Guinea Keets - OH MY!

Ted brought these home last night.

No, that's not a mirror, that's his brother (or sister!)

Cute little things, aren't they?

If you remember, last year we got 7 guinea keets. They eat lots of ticks, and we have lots for them to eat around here. We live in the woods, and have lots of deer and wild turkeys running around, and they're loaded with ticks.

Well, over the past year, we've lost a few guineas. One got chased into the woods by Maggie, and never came back (it was a cold night). Another (or two) got eaten by a fox. The last one... well something got into the shed and got it, possibly even the dogs. :(

We've had a few adventures with our guineas. Like THIS ONE, when the fox chased them into a tree, and remember THIS ONE, when they wouldn't get off the roof in the snowstorm! Then recently they were PEEPING GUINEAS!

So, we've been down to three for awhile. We've named them Kevin, Nick & Joe, and if you have a teen or tween, you know those are the names of the Jonas Brothers. (Paige is their number one fan, you know.)

Well, 'Nick' has been sitting on 6 eggs for 3 + weeks now, and today for the first time Ted saw one baby keet in the pen with mom. Wow! I checked later, and there are now TWO KEETS! That may be it out of six eggs, we'll know in a few more days.

Here's Mom w/her two new keets. She was off her eggs when I went to check on her, but quickly got back on them. She was just walking to the eggs, and her keets were following right behind her. She got settled on the eggs, and the keets went right under her too, she'll keep them warm. We've got to keep the keets in the cage at between 80-90 degrees at all times or they could die. Mom's taking good care of these keets, I'm impressed! We're going to leave them with Mom, and let her continue to take care of them. We'll care for the other six in the cage inside the mudroom for now, and hope they'll all get along when we mix them together!

Earlier today Ted was putting some fresh shavings around her. We haven't been able to clean out the pen for three weeks, so we wouldn't upset the hen sitting on the eggs, (we didn't want her to get off them, and leave them). Well, Mama Hen was sitting on her eggs, and Ted got too close for her comfort. She hissed at him, and when he didn't move she bit him on the hand! He said it hurt, too! Good Mama, protecting her keets!