Fifteen Keets.

Monday 27th August 2012

My dyke (The Lambert Drain) joins this much larger one a couple of hundred yards further along. What brought me here this morning was a very rare sighting of a fox (not so welcome now that I keep poultry). A few minutes before a roe deer had been in the dyke, the second morning it has been around. With most of the fields harvested and harrowed, these animals are much more conspicuous now.

Soaking wet feet this morning as a heavy morning dew filled the grass. I quickly checked the guineas and their keets before heading back indoors to wait for the sun to dry things out a bit.

So it was with some surprise that, a couple of hours later, I was presented with this...!

Whilst showing Don the newest recruits to the smallholding, Sue had found seven of the keets huddled together in the long grass, clearly unable to keep up with the rest of the family and in a bad way. So the decision was taken to bring them inside and put them under a lamp.

Good news is, all but one made it and they are now healthy, and very noisy, little fluffballs. G'nea G'nea and Lady Guinea still have eight keets to keep their parental instincts satisfied. It should be easier for them to look after that many and the ones inside should be assured of making it to adulthood now.
If your maths is up to scratch, you'll have worked out that we now have eight keets outside, six brought inside this morning plus the one originally rescued, which has perked up and is happy to have plenty of company of its own kind. One passed away quietly, unable to warm up quickly enough, and one must have died somewhere in the long grass. But still we could end up with fifteen new guineafowl which would be a resounding success.

We have thought about whether or not to reintroduce the seven we have inside to their parents, but we have decided it is better not to have all our eggs in one basket!

A couple of funny incidents

I really did work very hard yesterday, so today I took things a little easier. First thing I did, even before the 'sunrise' photo, was to go and see the guineafowl family. There was rain last night and the grass was wet, so I was very concerned for their survival.
Not to worry though. I found a very contented, healthy family pottering about around the base of an apple tree.


It took a while, but eventually I managed to count 16 healthy keets.
How many can you see in this picture?

Sunday 26th August 2012
Not the best weather for the the newborn keets.

The keets are very special, but the other animals on the farm have not been forgotten. The ducks have a new pool and have been let out with the rest of the poultry. They just waddle around in a gang making contented noises to themselves. The geese, all four of which are now peacefully cohabiting in the same field with the sheep, have the other half of the pool!

The ducks are growing fast.
They are very likeable creatures.

The sheep, affectionately known as Number Ten and Number Eighteen, have really surprised us. They are friendly, gentle and quite entertaining. Number Ten's feet seem much better now.

The first of today's funny incidents concerns Number Eighteen, who has discovered that there are all sorts of tasty nibbles just the other side of the stock fence. So it was today (no photos I'm afraid) that he got his head stuck through the top square of the fencing! He did not have the sense to reverse and, besides, his ears were stopping his head getting back through.
With my several days experience of sheep handling, I tried to help him out gently, without causing panic. However, whatever I did it seemed he was determined to go forwards and not backwards. In the end I had to be quite forceful - only problem was that when I tried to push his head backwards he interpreted it as a headbutting contest and put even more effort into going forwards!

Anyway, in the end he was extricated from his predicament. I'm sure he's learned not to do that again ... NOT!

Say "hello" to Gerald.
After this usually comes
a vigorous shake
and a liberal
spattering of mud!

The second funny incident concerns Gerald, the boar who was supposed to be going back home today. Funny how the farmer has lost his phone every time  Gerald has been due to go back after his boar duties!
Gerald really does scream like a girl when he wants to be fed. And he has learned to stand up on the fence too. He is actually a rather big boy now, though a gentle giant.

But today he went one step too far and his front legs ended up the wrong side of the fence! So he just kind of flopped and lolloped over the fence!
Fortunately he was hungry and it didn't take too much effort to get him back through my newly built gate and into his enclosure. For a few moments he was definitely more perplexed than us though.

All in all an entertaining day. And this lot were still faring well by the evening.

Seventeen Keets!



Friday 24th August 2012

Saturday 25th August 2012




 

 

 









For a couple of days now G'nea G'nea's behaviour has been different. All the while that Lady Guinea has been dutifully sat on her seventeen eggs, he has pretty much got on with life as normal. Maybe a few times a day he might hop the fence and have a cautious peek, and without his spouse he has taken to roosting inside the huts with the other chickens, but apart from that he has been really rather subdued.

But this last couple of days he has been in close attendance to the nest, up to his old macho tricks whenever anyone approaches the nest, squawking and charging with raised wings.

For a moment Sue and I thought we may even be able to hear young birds cheeping under Lady Guinea, but when she went for one of her short excursions back to the chicken pen for food and drink, there were the seventeen eggs still.

But just look what met my eyes this morning.











 

Amazingly Lady Guinea has managed to hatch all SEVENTEEN eggs!!!

Her timing could not have been more perfect, as some sort of fence just had to be built today for the imminent departure of Gerald, and it needed to go virtually through her nest site. In fact, it was as I was wheeling the fencing equipment down that I clapped eyes on the chicks.

The male was in surprisingly close attendance and clearly intends to be the doting father. This is good as it will need the pair of them to be at their most alert and bravest if they are to successfully raise the chicks.

Before I continue, I should tell you that guineafowl chicks are known as keets. Guineafowl are not known as the best of parents and they certainly can't count to seventeen! With a cat, stoats, weasels and probably rats around, as well as the aerial threat from flying predators, we really have never expected more than a couple of the keets to make it to maturity. On top of that, conditions in blustery Lincolnshire do not quite match the more tropical conditions of native fowl. In fact, the primary killer of young keets is the wet, and Sod's Law says that our spell of fine weather is about to come to an end.

 

Read on to find out the fate of this lonesome straggler.

 

The two parents led their quite sizeable family of fluffballs through the grass and around the edge of the chicken pen as if they already had a plan. Unfortunately, one poor keet was unable to keep up and persistently got left behind. I tried not to intervene, but I did twice pick it up and place it back with it's family, but the same happened each time. In the end I decided to leave it be. That's the way nature works and the weakest would never survive anyway. Indeed it would be unwise for the parents to expend their efforts trying to save it. So, unfortunately, it's keep up or be left behind to fend for yourself...

 

That is, until the holy intervention of Sue, who some time later appeared with cute fluffball cupped in her hands!! We now have a second brood box set up in the hall.

 

All this meant that I had a day of great physical exertion driving in fenceposts and hanging gates. But of course I took plenty of breaks and guess which of our many animals got most of my attention! Though of course I did keep a respectable distance.

 

I daren't get my hopes up too much, but at the moment the future looks quite healthy for all sixteen keets. Lady Guinea seems to know what she is doing and both parents seem to be doing a good job. They have abandoned the nest site (a natural defence against predators) and set up camp in the orchard on the other side of the chicken pen.

 

The straggler now inside is still alive, but it is touch and go. It needs to get up and start eating and drinking soon.