Guineas Come Back Home

This past Mother’s Day, one of our blue cochin hens hatched three little guinea eggs. They were

three orphaned eggs. Two of them found in a flower bed close to the chicken yard, and one

found alone in another bed beside the house. They weren’t in a nest, but almost uncaringly

deposited as decoys or throw aways.  I say this, because the momma did indeed have a nest, which was in a carefully chosen hiding place far from these little orphan eggs. We had a broody hen at the time, so we gingerly placed the eggs in the nesting box underneath the surrogate mom. For more information on this, see The Trial on our blog. Twenty eight days later, these three little ones emerged into the world at which time I removed them from the nest and carried them to the house to place in a brooder box.

 

 We cared for these little guinea babies just like we would care for any chick. It was an exciting time,

as we had never raised guinea keets.  I hoped they wouldn’t be wild, but that they would grow to know and trust us. As the weeks passed and the temperatures soared, we decided that it was time for them to go outside in a secure hutch behind the chicken coop. I was delighted to learn one day while doing their care that two of them were female and one was a male. The female guinea has a two syllable call and the male has a one syllable call, although the female CAN do both! I was able to teach them to eat out of my hand!

They seemed to enjoy their outdoor life and finally the day came to release them. They were about fourteen weeks old. I had dreaded this moment, because we have four other adult guinea (one female and three males) that free range all the time and roost in the trees around our property at night. So, I imagined they would come out of that hutch and take off across the fence to be with the other guinea. Then, I imagined they would have to fight or defend themselves because of their position in the pecking order, not to mention that the other males might want to claim the two young females.  But, to my surprise they stayed in the chicken lot, or fenced area, hanging closely with the chickens and ME! As evening approached, they were still inside the “compound” and when the chickens began to roost, they did as well!  Up on the roosting perches they went as if that was the perfectly natural thing to do.

Blessings,

Penny