Keet Care

Guinea young are called keets. They are very active birds right from the start and may amaze you with just how active and fast they are. They are smaller than full size chicks and precautions should be taken to contain them as they will go right through 1" poultry mesh.

Being native to dry areas of Africa, the keets do not tolerate being wet. If you are raising keets with a guinea hen or foster hen, keep them in the pen until the dew is off the grass each morning. Guineas make poor mothers and often abandon keets that get separated during their daily trips through tall grass. It is not unusual for a hen to lose 75% of her brood during the first two weeks because of this.

Keets can also be brooded on the floor or in cages, either way works well for guineas. The surface of the floor and feed pans should provide good traction for the newly hatched keets. Guineas have weaker legs than chickens and should never be brooded on newspaper or any slick surface. On smooth surfaces, they have a tendancy to go "spraddle-legged" in an extremely short time. Once a leg gets twisted out from under them, it is almost impossible to get the bird to walk normal again. We recommend placing keets on 1/4" or 3/8" hardware cloth because the small holes allow the birds to get traction, but do not let them fall through. 1/2" wire is too large and the birds will get their legs caught quite often. Start brooding temperatures out at 95 degrees F and decrease the temperature 5 degrees each week. Depending on the temperature in the brooding area and the number of birds you have together, you can usually discontinue the heat after 6-8 weeks.

Adults

Adult guineas require very little care and do very well on their own. Clean water and a regular laying mash is all you need to feed them. They enjoy a little scratch mixed in their feed and scattered on the ground. They don't care for the larger grains and will ignore whole corn kernals. We have found that our birds favor wheat and will pick up every grain we put out. If your birds are allowed to raom freely they will eat very little during the summer months. If you have plenty of bugs and seeds you will start wondering if they are even touching their feed at all!