ilanna greenfield

J,
Thanks for the response. Well being as we made the hard decision of taking them away from her.. Reintroducing could lead to problems. Incubation isn't an option being as I live off grid.
You think letting all the babies die is the best option? Perhaps that is what nature would provide for these little lives.. But we have fucked with nature so much that predators don't have the food needed like they did before we altered forests into tree farms and so on. Mom survived because she has the capability of flying into trees and fighting. These newborns do not have this option. I suppose if we didn't want to increase our flock of guineas.. If/when she sits again I can let nature take it's course. I feel humans influence has messed with the natural cycle so much that these decisions are necessary and conflicting. Permaculture is our way of life.. But we do have expansive tree farms surrounding us.

Hi everyone,
My question is concerning raising guinea hen chicks. Here's the back story-

We have a few adult guinea hens on our 2.5 acres in the mountains of California. We get a huge amount of wildlife including regular bear and bob cat this year. We have Lgd dogs that help keep them away for the most part.

Well my female guinea became broody and had been sitting somewhere in the woods for weeks and finally came tromping home with 4 babies today! Absolutely beautiful to see. We were overjoyed and then realized that she had to have been sitting on 20+ eggs and there she was with 4 babies. We decided to take the babes from her and raise them ourselves under a heat lamp until they're large enough to defend themselves and fly in the trees at night like our adults do.

My dilemma is that mom and their dads are going crazy wanting their chicks back and the chicks of course want mom. I feel horrible separating them but feel it's probably best for survival of the chicks.
What does everyone think??

Also, when I go to reintroduce them when they're old enough... Will they most likely fight or accept them? Will I need to wait until they are fully adult size to defend themselves from the other guineas just in case?

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated! Has anyone gone through this themselves???

Thank you so much! -ilanna

Jay,
Just wanted to drop a line and thank you so much for the responses. Most definitely was simply getting used to their environment and everyone is spot free now. They are the happiest mellow birds we have!
Take care, -ilanna

Perhaps evenings they get spunky.. I'll keep a close eye on it. Most of the ducks (7 of them) have this in their feet and a couple on the bills.
Thanks you for the input!

No actually, that's my largest male. I've observed them and it doesn't seem that they're aggressive towards each other at all... They have a large space and seem quite content.. I've raised kahki's in the same conditions with no problems. I've searched online quite a bit and haven't come up with anything.. Very strange.

Here's a few pics-

Howdy,
We have 6 week old muscovy ducks that I've noticed have yellowish-brown raised spots on the top of their webbing and a little on their bills.. It looks to be some biological growth as I've tried to scrub it off. Any ideas of what this could be??