The release of the keets from the castle
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Chickens, Guinea Fowl | 7 comments
Mrs Boss has been looking after the keets for six weeks now. She is a small feather footed Bantam. And the heroine of the Farming Friends – Cottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event.
Mrs B has proved to be a bit of a star, hatching out five keets and tending them well. She also appears to enjoy the attention of the paparazzi.
On Sunday we decided to open the castle door and let the keets discover the world of the chicken run. Mrs Boss stepped over the threshold with a coterie of four keets, one was left behind trying to figure out how the others had broken through the wire. After a few seconds of beak tapping on the wire, the keet hit open space and shot out to join the rest.
Mrs Boss proudly led the keets around the pen. Observed by Carol, Little White One and Thumper, who decided to investigate the castle for themselves now it was finally open to the general public.
Within minutes it was clear that Mrs Boss was a hen with a mission. The keets had been testing out their wings in the castle’s handkerchief garden. Now they could put these training sessions to good use and fly onto the roof of the chicken house – a handy way of escaping from Carol’s thundering feet and any other sticky situations.
Only Lightning, the white keet, had the courage to fly up and join Mrs Boss. Having observed her heroic leap from the hen house roof to the top of the castle.
At dusk I went down to the run to close the castle gates for the night only to find it empty and abandoned. I followed the sound of clucks and cheeps and discovered that they had joined Mrs Boss and settled for the night in the hay filled hen house nesting box.
Their days of regal seclusion are clearly over.
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Hi Virginia,
Yes it’s good to see them flying. Although one keet is not as proficient as the other four and seems to be a bit nervous about taking off.
Yes I have noticed two different calls but can’t work out which call is coming from which keet!
Glad to hear that yours are doing well.
Hi Fiona, it’s great to see the keets out and flying, isn’t it? I’ve had to “rescue” some of ours a couple of times when they got too adventurous and then lost their way back to the family. Boy, do they make a racket when I catch them, but definately two had different call noises. So I hope there is at least one of each sex.
“Mum” hasn’t taken them back to the hen house yet, she seems quite happy to stay where she is, a large, vacant goose house with a perch added.
Hi Sara,
We love our keets. Thank you so much!
Hi Michelle,
Yes they are quite big now. Although Mrs Boss is small. They seem to be very docile.
Hi Celia,
Apparently you can tell the sex of the keets when they start to make their calls. The male and female calls are different. At the moment they just cheep a lot.
Hi Pat,
Mrs Boss is still loving being mum. She looked so content as she led them around the run for the first time. Thanks for dropping by.
Ohhhhh they have really grown!!!!! Awwwwww they look like teenagers now!!! LOL Mrs. Boss deserves extra rations for a job well done!!!! Just Lovely!!!
They’ve grown so fast!!!!! Mrs Boss is obviously a super-star mum.
Can you tell whether the keets are boys or girls?
Oh my goodness! Look how big they have gotten! Thank you so much for the update!
What a lovely story and I am so glad they are all doing well.
Sara from farmingfriends