surprise from 'lost' guinnea

yesterday i saw my guineas milling around in the woods so i went to see what the problem was. imagine my surprise to find all 6 of them aimlessly milling around like idiots with 12 teeny babies trying their best to keep up with the lavender (who i assumed had been taken by a hawk or coyote). my aunt helped me catch the babies (much harder than it sounds, for something so tiny they can really hustle!) as i have always heard that guineas are dreadful parents. from what i saw that is true, they had no regard for where the babies were, except the lavender momma and she wasn't exactly focused.

after securing the 12 in a pen i went back to find the nest and carried back 7 more eggs, one of which already had a thrashing leg poking out. thank goodness my cats were all napping.

so now i have 14, in the house in the pen and another one is pecking out of it's shell as i write this. the one with the leg sticking out was still like that after 8 hours so late last night i picked away tiny pieces of the shell, which had started drying badly, leaving the shell on for the keet to finish the job. i was afraid it's strength was giving out as the leg moved less each time i checked on them. i thought that one would be dead this morning but it is fine, cannot tell it from the others now.

Wonderful the lavender was hiding and what a surprise !!!!!!!!!

Great pic !!!

Julie =0)

mabecca, One of the oldest and most famous counties in Ohio! I know what a pleasant surprise this must be to you. We've had it happen twice with our guinea flock. The keets are so cute. My neighbors Game Fowl have given us 60 chicks this summer. We've lost a few chicks and a few adults this summer to coyotes but all in all the Game Fowl are great broodys ...... several times better than the guinea fowl. The guinea hens can be really crazy mean when you try to take their keets away. I'm surprised to note you did not mention the difficulty involved.

they did not mind me taking the keets. it never occurred to me actually, like it would have had i been taking chicks away from a mama hen!! THAT i would not have done. i kept second-guessing my decision to bring them inside to raise, seems to go against nature and i had a high mortality rate with the 5 adults i have now (the tough survivors of what started out as 32 day old keets) so was quite worried i would do a worse job than the guinea would.
so far though, i have not lost one, they are quite active, eat and drink well and are pretty quiet now that they have all learned how to eat and drink. there are still 4 eggs unhatched that i assume will not be viable will remove those today i think.

this pic was yesterday (wednesday) i think all 16 are in there.

could not resist posting another pic. these keets are going to be following the cats around thinking that is what they are, since there is ALWAYS a cat in there quietly watching in fascination. this one is sparky. the guineas have actually quieted down the last day or so, dont know if it is the 'calming influence' of a cat staring at them non stop or they just are settling down to grow. i think it is the latter though.
do not worry- the keets are quite secure in their pen-cats can look but no touch!
i have a guinea who was raised by a broody hen last year and he has 'issues' spends part of his days hanging out with the chickens and part of it roaming with the other guineas so this 'cat conflicted guinea' theory may not be much of a stretch.

LOL.... like the pics !!!

My guinea freaks if I take him away from the chicken flock. Even when it was the pair of them they did not like to be apart from the chickens, but they had always been together since being shipped as day olds.

Julie

Aww Come on! Be a Fanatic like me and Post more photos ! We want to see more of these precious babies!
I take so many photos of my chicks that they are going blind from the flash! LOL!! Seriously We rarely get to see baby Guinea Photos!