Baby Rescue

The good news- we had one guinea keet hatch on Sunday afternoon. 

The bad news- I don't think the other two eggs are going to hatch, so it's going to be lonely unless we buy another baby (chicken or guinea) or find a hen to adopt it. 

I counted back the days to see if I could remember when I first noticed the broody chicken (the duck was broody later). There was a possibility she could be hatching her eggs in the next day or two! 

So I went out to the shed to keep underneath her and see if there was any hatching going on. What do you know, I heard tiny peeping as I walked up to the shed. There were three baby chicks on the ground on the chicken side of the shed! Good news! 

But the broody hen didn't seem too interested in them, which made it seem like she was not their mom. I heard nervous clucking from the haymow... 

When I poked my head up there, I saw two broody hens sitting on eggs with more peeping coming from underneath their feathers! I honestly think it's the same hands that hatched chicks earlier this year. 🤦‍♀️ I decided to name them Thelma and Louise because they are always causing us trouble. 😂 

Long story short, I collected the chicks in a bucket, grabbed one hen, and brought them down to the back goat area. The other hen did not like that I was taking her chicks, and she followed us from above in the haymow and then jumped down to be with the chicks. 

Gathering the babies:

Good news- the guinea successfully adopted a hen as its mom, and the hen adopted it as her baby. One problem solved! 

But what to do about the abandoned eggs? 

Another easy solution- the incubator was still running from the guinea eggs and all 22 eggs from the abandoned nest fit inside. Two of those eggs are in the process of hatching, and one last guinea egg is hatching! 

We'll wait till it gets dark and then add the newly hatched babies to the hens. They're more likely to adopt them in the dark. 

By the time I got back out to the shed with feed and water, Thelma and Louise had safely gathered all the babies under their wings. 

Whew!

But wait, this means my chicken count is off. I didn't account for two hens in the haymow. I also spied the missing Leghorn (with the other Leghorn, so I know we have both). That brings our bird total up to 57. Oh wait, I didn't include the chicks in that...