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Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
keet husbandry tip - guinea hens will not lay in the shed. they will refuse. the more effort you put into making nice nesting boxes for them, the more they will laugh in your face. get around this by creating an area of total chaos not far from the coop and watch them gravitate toward it, satisfying their need for rebellion while also keeping their eggs in an easily-accessible spot



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Facebook Aunt
Oct 4, 2008

wiggle wiggle




How does sharing babies work? Shouldn't the babies imprint on one mom and ignore the others? Or is that only in cartoons?

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
i have no idea actually, most of the poultry people i talk to have never heard of a co-parented brood but i've had it happen twice now (with four different hens!). the babies accept both mothers equally, showing no preference toward either one, and the hens share all the responsibilities, including incubating, foraging, sheltering and giving the chicks somewhere to sleep at night. birds definitely imprint upon hatching and in this case i guess they just imprint twice.

Blue Footed Booby
Oct 4, 2006

got those happy feet

Avshalom posted:

i have no idea actually, most of the poultry people i talk to have never heard of a co-parented brood but i've had it happen twice now (with four different hens!). the babies accept both mothers equally, showing no preference toward either one, and the hens share all the responsibilities, including incubating, foraging, sheltering and giving the chicks somewhere to sleep at night. birds definitely imprint upon hatching and in this case i guess they just imprint twice.

Congrats on your lesbian poultry.

CROWS EVERYWHERE
Dec 17, 2012

CAW CAW CAW

Dinosaur Gum
Orange feets!

treasured8elief
Jul 25, 2011

Salad Prong

Avshalom posted:

look out world!

Wonderful! :yayclod:

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
petra and zebby remain in steadfast denial that there's anything unusual about their stripy hunchbacked children







apparently keets can be a challenge for adoptive chickens because while chicks respond to danger by huddling under the mother, keets respond to danger by scattering all over (this is because guinea fowl are terrible mothers). the girls seem to be handling them well though. whenever they go anywhere one hen walks in front and one in the back with the keets lined up in the middle. much to my relief the other chickens have accepted the keets as well, the mums won't let them too near the brood of course but so far there's been no signs of aggression. multiculturalism is a magical thing























you'll recall me saying i wanted more lavenders in my flock - after the disappearances in the other shed my lavender keet population went from six down to two, lol. i have no idea why whatever it was only took lavenders. it may be because they lack the camouflage of the pearls. at least i still have two, and they're both doing great

bonus bucket of chix for willus, with a cameo appearance from vanya



quite stretched out
Feb 17, 2011

the chillest
yes excellent

LITERALLY A BIRD
Sep 27, 2008

I knew you were trouble
when you flew in

Avshalom posted:

the girls seem to be handling them well though. whenever they go anywhere one hen walks in front and one in the back with the keets lined up in the middle.


:kimchi: :kimchi: :kimchi:

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
please enjoy this four-part radio drama about guinea fowl husbandry that i just found



mystery solved

Avshalom fucked around with this message at 09:13 on Mar 13, 2017

CROWS EVERYWHERE
Dec 17, 2012

CAW CAW CAW

Dinosaur Gum

Avshalom posted:

please enjoy this four-part radio drama about guinea fowl husbandry that i just found



mystery solved

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Heavy Petting > keets: PLAY CEREMONIAL MUSIC APPROPRIATE FOR THE CROWNING OF A QUEEN MOTHER FOR 20 SECONDS, THEN FADE UNDER NARRATOR

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
i will embrace as queen mother any woman with a national policy centred on feminism and keets

Hellacopter
Feb 25, 2011

Avshalom posted:





apparently keets can be a challenge for adoptive chickens because while chicks respond to danger by huddling under the mother, keets respond to danger by scattering all over (this is because guinea fowl are terrible mothers). the girls seem to be handling them well though. whenever they go anywhere one hen walks in front and one in the back with the keets lined up in the middle. much to my relief the other chickens have accepted the keets as well, the mums won't let them too near the brood of course but so far there's been no signs of aggression. multiculturalism is a magical thing

i'm amazing that keets manage to grow up at all if that's ow they normally act in the wild. are they as :downs: as quail or are they better about not intentionally killing themselves?

Good mama hens. :3: That picture is awesome.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

Avshalom posted:

i will embrace as queen mother any woman with a national policy centred on feminism and keets

A keet in every bucket and a chicken in every garage.

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax

Hellacopter posted:

i'm amazing that keets manage to grow up at all if that's ow they normally act in the wild. are they as :downs: as quail or are they better about not intentionally killing themselves?

