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The Narrator
Aug 11, 2011

bernie would have won
keets just don't want to live, huh.

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Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax

The Narrator posted:

keets just don't want to live, huh.
keets are actually okay, but quail chicks are unbelievably intent on killing themselves to the point where if there's water more than a millimetre deep it's guaranteed at least one will drown in it

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
:siren: the keets survived :siren:

they're now back to their usual sparkly-eyed fool selves

LITERALLY A BIRD
Sep 27, 2008

I knew you were trouble
when you flew in

good birbs

Ausrotten
Mar 9, 2016

STILL A HUGE FUCKIN DICK

The Narrator posted:

birds just don't want to live, huh.

Haji
Nov 15, 2005

Haj Paj
Ah man. I miss my guinea fowl. I ended up moving and giving them away to a former neighbor.

They are supreme tick eaters, which is why I got them to begin with. Other than that, they're just utterly retarded and amusing as hell to watch. And yes, their eggs are SO good. Way better than chicken eggs. Enjoy your guineas! They're the best. Post more pics too.

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
the keets went marching bravely out into the field yesterday and only four came back :( i'm shattered. at least i've still got four i guess

cinci zoo sniper
Mar 15, 2013




Avshalom posted:

the keets went marching bravely out into the field yesterday and only four came back :( i'm shattered. at least i've still got four i guess
KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETS






:negative:

Haji
Nov 15, 2005

Haj Paj

Avshalom posted:

the keets went marching bravely out into the field yesterday and only four came back :( i'm shattered. at least i've still got four i guess

Can they fly yet? They will absolutely roost in a tree instead of going back into the coop at night if they can. I spent many evenings pulling guineas out of trees and putting them away at night. They'll also do this thing where they find some really tight vegetation to nest down into. You'll only be able to find them by listening to them if they do this. I had one hen who just had this overwhelming need to always nest in this great big patch of poison ivy that was wedged under some really low pine branches. It took me 2 days to find her the first time.

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
i don't think there are any trees low enough for them at their current flying skill - the land around here is very heavily cleared and i've sussed out every shrub with a branch less than two metres from the ground :( i'm hoping they've found some vegetation to nest in too, we don't slash the paddock often because we don't have any large stock and there's a big population of native quails and finches that like long grass. i've had keets escape and turn up the next morning totally fine before, which i was hoping would happen this time too. they may be waiting for me when i get home from work. fingers crossed.

tracking them down by listening for them is always fun, they hold such musical little conversations with each other

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
i've given up on the lost keets. :( i can't imagine they'd survive two nights out in torrential rain. i just don't understand how something could have got five at once. we have hawks and eagles but they couldn't possibly get more than two at a time, keets run so fast, and the other poultry lose their poo poo if anything like a fox or dog comes onto the property so surely i would have heard it. there are no sad little tufts of feathers like i find when a quail gets taken, either. this is really depressing, especially as the two that my mother saved from drowning were among the group that went missing.

at least i still have four left. the next batch will be raised alongside chickens - that's what i did with the first hatching, and those keets always returned back to the chook shed with their little flock at the end of the day

sorry to bring the thread down. i'll be buying some more eggs soon and the madness will start again

LITERALLY A BIRD
Sep 27, 2008

I knew you were trouble
when you flew in

I'm sorry about the keets :(

but I also look forward to future-keets :shobon:

Haji
Nov 15, 2005

Haj Paj

Avshalom posted:

i'll be buying some more eggs soon and the madness will start again

Give those eggs to a broody hen. Save you the fuss of an incubator and the keets will be more likely to be coop oriented.
Also looking forward to more guinea pics and stories

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
i plan to raise these ones with some chicks (mum wants some more araucanas :3:) because that's what i did with the last brood and those keets were good at following their little friends home at the end of the day. all my mature hens are currently trailing little broods of real chickens and i lost my two broodiest in a fox attack two weeks ago so unfortunately i don't know when the next will start sitting

i really do apologise for this feelgood thread running into the ditch but that is the farming life and i've learnt many valuable lessons. i will never lose another precious keet. not one! i will have hundreds of guinea fowl

Wrecking Ball
Jul 16, 2011
This was a good post, and I loved the pictures. Thanks for many stories of baby keets, they are so loving cute!

WrenP-Complete
Jul 27, 2012

Shabbat shalom, thread. Shabbat shalom, Avshalom. Shabbat shalom, keets.

