Keets!

Eight newly-arrived Guinea keets cluster at the back of their dog kennel/brooder, basking in the warmth of red heat lamps.

At this month's Master Gardener meeting, held earlier this week, I had the good fortune to sit with a local couple fairly swimming in unwanted Guinea keets. (For some reason the young of Guinea hens are referred to as keets, while those of "regular" chickens are chicks.) Jennifer and Jeff have quite the assortment of chickens at their farm and nursery operation, and the arrival of close to a dozen new keets was unwelcome. Being one to support my fellow Master Gardeners in need, I volunteered to take some of the interlopers off of their hands.

A young Guinea keet, with a still-attractively feathered head.

Most of the lot are expected to be lavender or pearl Guineas. (I'm pretty sure our adult Guinea is considered "lavender" in color.) Still unable to sex chicks, I have no idea how many will grow to be hens, although I do hope for a female majority.

Front: our #1 rooster, PrettyBoy; Rear: our Guinea cock, Lawrence.

The morning after the keets arrived, they could be heard peeping vigorously from the stall in which their brooder is located. (Their brooder is one of the large dog crates rigged with heat lamps; we placed it in the current goat maternity stall where Nigerian Dwarfs Jennifer and Cocoa are expecting kids in the not-too-distant future.) That morning, Lawrence--our sole surviving Guinea from last year--excitedly hovered outside of the barn. He fluttered to fence tops and heralded the newcomers' arrival with his attractive (coff!) "Aaak, aaak, aaak!" alarm call. For some reason he did not enter the stall that I could see, but he was clearly excited to have new Guineas on the farm.

We will be interested to see at what point these cute, fluffy little keets develop the, um, different-looking heads of adult Guineas.