Today's News - momma guinea hatches 9 babies. In the overgrown vegetable patch, 14 eggs become 9 keets and today is their birth date. The first time this has happened with this kind of success (usually some vermin gets her in the night and eats all of the eggs). So what will become of these little ones? Well, they already lost 1 and I had to retrieve it and return it to mom. Not good!
These babies were hatched by the only female I had left in the tribe. Sadly, the one I called "the old lady" died last week. She had taught all of these how to survive as well as the 40 or so before them. She was not doing well and we found her dead in the garden. Too soon for her to meet the 8 we have in the house, her babies, or "the hoodlums" as my husband calls them. The result of the eggs we took out of her nest to incubate.
I don't have high hopes for these little ones, although I'm surprised at the attention they're getting, even from the dominate males. I have been told they might die from fungal problems related to wet grass, or scooped up by a hawk. Let's hope this isn't a sad story because I'm the one that decided to let them be, to leave them alone.
Comments