When guieneas start to lay

[ludwing]

well im totally getting crazy these days. i thought i had replied but typically not.
although i have lost a hen to a predator few weeks ago.
harrys old keet named vee is one of the hens around that love sneak-off theory. i found her nest yesterday with about 27 eggs, and seems like shes close to hatching period as that i have candled her eggs up.


i sometimes believe that,when a hen is laying, it become totally hard to notice that shes laying somewhere. i found her nest. and i dont care whether she abondon it or not, but im about to move her to the coop. the nest is just arounf at the back of the house, in some tall grass.
but im sure she will not abondon it as that shes tammer and would allow me to touch her up and feed her but getting

sharp pecks. i would love to post some photos of her nest and some videos i have taken while i visited.

i hate moving a hen but i must, it seems like the predator has visited my world of hope, my lovey young cock was kikked, but this time he was killed and eaten the head lllllleaving the body behind #shock!!!!!!!#

 

[GlennLee]

LUDWING - it seems as though you are plagues by predators and I like your idea of moving the nests to a safer area. Fingers crossed that it will work for you and Vee. That would be a good way for Harry's memory to live on. Very sad to hear that you are having so many problems - right after you were telling about not having problems with predators in general. We do have ongoing problems here and that is why I am encouraging mine to nest in the barn. Spring will tell if they have made that decision or if I will have to go out looking for them to move their nests! Good luck!

 

[ludwing]

Quote:

mthe season here is progressing well and become hotter na hotter. with few rainfall coming down to cool the world. but that makes me happy because that has an progess also with the guineas. some females are broody and get killed and some hatch their own keets,luckly.

who know that how far are they laying or just prefer to sneak off like a fox,. a stollen picthe stolen pic of vee next t to the oak tree resting with some hens and chicks. vee has a similar long helmet kike her mother, but with slightly longer wettles,smaller body size. i can say shes not that tame to let you hand her over or just walk close to her.


the predator could be small or bigger, no 27 eggs in sight only about 10-16 eggs left. who know whos doing this. but this time it will knock at an empty world.
and the nest. i tried to moved her yesterday to a rabbit cage with bedded straw, since yesterday she only stayed for the night and when i woke up early in the morning to check up on her she was at thwe gate pacing back and forth, so decided to let her out. she ran back to her old nest. ooops she found her nest empty. i think she off brooding mood because she hangs out with the rest and seems stressless.
and there she was sitting on an empty nest. i sheewde her off and place the stones on the nest. we have no broody hens to incubate her eggs but a muscovy duck is brooding so the eggs are pressed under the duck, who knows what will happen there Nop i dont know too. but im willing to take the chance of raising the keets too. my device doesnt allow me to send the videos but thats no the problem......

 

[GlennLee]

Vee is just beautiful, LUDWING. Her coloring is so vibrant - much like Harry's. I wonder if any of the "wild" guineas like you have in Africa are farmed here in the states? They are very similar to the pearls I have here, but there are subtle differences. I do wish you luck with this hatching and hopefully you will have more beautiful birds surrounding you soon. I am glad you were able to gather the eggs and keep Vee safe. It doesn't sound as though she was happy, but she'll get over it. Better unhappy than dead! I wonder if it would help if you set up a trail camera? Maybe you could catch the predator on video and then you would at least know what you are dealing with. If it's not one thing, it's another with these guineas! Gotta love 'em. We'll be awaiting the pictures of the keets and hope that Vee doesn't go into hiding again trying to start another nest. Thank you for sharing....

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Ludwing- the picture of Vee you just shared makes me finally realize why they are called "helmeted" guineas because that really does look like a helmet outline. The difference in head coloration is very neat to see! Thank you for sharing your beautiful pictures and keeping us updated on your story.

 

[ludwing]

well again its been a while, after my hen vee was killed over night or day by an predator. putting her eggs under a broody muscovy duck hen, with a guinea hen losing mind running around looking for whats ever seen. having cocks killed and more. yesterday i was at the garden just wandering around watching chickens and keets running around....

we have 3 adult guinea cocks,same age as harry. my loviest,kindest boy, tommy, i called him tommy because he love hump back displays looking like a big running rock

i didnt meant to say so but i love him very well. from the onset of the laying season he has bonded with vee, and have had a strong bond. now that vee is gone,he used to hang by himself and sometimes get chased by other cocks thinking hes to steal their mates.....whats shocking me is, he just died out of no reason. do guineas know when the time is to leave the world? yesterday he came out from the garden running, when he stood at the gate another chase him... ( about 1min) he ran to hid under an old brach, then suddenly a flipppp, i went to check, he was dead. he was very thin and seems like he was not feeding. or i can stressy. mybe a strees can kill a bird. well i was just passing by, about what happened yesterday.


well about harries keet,vee. her eggs being place under a broody duck. thanks to vuvu for being such a great mother,brooder to my eggs. although she was still far away with the hatching of her own eggs (23 days) they have 9-10 days now, i tooked them while they were hatching and placed the under a heat lamp...everything is going pretty well.
out of 16 eggs 14 hatched, now with 12 keets. who knows if how many hens or boys

because i love having lot of hens than cocks, because cocks love fighting alot. or mybe i will still have such nice beautiful plammage. well i hope everthing will work well when the keets are released to see the world. and one more thing. do your guinea flock help to raise the keets of other pair. in my flock if a hen from the flock show up with newly hactched keets from the nest, the whole flock start chipping showing some care,love to the newly keets and will help the pair raise their keets. and even some other hen might stop laying and become helpers, thats what i love about their parenting,especially males who spend most of the time with keets than females......

my wishes......

