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Post by mikemurphy on Jan 6, 2009 20:11:19 GMT 8
At least five keats hatched today under a gold laced wyandotte mum, probably more. She has been one of the most placid mums I have known, spending very little time off the nest. I have just sold five of the adult guinea fowl and have buyers for another 6 which will leave me with one breeding pair plus the keats for this season. Haven't made up my mind whether to put more eggs under another gold laced that appears to be getting broody. There certainly seems to be a big demand for guinea fowl down here (Walpole), probably because a lot of of people have big properties they can run on.
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Post by fluffychook on Jan 6, 2009 20:44:52 GMT 8
Lots of people love them, they are certainly not for me, too noisy....lol I have a grandson who is plenty noisy enough for me. If you can sell them, why not breed them, helps pay for some of the feed bill.
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Post by Cluck N Waddle on Jan 7, 2009 5:53:11 GMT 8
Noisy is an understatement lol. There is a big demand for guineas up here too, and as fluffy said, being able to sell quite a few very easily helps pay the feed bill
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Post by mikemurphy on Jan 8, 2009 15:59:14 GMT 8
Looks like only five and one dead but Mum is still sitting on some of the eggs so there may be a late arrival, although usually that doesn't happen. I'll move her from the broody box into a chicks pen tonight.
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Post by lakelands on Jan 8, 2009 16:16:03 GMT 8
I might have to get some guinea fowl soon. how much do they usually sell for.
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Post by Cluck N Waddle on Jan 8, 2009 17:59:51 GMT 8
Hopefully you get a couple of late arrivals Mike. What colours did you hatch? Lakelands, price varies depending on colour and some people ask more for them than others. I sell my pearl and pearl pied keets @ 4-6wks old for $15 each. Lavender would be slightly more. You are aware that they are extremely noisy? lol, do you have good neighbours?
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Post by mikemurphy on Jan 9, 2009 6:38:29 GMT 8
Turns out there are seven live keats, two dead and Mum is still sitting on two eggs which probably won't hatch. Cant think what happened to the 12th egg. I don't know how to tell colours as keats. They are stripey brown and white and look just like chook chicks. Have to admit I have never given them much thought as my focus has been on my gold laced wyandottes. How do you tell pearl, pearl pied and lavender? I have birds that fit all of those descriptions in general terms. Do you breed for those colours or is it just chance?
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Post by Cluck N Waddle on Jan 9, 2009 10:23:25 GMT 8
Yours being stripey brown and white are pearl. Pearl Pied look the same but have white cheeks and chest. Lavender is easy to tell when hatched as its mauve coloured. Here's a piccie, not the best but the brown ones are pearl and you can see how different the lavender looks. This is a good site about keet colouring: paraguinparadise.netfirms.com/keet_kolor_key.htmIts American so we dont have most of those colours over here. As far as I know, Australia has pearl, pearl pied, lavender, lavender pied, silver, silver pied, cinnamon, cinnamon pied. My guineas free range so I dont separate them for colour breeding. Of my adults, I have 4 pearl and 1 pearl pied. They all carry the lavender gene, therefore I get a couple of lavender from each clutch.
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Post by mikemurphy on Jan 10, 2009 6:32:45 GMT 8
Thanks for that CNW. Looks like I have four pearl pied and three pearl and no lavender. Having never seen a lavender keat among all the ones I have bred I would say that gene is not in my flock. Does the pearl pied tutrn into an adult with white blotches. I have several of those and several with no blotches. Also some have a lot more of that beautiful violet colour around the neck.
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Post by Cluck N Waddle on Jan 10, 2009 13:36:31 GMT 8
Yes, the pearl pied when older will have white blotches on its chest. It does sound like there's no lavender gene in your flock. Maybe you should buy some lavender eggs off Farmstock next season I'm planning to buy some lavender pied and silver/silver pied eggs next season and see how I go. Either the male or female (cant remember which and its tooo hot to go outside and check lol) has more violet colouring around the neck.
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