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the remaining trio are doing well  so is their stripy surrogate mum, who's been in treatment for a foot infection that seems to have cleared up now. yesterday i caught her snuggled up in the brooder with a keet under each wing and one perched on her back, it was ludicrous. it was a busy weekend but hopefully i'll get a photo op this afternoon, they're about due for some lawn time
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Oct 30, 2016 21:14
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| # ¿ May 8, 2024 09:34 |
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the keets had their first real adventure today! first i put them on the grass but they got scared and keeted at me until i put them back on the verandah, where they chilled out with their siblings (a silver grey dorking and a maran plymouth cross of the same age)  and their surrogate mother bumblebee    and i can't believe this but i actually got the snuggling on camera   it's hard to handle sometimes
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Oct 31, 2016 08:28
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the keets in this batch have all been sold along with their chick friends (my breeding hen is still laying like a machine and i don't want to get too overrun with adult guineas) and the buyer has told me that they're in a box with some extremely tiny fluffy pekin bantam cross chicks and are having a terrific time. so, no names yet - i usually don't name birds until they're fully grown anyway because when i name them i get attached and the death toll for babies is pretty high, especially keets.  my breeding pair are named paula keeting (the lavender one) and ziggy stardust (the pearl). their inexplicable head phalluses cheer me up whenever i look at them. seriously what are those things even for
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Nov 11, 2016 08:51
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i've had chickens moult by themselves, the whole flock doesn't usually do it at once, so hopefully that's what it is. what's its behaviour like? is it staying or nesting away from the group or lying down a lot? if it's not then the problem is likely just dermatological, which if it's not a moult could be a parasite. poultry parasites are easy to see, just catch it and check for things crawling on its skin or white clusters of eggs around the bases of its feathers. apart from that i'm not sure what it could be but i hope it clears up! make sure it has plenty of dry dust to bathe in, maybe dig up a bit of earth for it if they haven't clearly marked out a dust-bathing bowl anywhere
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Nov 13, 2016 05:00
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that snake is doomed, nobody survives the guinea fowl execution circle
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Jan 10, 2017 23:41
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i have three week-old pearl keets at the moment! i'm trying to hand-tame them, which is something i haven't really been able to achieve with any guinea fowl yet - quails and chickens are pretty easy to hand-tame if you start young but guineas seem to just be wilder. currently i have four adult roosters and a hen (i give half-grown guineas away as presents a lot and am obviously not very good at sexing them) so i'm hoping i get at least two girls out of this trio. today they went on a big adventure to the orchard and met the adults, some of whom were indifferent to them and some of whom tried to kill them (i stayed close by for this reason) marianne the wheaten maran already has some adolescent chicks so she didn't want to adopt the keets but nor did she attack them so that was good  ziggy stardust is now inexplicably in a permanent bonded relationship with a black australorp hen named eunice, while paula keeting, previously his mate, now hangs out with the three younger roosters, none of whom are getting any action because she's laying unfertilised eggs at the moment   that's the whole adult flock and the three keets, who showed a definite preference for following the adult guineas around instead of the chickens even though they came out of an incubator and have never seen an adult guinea before. i guess that means they recognise their own species instinctively, which is cool! i was hoping paula (the only lavender one) would adopt them, but hens that aren't currently sitting on eggs adopting random chicks is super rare even for chickens and guinea fowl are far less maternal than chickens so i didn't have high hopes. eventually she started getting agitated at them so i took them away. it's not the right time to introduce small children into the strange and complex sociopolitical world of my fowl flock    ~queepy chee~
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Jan 22, 2017 04:34
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  adventurous youth! every time i take them for a walk, two return peacefully to the brooder box and the other flees into the grassland at high speed. luckily they gravitate to the adult guineas so they're easy to track down - they're not as fast as the grown ups yet so i just have to get between them and the main flock and they run straight into my hands. it's good for my self esteem to be able to outwit the keets. another 25 eggs are in the incubator. i've been having serious incubator problems (partially because our region is prone to 12-hour blackouts) so that doesn't necessarily mean there'll be 25 keets, but fingers crossed
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Feb 5, 2017 00:07
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i've been hand-feeding these ones mealworms so they're pretty tame and when i go into their room they jump up and down and go preeee at me  we're still hoping eunice will hatch some guinea-chicken hybrids, which is very rare but does happen
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Feb 5, 2017 00:38
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poultry are the most ridiculous thing in the world and guinea fowl are the most ridiculous poultry
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Feb 5, 2017 01:27
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Feb 5, 2017 15:54
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  the three keets have graduated to the big hen house! they're enjoying their newfound freedom, hanging around the older chickens and guineas with no problems, dust-bathing and sun-baking for the first time in their life, and probably going to die to a hawk attack soon but that is unfortunately just the reality of free-range poultry out here. i got a bit emotional when i put them out for their first night in the coop, it was like sending a small child off to school for the first time. luckily i can visit them whenever i want and because i fed them mealworms they still come scuttling when they hear the call (which is "chii chiiii!")  a glimpse of the elusive wind keet 
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Feb 13, 2017 03:47
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    do the keet dance!
