Frankie and Slim

Frankie and Slim
Happy New Year

Thursday, June 17, 2021

WISHING FOR MORE

Ordered Guinea fowl eggs online. The adults are not good parents.  They wander away from their eggs and even from the hatched chicks. Rarely do they come wandering out of the high grass with new born keets.

 

We placed that batch of eggs under one of our big broody hens.  She hatched them and protected them for quite a while.


Here are the baby keets enjoying food and water.  Marbles are placed in their drinking water to keep them from drowning.  Same thing as with baby chicks.

Expectant adult guinea fowl pace, awaiting the time the keets are turned over to them.  Until that time, the mother hen will not let them near.

Now it is time for the young teenagers to join the few adults.  We were so hopeful for this growing confusion.  (That is what you call a group of guinea fowl.)


This all happened five years ago and now we are down to two guinea fowl.  The chicken hawks, the owls and the bald eagles have eaten them and some cars have run over them.  It is a difficult job to raise these birds.  When the last two are gone, I probably won't start another confusion. However these African birds are wonderful for eating bugs, killing snakes and blaring out a loud warning when intruders are in the area. They announce visitors before the dogs do. I hope my kids will want to raise guinea fowl when they build here.  They are definitely talking about chickens and goats.  I will be happy to have those farm animals near me again.

8 comments:

  1. They area always so cute and I'm sorry the predators took so many.

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  2. What a shame that you lost so many of them to those winged predators. They sound like great watch-birds. What an interesting name to call a group of them! Confusion? I wonder why they got that name.

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  3. A confusion sounds about right if the parents are so careless with the chicks. As with doves, which build terribly poor nests that the babies drop out of often, it's a wonder that the species survives!

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  4. I didn't know the collective name for guinea fowl was confusion, thanks.

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  5. I like it! Confusion. They certainly won't win an award for low maintenance!

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  6. Did not now they were so hard to raise. I had heard they were great for keeping the tick population in control. From the sounds of it this year, we all need a few Guinea fowl.

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  7. When I was a kid it seemed to be pretty standard that farms kept a few Guineafowl, as a very effective alarm if for no other reason.

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  8. They were really lovely it's a shame about their demise. However I was a bit worried at first that you were raising them to eat as I didn't realise they were good guards.

    How is the children's move going?

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