 

[GlennLee]

Ludwing - very sorry to hear that you are still have issues with predators. Do you know what kind of predator is after your birds? It's been going on for quite a while and up until Harry was killed, you hadn't had any problems. I do think Guineas can die from stress. I know chickens do. One of my neighbors had a chicken drop dead after it saw a hawk swoop down after the chicken next to it. It didn't get either chicken, but the one chicken that saw it, just dropped over dead.

The picture of your keets is beautiful. How I miss that stage and I hope we have a lot of them running around here in the spring - I have a few months and winter to get through before that. I don't have any news to share with you on hatching or raising - we haven't gotten to that point yet, but when I do, I'll be sure to share.

So far, I'm holding at 13 in the flock. We have seen coyote scat and have heard the packs howling at night, but none have taken any birds in a while. The birds are staying pretty close to their barn, which is closer to the house, so that probably helps keep them safer. Here is a picture of the four "regular" pearl Guineas I added to the flock a few months ago. They get picked on by some of the bigger "Jumbo French" Guineas that make up the rest of the flock, but they can fly higher and move quicker so they are able to escape.



Best to you and your birds!

 

[ludwing]

glennlee- if how i could thank you no one will never know. you have such nice beautiful birds out there, and i really like this type of guinea!!. i came from the world of happiness with no stress having birds enyoying life,foranging to their own best. like i mean going thousands of miles to go broody and still return with their keets. but now the world of happiness and become the world of darkness and misery!!. i once suspected the predator, the lynx. the lynx if been killing my birds. i saw the pair few days ago sneaking at the back of the fence, i shouted, " youuuuuuu!!! dirty child, stay away from my birds,if i see you ill chopp you into a meat" lool i was very angry.

i have to crap\trap these two pairs of lynx, i cant have my birds killed every week, never!!.
mybe if i do, the birds will soon see the world again. we have had no lynxes here for years, i dont know wheter they escaped from the zoo or where.

now im considering about adding new,adult guineas,only 2 or 3 hens. but will they stay or accept my cocks or will they just fight them off? i have 3 adult males and 4 females right now. so i think adding adult might help to build the flock again. for if i do how must i keep them, to intergrate with flock? so many questions,sorry. the guy who will give me the hens have had guineas for years. his from hens range from 4-7 years old. i know that their production might have had drop a little.


my wishes.....

 

[GlennLee]

LUDWING - you thought at one point it might be lynx. That is too bad that your world and the world of your guineas has changed so much and so quickly. It is a difficult thing to have your peaceful world turn so violent and then feel as though you can't do much to prevent your birds from being killed. I do hope you are able to take care of your problem.

I was glad that I added the additional birds to my flock, even though some of the original flock members were not. I think I had mentioned that originally I had many more males than females and my goal was to add more females. I bought 6 regular guineas and thought I had at least 3 or 4 females in the group. My neighbors took 2 of the males and I had 4 left. Three ended up being female and one male. They have formed a little sub group within the flock and now there are 5 females and 1 male that hang together and 3 males and 4 females that hang together in the second group. They do all stick together, but then branch off. It will be interesting to see if their interactions change as time goes on. I did keep the new ones in isolation for month to make sure they were disease free. They could see the rest of the flock, but not mix with them. I think that was a good way for them to get to know each other too. If there's a way for you to be able to have them see one another without mixing at first, that might be a good thing. No matter what, just be ready for everyone to be more aggressive. They have to re-establish their pecking order and that takes time and pecking! I find that the new members are okay with the existing flock, but the existing flock isn't that thrilled with the new members. That may all change when spring rolls around and the males are looking for mates. At least I have more females than males now - 4 males to 9 females.

One more thing to share with you - since I had lost so many to coyotes - 5 total, I think the interactions between the new ones and existing flock were difficult because they lost some very strong members in the flock. So others who weren't originally "in charge" had to move up the ranks. It upset the equilibrium of the flock and they are sort of starting over again now. I think it will smooth out a bit with more time. It's not horrible, but I have to keep an eye out for injuries and make sure they get out to free range as much as the weather will allow.

Good luck and let us know if you end up adding more adults to your flock and how it goes.

 

[ludwing]

well thank you very much glennlee such a lovely experience from you. well i think it best happen to certain people,of a luck. all you have written can never be recanted. well i will take a try and see if what happened then.

before i go i have some of the members around,like crazy ones. vee"s sister,lulu. i decided to lock her in the cage because i dont know whats wrong about her. she never laid eggs or either have keets. so i want to see if shell lay any eggs this week. its her 4th year never had keets or eggs,although her sisters have had keets many times for years.

well if you want to see the crazy birds come and visite my planet. here is a flock although the rest is out of sight. feeding on dry smashed brown bread,they love bread. the male infront is the oldest from the old flock, im about to celebrate his birthday year, 7 year. 3november. hes the flock member and keep all the rest behind him,showing the path everyday although he got into fights with other males around the street. i say foranging with his younglings.

well ill keep updating. and see if i see the world again.