Ausrotten
Mar 9, 2016

STILL A HUGE FUCKIN DICK
keets!

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Did you grow those, or were they just in the paper towel roll?

Ausrotten
Mar 9, 2016

STILL A HUGE FUCKIN DICK
I knocked over a dandelion and there they were!

so any guesses on their adult coloration? I'm not too versed in guinea coloring

Fluffy Bunnies
Jan 10, 2009

Ausrotten posted:

I knocked over a dandelion and there they were!

so any guesses on their adult coloration? I'm not too versed in guinea coloring

I think the white one will turn green.

Ausrotten
Mar 9, 2016

STILL A HUGE FUCKIN DICK
im gonna paint them purple with blukote

CountFosco
Jan 9, 2012

Welcome back to the Liturgigoon thread, friend.
At what age can you safely incorporate pine shavings in with keets?

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax




if any of you have a question that can be summed up as "should i get keets" then the answer is yes you should get keets, they're delightful. just a few suggestions:

1) get guinea fowl eggs and incubate them if you can, because then you get newborn keets and they're the cutest, and more importantly because that means they always think of your property as home. whatever container you use as a brooder box you can just put in your coop for a few days once they're off the heat and they'll go back to it at night once you let them out to run around. hypothetically. it works with my keets but some keets are stupider/smarter and will never see the box as their house no matter how long they spend locked in it. also if you raise chicken chicks and keets together, they form a flock and when the chickens naturally come home in the evenings the keets follow them

2) if you get older keets, don't let them roam for at least a week after you bring them home. they do develop a homing instinct eventually but for the first few days they yearn for the wilderness until they figure out where the food comes from. always feed them in the coop at first.

3) i've never had a problem with any chicks eating pine shavings but i'd give the keets a week to figure out what's food and what's not

4) ausrotten, your keets are all going to stay more or less the same colour except for the brown ones with stripy heads - that's the original wild colour and they grow up pearl (black with white spots and blue heads). some of them might get lighter or darker but they won't change dramatically. i'm really interested to see what the little white one with the brown streak looks like! they are a beautiful little cluster

5) don't get keets in winter unless you have a very well-insulated or heated barn, even if they're old enough not to need a brooder. i bought seventeen (!!) recently and the first time it rained they all went out and stood in it like a pack of idiots, i had to do a dramatic rescue and lost five from hypothermia because they were wet in addition to being cold, which is something they don't deal with. luckily my quail shed was set up fairly well already so i was able to seal it off and fill it with straw and the remaining twelve keets are doing fine. they and the quails seem to be getting along well which is pretty cute. i'll be moving them back out soon when they're better able to cope with the cold but just keep it in mind, they can and will kill themselves in any way possible

my surviving three from the last brood (two piebalds and a lavender) are doing well and have graduated to the big chook roosts. if you can't see the lavender one, look closely at the stripy hen on the lefthand side:













keets!

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax


lol these things are like the ugly duckling in reverse

quite stretched out
Feb 17, 2011

the chillest
keets

The Narrator
Aug 11, 2011

bernie would have won

Keets

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Avshalom posted:





if any of you have a question that can be summed up as "should i get keets" then the answer is yes you should get keets, they're delightful. just a few suggestions:

1) get guinea fowl eggs and incubate them if you can, because then you get newborn keets and they're the cutest, and more importantly because that means they always think of your property as home. whatever container you use as a brooder box you can just put in your coop for a few days once they're off the heat and they'll go back to it at night once you let them out to run around. hypothetically. it works with my keets but some keets are stupider/smarter and will never see the box as their house no matter how long they spend locked in it. also if you raise chicken chicks and keets together, they form a flock and when the chickens naturally come home in the evenings the keets follow them

2) if you get older keets, don't let them roam for at least a week after you bring them home. they do develop a homing instinct eventually but for the first few days they yearn for the wilderness until they figure out where the food comes from. always feed them in the coop at first.

