Guinea Keets

Groom's mother had some guinea eggs hatch the other day and didn't want them. She has enough guineas. So she offered them to me and I was able to pick them up soon after they hatched. As it turned out, it was the same day my black chicks had hatched, so I thought they could easily be together in the brooder pen. We began with 8 and then got another one a few days later.

We don't know much about guineas yet. We'll learn as we go. The first thing I learned is that babies are called "keets". Once grown, guineas like to free range and wander the property eating bugs, including ticks, and make lots of noise. We could do with some tick eradication. Dog regularly brings them inside the house and I found one crawling on me while sitting on the couch - two days in a row!

So far the chicks and the keets are getting along fine in the brooder pen. One thing I've noticed is that the keets are much quieter with the chicks. On their own they can already make a racket. They are slightly smaller than the chicks. I've found one inside the feeder twice so far.

The mother guinea had collected her eggs out in a field.

I brought them home in an old bird cage.

One had just hatched so we kept the egg shell.

They went straight to sleep when I put them in the brooder pen.

They stayed together at first.

Later I found them mixing with the chicks.

If you look closely you can just see the feet of a little keet standing inside the feeder.

Here's another keet sitting inside the feeder.

The keet poking out of the feeder.