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Feb 14, 2017 04:01
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 sadly we lost one keet to a hawk, but the other two are doing great. one is a male and one is a female - the two sexes have different calls (males go nyank, females go wank-WANK wank-WANK, it's very offensive) and the children call from a very early age, albeit in squeaky baby voices. during the day they hang around with the adult guineas and at night they've been adopted by my sussex cross hen, the broodiest creature known to mankind, who lets them snuggle up under her with her own chicks. they still come when they're called and have reached their funniest stage of development where they're shaped like the adults but still have their stripy juvenile plumage   one of my other hens is sitting on ~20 guinea eggs and barring an unexpected reptile attack they're due to hatch on wednesday. i haven't had a chicken raise keets from hatching yet (we got close but a goanna stole the eggs like two days before they were due  ) and she's a good mum so that's going to be fun to watch!here are some alt-keets. these species aren't available in australia although people in africa and america who keep them say they're just like domesticated guineas in their upkeep and personality. i live in hope that one day they will come to our fair shores the helmeted guinea fowl is the direct ancestor of the domestic guinea. keets in the wild have a spectacularly low survival rate so these parents are to be commended!:   the crested guinea fowl looks like my aunt:   and the vulturine guinea fowl is the greatest creature known to man:    keets
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Feb 26, 2017 01:45
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i will try to record some guinea fowl noises, i used to have a digital camera that was great for sound recording but my mother tried to take a close-up film of simmering bolognese sauce and dropped it in and it hasn't been quite right ever since
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Feb 26, 2017 01:47
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Feb 27, 2017 23:35
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 pensive teen keet considers whether keets raised by a chicken in the chicken culture are chickens or guinea fowl
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Feb 27, 2017 23:40
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breaking news hot off the presses three keets have popped their shells! so far we have two lavender and a piebald. the blue hen you can see lurking in this photo is petra, she and zebby incubated the clutch together and now they'll either divide the keets up between them or raise them all together. i've only had this happen once before and the two hens involved were like a married couple so they were very co-operative, but petra and zebby don't seem to be quite as devoted to each other so it remains to be seen how they'll handle the situation. as of five minutes ago zebby is back on the unhatched eggs (she moved herself off them presumably to let the keets out) and petra is on the three keets, which i love because two of them are exactly the same colour as her  keets are the best you guys
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Feb 28, 2017 10:15
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:keets!!!!
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Feb 28, 2017 15:37
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     keet count: 14 (!) they're about 50/50 lavender and pearl, some with a bit of white. all are healthy and doing well, some are eating already. petra apparently hustled a keet that belonged to zebby because a bit of pecking went on but overall it has been a peaceful occasion. i am excited and terrified to hear what my farm sounds like in a few months when there are 20+ guinea fowl hollering at once but i have nobody to blame but myself
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Feb 28, 2017 22:58
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  good morning! one keet peacefully passed away from natural causes (this is normal, you usually lose at least one or two early on in a big brood) and now i can only count twelve, but there aren't any others dead so i think i just miscounted at first. end tally is seven pearl and five lavender. i've been looking at getting more lavenders in the flock so i'm happy as a clam. the mothers and babies have bonded and all is well! 
