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What’s a keet you ask? These are keets. They are young Guinea Fowl. For a few years now we have tossed around the idea of getting some chickens… But then we’d ask – what for? The Tryon Family Farm is our source for eggs … we’re not that keen on eating chicken … Seemed there really wasn’t a call for them around here. But then we ran into the most wicked of tick seasons. Each morning I’ve been twisting two or three ticks off of Darby and another one or two off of Bella and Rosie. Their poor chins are a mess of bites … They love grazing through the falling leaves in the woods. With this run of ticks though we’ve had to shut the gates and make that area out of bounds. What to do?
Turns out Guinea Hens are known for their voracious feeding on exactly that. They are great tick eaters – among other things. So off I went in search of keets and supplies at our local farm supply. With some research I decided we’d best start with young ones. Then they can grow up to become attached to our property as home. We had begun the day thinking adult birds … and started to build a ‘Quonset style’ coop. I left Ede working on that while I picked up the birds and supplies. When I got home … we realized we were not going to need a large coop for quite a while. So instead we fixed up a ‘nursery’ that we’ll use until they are big enough to move into more space. We’re definitely in uncharted territory for us … another steep learning curve! As of five hours into our project we still have four live keets. I’m counting that as progress. 😉
It’s been a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. We had the chance to hang out with James for a few days. He’s been training for a half marathon. Quite an achievement. The leaves continue to put on an incredible show. The moon is heading for full. And then today, my mentor – Shirley Hornbeck – came walking around the side of the house while we were knee deep in wondering how to house the four little keets. So great to visit with her. She is certainly one of the touchstones in my life. A warm fuzzy day.
The Meadow View 
Have fun with those keets! I hope they solve the tick problem. My friends kept Guinea fowls for a while and gave me some feathers to draw. They have the most sensational feathers and I have drawn them quite a few times, usually in pencil.
I hope so too. I am realizing we’re talking a LONG term plan here. So for now the woods stay off bounds. I can just imagine how colourful and speckled their feathers will be when they are full grown. They sure look cute with the brown feathers they are spotting now.