-12 days old and are just beginning to try out their wings. They only get a few inches lift so far, but I've read that by 2 weeks they can start to fly. What I've been doing on top of my enclosure is putting window screens on top. It works well!

 

[Roseheart16]

Thank you all. I think I will try out the baby pool idea do you keep them indoors or outside?

I also have a little rabbit hutch that I might consider keeping them in once they start flying. They could easily escape my pen and I don't think a little chicken wire around the bottom of where I will be keeping them or some pool noodles will stop them once they start testing out their wings. Will I need to provide them with a heat lamp or anything if they stay outside?