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Mar 1, 2017 23:23
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 my life lol
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Mar 2, 2017 01:10
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i have the worst sort of mystery on my hands: a murder mystery. keets have been disappearing at a slow but steady rate. the brood is down to ten. here is the case i am presented with - every few hours a keet disappears. it leaves no trace - no corpse, no blood, no feathers. - the disappearances happen both in the daytime and in the darkest night, which rules out reptiles and birds of prey - there is never a kerfuffle, the hen shed is like two metres from my window so i would hear it. so that rules out large predators - the keets have two mothers so should be well protected from rat attacks etc. what is going on? my current theory is that it's a rival hen committing keetocide, but it's a shaky theory because none of my other hens have young broods at the moment and it's not something that's ever happened before. another possibility is rats sneaking under petra and zebby to steal the keets one at a time, which is also pretty ridiculous but rats cannot be trusted ever. i am also considering some sort of interdimensional portal. anyway i'll investigate as best i can and keep you all updated on developments in the case
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Mar 2, 2017 23:15
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i have confiscated my two remaining lavenders and a pearl and put them in the brooder box to be raised with my wyandotte chicks, leaving zebby and petra with seven babies, so if i don't solve the mystery at least i'll have some guinea fowl survive to maturity. currently the imprisoned keets are screaming their heads off and i'm hoping they'll settle down soon and won't just drop dead of shock. keets! e: on second thought i relocated both mums and all ten remaining keets to my back-up coop, which i was using as a storage shed. that's where zebby raised her last brood and they all survived so i'm guessing it's not infested with anything! the whole group is reunited and happily pecking and scratching in their own personal nursery Avshalom fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Mar 3, 2017 |
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Mar 3, 2017 00:11
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 Blue Footed Booby posted:The snake is hiding in her butt. anyway! there have been no further disappearances after the relocation and in fact the brood is back up to eleven keets (i had a few more guinea eggs in the incubator so an adoption happened.) all is well. the keets are bright-eyed and scooting around like hot fools on their fat orange legs, eating and drinking and making GBS threads everywhere! there'll be photos later today, it's almost raining atm and my camera takes weird washed-out horror movie shots when it's overcast so i'll wait for sun. Avshalom fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Mar 3, 2017 |
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Mar 3, 2017 23:34
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a chee has been hatched with curled toes. its legs slipped down through gaps in the incubator mesh (usually far too small for feet to fit through, its toes are curled into very tight little fists) so it's done who knows what other damage to its legs struggling to get out - likely a dislocated hip. i'm going to address its feet tonight and see how it's going in the morning before i decide whether to try to fix its legs or euthanise it, which is my least favourite thing in the world but is sometimes necessary. curled toes can be caused by any number of things and are fixed with a stylish tape and cardboard brace (sorry about the photo quality) please send hopes and prayers for the keet! apart from the feet issue it's pretty strong, i had a hell of a time getting the sandals on it and there is definitely nothing wrong with its lungs. CHEE CHEE CHEE CHEE CHEE CHEE
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Mar 4, 2017 07:40
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sadly i had to do the hard thing - the damaged keet developed a big umbilical hernia so i had to accept there was probably something wrong with its whole body, likely not fixable with my resources. another keet hatched this morning and this one's feet are easily twice the size of yesterday's baby's, so that definitely suggests some sort of developmental issue. they are such simple things that i can't condone putting them in pain for any amount of time when the problem's not definitely fixable and guinea fowl are such hyperactive animals that a crippled one likely wouldn't have much quality of life. the keet is in a better place now. anyway here is the newest arrival, who is healthy and active and went from cracking its shell to fully hatched in record time!  life goes on zebby and petra are doing an excellent job in their new shed. the little slugger they adopted yesterday is keeping up very well with its older siblings and there have been no more disappearances!   
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Mar 5, 2017 03:50
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all is well. after a couple more incubator adoptions, the brood is back up to thirteen keets. sometimes the hens split the brood and one forages in the back of the shed with half the keets and the other forages in the front of the shed with the other half. sometimes one hen takes all the keets and the other one has none. sometimes one hen sits down with ten keets under her and the other one forages with three. i'm sure there's rhyme and reason behind their decisions but hell if i know what they're on about   keets really love to perch on their mum. you'll occasionally see a chix sitting on the hen's back but keets do it habitually - earlier zebby had three on her at once and every time one slipped off another one hopped up to take its place. i'll try to get this phenomenon on camera if i catch them doing it again. a bunch of fools imo
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Mar 7, 2017 04:04
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now that the keets can keep up with their mums, zebby and petra herd them away from me whenever i get close. i'm happy with this because they're doing a much better job of raising keets than i ever did! i managed to corner some for photographs though   there are still thirteen of them and they're still absurd. some time in the next few days i'll be opening up the shed so they can go out for their first adventure in the great outdoors, not counting when i relocated them between sheds by carrying them all across the yard in a plastic bucket
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Mar 8, 2017 08:47
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quite stretched out posted:do you have a photo of a bucket full of keets
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Mar 9, 2017 01:38
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wow, they're a long way from home! (technically so are mine but australia is basically guinea in climate and terrain). how do they do with the cold and snow? i've heard the adults are surprisingly good with cold temperatures considering they're desert animals. every farm should have a flock of guard fowls imo. absolutely nothing happens on my property without them telling me about it - hawks, snakes, visitors, branches falling off trees, funny-shaped rock on the ground, the dog, sunshine, rain, i am informed of all occurences. it's good that you have them to watch your goats, it's the only way to be safe
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Mar 10, 2017 09:10
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o poo poo guess who's out and about!      look out world!
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Mar 12, 2017 01:59
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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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Mar 12, 2017 03:02
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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.
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Mar 12, 2017 03:07
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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  
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Mar 13, 2017 02:53
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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 |
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Mar 13, 2017 09:09
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i will embrace as queen mother any woman with a national policy centred on feminism and keets
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Mar 13, 2017 12:12
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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
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Mar 13, 2017 20:28
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as quail or are they better about not intentionally killing themselves?
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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
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Mar 14, 2017 00:18
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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
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Mar 19, 2017 05:06
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| # ¿ May 8, 2024 09:34 |
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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
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Mar 19, 2017 05:12
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