# Guineas recently hatched chicks/keets



## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

The first Guinea nest that I was aware of has hatched out with 23-25 or so chicks/keets. There is another one with two birds sitting on it that should be coming along soon and I suspect that there is also a third nest that I haven't located.

This seems to be the only thing these birds have done right. They seem to be the dumbest birds ever and would not know to fly over fences and just remain trapped on the wrong side. Then they probably laid hundreds of eggs this spring and just left them in nests around the yard but never set on them. Some were just lone eggs laying in the yard or goat pastures. They didn't put them in a nest.

Anyway, there is a pair of females that seems to be very protective and doing a good job of protecting their new babies. What changed here? I mean these things are so dumb that they could look up during the rain and drown or just stay outside and get soaked when there is plenty of decent shelter around. Now they seem to actually be doing something right. Why did it take so long? Was the temp just not warm enough for them to sit on the nests that they made all over the place?

Conor


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Don't know but glad they are taking care of their keets.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

Wow! That is a lot of keets from one nest! How many guineas do you have? Do you find them less prone to predation than chickens? 

I have seen what you say about them getting over a fence and then making a huge ruckus when they can't figure out to fly back over to the correct side where the rest of the flock is.

I wouldn't necessarily say they are stupid - were they young birds that maybe hadn't perfected their nesting technique? They may have been spooked off previous nests until finding a safer location.


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## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

I have 11-12 guineas now. I started out with 17 but several of those vanished, likely to predators. They seem like once they learned to roost up high, the losses stopped. I think maybe 4-5 of my birds are male.

Yes, they were young birds gotten about this time last year. And yes, some of the nests were in areas with activity such as right where all the goats walk between pastures through an open gate. I knew that nest was doomed when a goat kid was laying on the eggs.

The two nests I am aware of are in good locations out of the way but protected from predators by my electric fence. I suspect a third nest and don't know where it would be but there are quite a few locations. The two nests I am aware of have 2 birds each sitting on them. I don't know if that is normal or not.

I have had to be very vigilant about predator control. Some of the neighbors hoard pitbulls and used to let them run in packs which were vicious killing machines. It seems they finally got the message after loosing several dozen dogs and hearing a loud bang or two and being down some dogs. The dogs did clear out a lot of the other animals like skunks, opossums, and the like but I have also kept up on those too. It seems the neighbors try letting their dogs run again after a year of keeping them up but are quickly reminded by myself and all the other neighbors that this isn't going to work for them.

The mothers are also very protective of the keets. I have two outdoor cats for vermin control and was worried they might take out some of the chicks. Well those mothers charge the cats and I have seen them jump way up in the air to escape the angry hens.

Conor


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