Hi! I want to thank you all for helping to answer all of my questions about these awesome birds!!! I have ordered our first guinea keets and they are due to be hatched and started up a bit by the first week in July. I am hoping to keep them in my house in a safe area away from my cats of course ( I have a very clean dry walkout basement no one goes in but for laundry and I can put them down there if its ok for them to be alone with being checked on frequently) I'm going to start them on a high protine turkey starter that I'm getting with them ( their breeder , its what they use) I'm going to put it in a shallow dish, should they do alright with that? I know they're small. I am going to use a shallow dish with marbles in it for their water and I will switch it out often of course. They will have either no bedding or wood chips ( if pine is ok? Please let me know about that?). I will put a lamp over the brooder and have them in there for... How long exactly? How much should they eat if they're healthy? Should I worry if it doesn't look like they're drinking? Can someone tell me what their healthy appropriate growth and development a fouls look like, chicks I know but I just don't know what these guys look like while they grow and what I should watch for. And my biggest question!!!-> brooder! I was going to build a big box... Now I want to buy something. Something good that I can use next year for Rhode Island reds and a few other breeds, also and maybe turkeys the year or so after and possibly a couple ducks once or twice in the distant future ( on a regular basis we have all the water foul on our land because of the neighbors pond I'm thinking, we have a resident goose too who's not been an issue, he just likes to eat our yard critters, seems like he might not have a flock?) So something really good at a low cost that is easy to clean and very safe for such tiny tiny keets? Brand or a link to a product or two with info? I will receive 12 birds which is also a consideration as next year I will have that number of chicks and the year after likely 12 and the year after that like I said from there its kind of up to how things go so it should hold 18 chicks and be safe for keets... I'm just not sure what to look for... Any advice would be great!!!! Also if I put a lamp over will I need to? Or are there brooders with lamps? I'm of the build an enclosure and suspend a lamp folk lol but I worry with them and I might as well buy one obviously for peace of mind. Help please :-D I want them to get a good start before they head out to the big world. I would love photos too! I have time to ship something if I need to but my husband is anxious to get them to work ( we have a new piece of land that's very wild and we are slowly clearing so that we can use it as a mini farm and its crawling with all manner of bugs, we have houses across the street and just land to the back and I believe houses on either side but I can't say I've seen them they aren't close and I assume the birds will wander a bit which I posted about before and have had some great responses that helped so much, we decided to go with chicks, we think they may learn where they live better if I grow them to a point then they go in their house outside ( havent started building yet would love photos and advice) then they'll stay in a week or so? And then they can maybe go out and hopefully come in for dinner ideally. We hope that they all survive and stick around but we are realists and just hope no one gets mad if they escape and get into their stuff :-/ when starting with keets what can I do to teach them people and coup good... Road and forest bad? If anything I don't have high hopes lol. How old should they be to be placed in coup? Ah this is going to be very interesting I imagine. Thank you!
