We think that we have a male keet. Farming Friends & Cottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event
Back in June Farming Friends sent us six guinea fowl eggs in the post to put under our broody hen Mrs Boss. Five eggs hatched out. Sadly, our favourite and the only snow white keet, Lightning, died a couple of weeks ago. The remaining keets are doing well and are nearly three months old. They are bigger than Mrs Boss now. They hang out in a gang with Mrs Boss in tow. She alerts them when there is chopped lettuce or Swiss Chard in the offing. Their instant response is to fly up the run and land in the roof of the Day Centre. Mrs B and the hens...
read moreWe have keets! Fourth update on Farming Friends’ and Cottage Smallholder’s interblog guinea fowl breeding event
We are now on day 28 of Farming Friends’ and Cottage Smallholder’s interblog guinea fowl breeding event . The gestation period for guinea fowl eggs is 26-28 days. This morning I jumped out of bed, pulled on my wellies and shot down to the chicken run. Perhaps the eggs that Sara from Farming Friends had sent us in the post had hatched. I removed the side of Mrs Boss’s castle. She gave me a cursory glance before she hopped off the nest and hoovered up the corn that I had scattered in her handkerchief garden. I examined the...
read moreThird update on Farming Friends’ and Cottage Smallholder’s interblog guinea fowl breeding event
Hopefully this is the last weekend that we will be waiting for the arrival of the keets (baby guinea fowl). The eggs were sent by Sara at Farming Friends and are due to hatch anytime from June 27, so the next Mrs Boss newsflash may well report the addition of tiny keets to our menagerie. Mrs Boss is in her element. Happy in her own studio apartment, she is shifted off the nest twice a day but now doesn’t spend much time in her private garden. She refused to pose for the solo Paparazzo (me) and shimmied back to the eggs, but finding that...
read moreGuest Spot: Henrietta. The chick that we hatched on our Aga by Janet Reading
Eight days ago on June 12, Janet Reading sent me an Email. Her broody hen had died on the nest. The eggs were cold. She moved them to the top of the Aga and wondered what the right incubation temperature for the eggs might be. I keep chickens but I am no expert. A friend of mine had hatched eggs on the top of the Aga so I knew that it could be done. I flew onto the internet and found this useful site. Emails raced back and forth. There was silence until June 16 when she wrote – “We’ve successfully hatched one of the...
read moreUpdate on Farming Friends’ and Cottage Smallholder’s interblog guinea fowl breeding event
Mrs Boss is a bantam that is extremely prone to broodiness. She is also bottom of the pecking order, so her days are lonely. She spends her time running away from Carol, our Maran hen, or spending long sojourns in the anti broody coop. Both of which she hates. When Sara at Farming Friends offered to send some guinea fowl eggs for a broody Mrs Boss we jumped at the chance. This could be the break that Mrs Boss would enjoy. She would be allowed to be broody, and hopefully have some keets (guinea fowl chicks) to care for. If some keets do hatch...
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