Good mama hens. :3: That picture is awesome.
i am prepared to say that keets have a better self-preservation instinct than quail, if only because i once saw a baby quail fall asleep facedown in the water dish and almost drown in less than a millimetre of water. (i saved it only for it to die in adulthood to a quoll attack.) but the only real advantage keets have over quail is that they're slightly bigger and can run faster. ground birds serve a grand purpose, which is to pump out broods of 30+ chicks, one or two of which survive to maturity while the rest commit ridiculous suicide and fall back into the almighty circle of life

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
the keet eats the grub, the mole eats the keet, the owl eats the mole, the eagle eats the owl, i eat the eagle and the grub eats me

A Spider Covets
May 4, 2009


Keets.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

Avshalom posted:

the keet eats the grub, the mole eats the keet, the owl eats the mole, the eagle eats the owl, i eat the eagle and the grub eats me

The Wicker Keet.

Negative Entropy
Nov 30, 2009

:kimchi: KEEEETS!

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
ugh i am not doing a good job of recording the keets. just say "queepy chee, yeepy kee" to yourself in a high-pitched voice, that's how they sound when they're chatting amongst themselves. the preee! call the tame ones used to do seems to be a weird adaptation of the alarm/annoyance noise, which is a buzzy sort of vreeeet sound. the two tame teens have returned to their wild state and no longer squeal at me or come when called :(

anyway







i can only count twelve keets in these photos but i'm pretty sure i counted thirteen this morning. the best result i've ever achieved is like a 50% survival rate so this is a clear win in favour of the hens! they spend a lot of time at the woodpile, which is like a keet playground - worms, beetles, termites, things to climb on, wow! and it's under a big peppermint tree so it's mostly safe from overhead marauders











as you can see they're quickly getting their adult feathers. they grow up so fast :unsmith:

LITERALLY A BIRD
Sep 27, 2008

I knew you were trouble
when you flew in

I love that each hen matches a set of keet babbies

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
i know! the keets almost look like they could be the hens' natural children, given a few physical impossibilities. the very subtle stripes on lavender keets are my favourite thing

FactsAreUseless
Feb 16, 2011

Keets continue to own.

POOL IS CLOSED
Jul 14, 2011

I'm just exploding with mackerel. This is the aji wo kutta of my discontent.
Pillbug
Eat bugs, become cuter? hmm

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
Lovebirds eat bugs; the theory is sound.

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
this is a termite-infested piece of firewood



or as i like to call it, a keet kong









Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
How much space do you need to raise keets? I'm thinking about buying a house.

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
well it depends on if you want to keep them in adulthood or sell them as soon as they reach maturity. they make a lot of noise and i really wouldn't recommend a flock of more than three or four adult guineas unless you were in a rural area on acreage - not only because of the noise but because they're avid wanderers, i'd say you need five acres to keep a decent-sized flock happy. however if you only want to keep a few adults at a time for eggs and sell the keets once they're old enough not to need heat (4-8 weeks old depending on the weather where you are) a large backyard would be fine. you'll need to make sure they have a fully enclosed run if you're in town, they're good fliers and will be all over your neighbours' backyards otherwise, and you'd be surprised how quickly they go from waddling puffballs to soaring like albatrosses

lock stock and Cheryl
Dec 19, 2009

by zen death robot
OK, this just made my night

A Spider Covets
May 4, 2009


Omg the keet cong is the best thing ever aaaaaaaaa :3:

treasured8elief
Jul 25, 2011

Salad Prong

A Spider Covets posted:

Omg the keet cong is the best thing ever aaaaaaaaa :3:

quite stretched out
Feb 17, 2011

the chillest
this thread is six pages long and I think probably my favourite thread ever

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
this was going to be my final batch of keets but paula the blue guinette is pumping out eggs like a maniac so i have at least one brood left to go before i go back to the city :toot:

A Spider Covets
May 4, 2009


quite stretched out posted:

this thread is six pages long and I think probably my favourite thread ever

I like it a lot too, it's nice to just come in and look at sweet pictures of birds and learn about them

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
sun's out! time to dust it up!

LITERALLY A BIRD
Sep 27, 2008

I knew you were trouble
when you flew in

Avshalom posted:

this was going to be my final batch of keets but paula the blue guinette is pumping out eggs like a maniac so i have at least one brood left to go before i go back to the city :toot:

keets!!!!!!!!!!!!

Avshalom
Feb 14, 2012

by Lowtax
it rained! check out my grass! and my chickens







what's going on in australia's favourite family?



:ohdear:



:unsmith:

Youth Decay
Aug 18, 2015

Requesting a children's book about the keet family in the style of And Tango Makes Three

CROWS EVERYWHERE
Dec 17, 2012

CAW CAW CAW

Dinosaur Gum
I love it when green panic gets rained on and it instantly gets all plump and emerald green and hip-deep overnight

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A Spider Covets
May 4, 2009


That last shot is perfect for a desktop wallpaper!

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