Sad new owner of guineas

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Roxiannem

Roxiannem

In the Brooder
5 Years
Joined
Jul 3, 2014
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We recently purchased 9 guinea keets from a local farmer. My husband has raised poultry and other livestock, so he designed and built a brooder we could set up outside. We placed it near the dog house and installed our new week-old keets. They were doing very well and starting to fledge. Then this morning my husband went out to feed them and 2 were missing. We suspect the 4 foot rat snake we saw yesterday. It's the only thing we can think of that could climb up the brooder and get through the small gaps under the lid. Needless to say, we've closed the gaps.

We also moved the dog so she can reach the brooder. She did bark last night, but when I went out, I didn't see anything. I did peek into the brooder, but didn't think to count. I just assumed it was deer in the orchard and went back to bed.

I am so upset by this loss. I've never raised poultry, but my husband has enough experience to make up for my lack.

We haven't built our coop and run yet, but we are rethinking our plan in light of the recent pilferage.
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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I am so sorry for your losses.
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Everything eats poultry. So you have to build everything like fort knox. What ever it is that took these babies will be back tonight. So be prepared. And usually most dogs eat poultry as well.

But you might want to stop by our Guinea section for help, support and anything else you may need to know along the way about your Guineas...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/45/guinea-fowl

Again, I am so sorry and I hope your heavy heart can heal soon.
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It's sad but incidents like yours point out flaws in security before more loss occurs. Welcome to BYC, you may want to check out the predators thread to find best ways of preventing loss.
 
I prefer to brooder very young chicks in the house to avoid the hassles of predators at that very vulnerable age/size...

As said above, time to lock down the fort, the predator will return and will continue to return as well as new predators showing up...
 
We don't really have room inside for a brooder. So we're locking down and hoping we've found the breaches. We hsve plenty of predators here: foxes, snakes, bears, hawks, owls ... plus the neighbor's cats snd my own. Not sure about my dog, who is part Australian Shepherd but we don't think she's ever been around poultry except for her weeks at tje rescue place where we got her.
 
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Thinks he's a watch dog....








When your guinea build a nest they build a nest and multiply fast ever see the Star Treck show with Tribes and how they took over the ship ( Enterprise ) well they are worse then rabbits so don't worry about the loss all you need in one male and one female.......
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Sorry about the loss of your keets, hope the rest of them are OK and you are able to deal with the predator.
 
Welcome to BYC! I'm a chicken person and don't know much about guineas (I've never had any), but I'm sorry for the loss of your keets. Good luck in predator proofing your brooder.
 
Welcome to BYC
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I'm so sorry to hear about your loss! There are a number of articles in the Learning Center on predators and protecting your flock against them. Look under the "Maintaining a Healthy Flock" section.
 

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