There are days...

That I find myself really disliking poultry. Lately I have been having many of them in a row. My old red cranky hen hatched out so far somewhere around 6 guinea keets. Must be the guinea hens were setting themselves for a short time prior to her taking over the clutch of eggs as the babies hatched nearly a week before they should have. Mother Hen is not the best of mothers, probably because she is a red sex-link and they aren't exactly meant to be mothers anyway. She kicked every baby out of the nest, and abandoned them. There were 6 keets alive when she got done, she'd stomped 3 to death that I know of. 

Whaaa but we were sleeping

White keet

Now all the remaining keets are tucked safely in an old hog water trough, with a heat light, food, water, and no marauding mother to kill them. There are 4 that look like they will be pied pearls, and one that is a lovely white shade. One keet did die after we got them away from the cranky lady. She was dragging it around in her beak and try as we might it was badly damaged when we finally got it away from her. Hopefully these last five thrive, and I can get any other chicks, poults or keets that hatch if the remaining eggs are viable away from her before they come to harm.

 Little pearlie pieds :)