3) i've never had a problem with any chicks eating pine shavings but i'd give the keets a week to figure out what's food and what's not

4) ausrotten, your keets are all going to stay more or less the same colour except for the brown ones with stripy heads - that's the original wild colour and they grow up pearl (black with white spots and blue heads). some of them might get lighter or darker but they won't change dramatically. i'm really interested to see what the little white one with the brown streak looks like! they are a beautiful little cluster

5) don't get keets in winter unless you have a very well-insulated or heated barn, even if they're old enough not to need a brooder. i bought seventeen (!!) recently and the first time it rained they all went out and stood in it like a pack of idiots, i had to do a dramatic rescue and lost five from hypothermia because they were wet in addition to being cold, which is something they don't deal with. luckily my quail shed was set up fairly well already so i was able to seal it off and fill it with straw and the remaining twelve keets are doing fine. they and the quails seem to be getting along well which is pretty cute. i'll be moving them back out soon when they're better able to cope with the cold but just keep it in mind, they can and will kill themselves in any way possible

my surviving three from the last brood (two piebalds and a lavender) are doing well and have graduated to the big chook roosts. if you can't see the lavender one, look closely at the stripy hen on the lefthand side:













keets!
Everything in this is excellent.

Ausrotten
Mar 9, 2016

STILL A HUGE FUCKIN DICK

Avshalom posted:

ausrotten, your keets are all going to stay more or less the same colour except for the brown ones with stripy heads - that's the original wild colour and they grow up pearl (black with white spots and blue heads). some of them might get lighter or darker but they won't change dramatically. i'm really interested to see what the little white one with the brown streak looks like! they are a beautiful little cluster


unfortunately the entire batch died over the course of three days :( The feed store we got them from said other people were having problems as well, so they refunded us on 6 and gave us the four the had left but still it really loving sucked. Our four new keets are strong and healthy tho :unsmith:

quite stretched out
Feb 17, 2011

the chillest

aww keet keet motherfucker

Fluffy Bunnies
Jan 10, 2009

Hi one of my keets is a retarded baby with a hosed up leg and no matter how many times I try to splint his gross little twig leg so the tendon will stay right, it just wildly flails around and he runs around fine on it so gently caress it, he'll probably die getting trampled but for now his name is Bendy Straw.

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax

Ausrotten posted:

unfortunately the entire batch died over the course of three days :( The feed store we got them from said other people were having problems as well, so they refunded us on 6 and gave us the four the had left but still it really loving sucked. Our four new keets are strong and healthy tho :unsmith:
drat :( random brood deaths are the worst. i hope your new ones flourish and fulfill their hideous birthright


Fluffy Bunnies posted:

Hi one of my keets is a retarded baby with a hosed up leg and no matter how many times I try to splint his gross little twig leg so the tendon will stay right, it just wildly flails around and he runs around fine on it so gently caress it, he'll probably die getting trampled but for now his name is Bendy Straw.
this is good, i wish him all the best

Ausrotten
Mar 9, 2016

STILL A HUGE FUCKIN DICK
I've had em about a week and so far they're doing great and making my life miserable by peeping wildly at all hours :3:

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax

Ausrotten posted:

I've had em about a week and so far they're doing great and making my life miserable by peeping wildly at all hours :3:
keet! keet! keet! keet! keet! keet! keet! KEET KEET KEET KEET keet keet KEET

Ausrotten
Mar 9, 2016

STILL A HUGE FUCKIN DICK
KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETKEEEEEEEEEEEEEETKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET

*is 3am*

this is why i hated my turkey polts. peeppeepPEEPPEEP at all loving hours. if escaping the brooder is that loving scary stay in it you trash animal. at least the keets are way cuter and also less repulsively messy

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
they're so cute

they seem to have more melodic voices than my other birds, listening to them trill and burble contentedly to each other is nice. i often go into their shed and just chill with them and the quail

Ausrotten
Mar 9, 2016

STILL A HUGE FUCKIN DICK
They do, I keep mistaking mine for songbirds. It's quite pleasant when they aren't melting down. I like them a lot, they are good chicks

Lynza
Jun 1, 2000

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."
- Robert A. Heinlein
Thanks, jerks. Now I need to get keets next year. :mad:

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax

Lynza posted:

Thanks, jerks. Now I need to get keets next year. :mad:






i'm honoured to be the keet ambassador

Avshalom fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Jun 27, 2016

Anoia
Dec 31, 2003

"Sooner or later, every curse is a prayer."
I like their little helmet heads and stern expressions :kimchi:

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Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax

Fluffy Bunnies posted:

Hi one of my keets is a retarded baby with a hosed up leg and no matter how many times I try to splint his gross little twig leg so the tendon will stay right, it just wildly flails around and he runs around fine on it so gently caress it, he'll probably die getting trampled but for now his name is Bendy Straw.
updates please

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