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Keet, Keet, Keet

July 9th, 2013

It’s been a busy weekend as far as baby animals are concerned. First the ducklings hatched out late last week, then the guinea eggs started hatching too. Because of the location of the guinea nest we started taking the keets when we noticed them wandering around outside of the safe zone. A few we had to detangle from the chicken wire fence around the run.
keets 1
The first one was found late one night when we arrived home. I heard it squeaking up by the coop. Upon further investigation I found it outside the run away from it’s nest. We grabbed it and put it in a brooder we had just in case. We’ve heard rumors about how terrible guineas are when it comes to mothering their young. The next day we noticed a few more and kept our eyes on them. One was found stuck inside a cinderblock and yet another one was found stuck in the fence. After this we took all the keets as we found them.
keets 2
Yesterday, when the guineas were off the nest I checked and found two smothered keets in it and a few others milling around. We grabbed those and put them in the brooder.  Then the guineas abandoned their nest, so I grabbed a few of the remaining eggs that I could tell were close to hatching. I put them under a heat lamp and covered them with a damp towel. Amazingly, as of writing this, two hatched out and a few more are starting to crack the shells.
keets 3
These little guys are fighters that’s for sure. So far we have 12 keets, two of which are injured from being stuck in the fence. We think one has a broken leg and the other one we’re not sure. We’ll give them time and space to heal and see what happens.

Did anything exciting happen at your place this weekend?

6 Comments to “Keet, Keet, Keet”
  1. Adriana on July 9, 2013 at 7:10 am

    It is an exciting time of year! No births around here, but we started finding ripe berries. We have been picking blueberries, black and red raspberries, wild and cultivated. Not a lot, just enough for dessert and to snack on, hopefully soon we will have tons.

    Reply to Adriana's comment

  2. Mich on July 9, 2013 at 7:22 am

    Guineas are hopeless mothers! Nothing very exciting happening here except the sun is shining a lot & I’ve spotted a few tiny tomatoes forming :)
    Oh and we went and saw a litter of pups and have reserved a little girl.

    Reply to Mich's comment

  3. Marina C on July 9, 2013 at 7:58 am

    Never as exciting as that around here! But berries, sugar snaps, a few pinky grape tomatoes with promise for a salad soon, parsnips finally coming out strong, eggplants just starting their tiny fruit, ans we had a new garlic in our frisée salad. So good!

    Reply to Marina C's comment

  4. MountainMisty on July 9, 2013 at 10:14 am

    Keets! Yay!

    I went out this morning to find that all of my seeds were sprouting…even the herbs! I know it is late, but when we returned from vacation in June, I threw all of the seeds in a one time hoping I’d get something. Looks like I might get a little bit of everything.

    Reply to MountainMisty's comment

  5. Kay on July 9, 2013 at 12:36 pm

    Guineas are just not very smart birds at all. We tried raising them, and they just do not have very good survival skills LOL

    Reply to Kay's comment

  6. Twitter Bird :) on July 11, 2013 at 7:30 pm

    Soo Cool Why Did you not Email Me?

    Reply to Twitter Bird :)'s comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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