Keet Brooder Box or Chick Brooder Box

Guinea fowl keets require a warm, draft free place to live. Getting your Guinea fowl keets off to a good start is the best way to ensure that they will have long, healthy and productive lives. Unlike Guinea fowl adults, Guinea fowl keets are very susceptible to the ills of cold and cold air drafts. Guinea fowl are hearty birds, but as with all species, during their infancy they are weak and dependent.

A brooder box provides the perfect place to start off your Guinea fowl keets. From day one, Guinea fowl keets are eager to learn. Not only are they learning to eat and drink, they are learning the sound of your voice and those of your family. They are also learning about any other animals or pets that live near their brooder.

The brooder box is your Guinea fowl keets' home until they are about two weeks old. During this time they need food, water, to be kept warm and out of drafts, and protection from animals and other perils – such as ledges, electricity, and open water areas. During their stay in the brooder box, your Guinea fowl keets will do lots of sleeping, eating and pooping.

It is highly recommended that you 'socialize' your Guinea fowl. You will, at the very least, not want your Guinea fowl adults to be afraid of you or not know you or your family pets. Some people socialize their Guinea fowl at very high levels. This is done by handling the Guinea fowl keets frequently. The more frequently you handle your Guinea fowl keets, the more socialized they will be. Some people socialize their Guinea fowl so much that the birds will come when called and land on arms, heads or designated posts. The brooder box is an excellent place to socialize Guinea fowl keets.

We designed our brooder box with socializing the Guinea fowl keets in mind. We have two very large and aggressive ranch dogs, so we had some special considerations for the final design. We needed to socialize the Guinea fowl keets to ourselves and our dogs – and we also had to convince the dogs that the Guinea fowl keets were part of the 'pack,' not something to be run off – or eaten.

By properly introducing the Guinea fowl keets to the dogs, the dogs will protect them from the many predators we have around here. In turn, the adult Guinea fowl will eat ticks that would otherwise get on the dogs. The Guinea fowl will also assist the dogs in dealing with snakes. Rattlesnakes are a real problem in our area, and Guinea fowl are much better at coping with them than dogs.

We wanted our brooder box to move throughout the house easily and allow eye-height viewing of the Guinea fowl keets for the dogs – and vice-versa. Putting the finished brooder box, with its generous, fenced-in front viewing area, up on a cart on wheels made following the family around and getting to know us and the dogs much easier. If we want to just check on the keets – we just lift the top lid a little. If we want to watch TV or play a game, we wheel them nearby and take off the front cover of the box.

The handles we installed on the sides of the brooder box allow us to easily move the 22# box around. The box is often removed from the rolling cart and placed on the floor so that the Guinea fowl keets are below the dogs' eye level. This makes the Guinea fowl keets less 'threatening' to the dogs, and aids in training them to include the keets in the pack. The ¼" hardware cloth, instead of chicken wire, thoroughly protects the keets from the dogs during the socialization and acceptance process.

Whatever you choose to do when your keets arrive, make sure you are ready when they get to you. Time is critical when the new Guinea fowl keets arrive in their shipping box. Brooder boxes can be custom made or they can simply be a large cardboard or plastic box. It all depends on how many Guinea fowl keets you're getting, your particular set-up and how you want to interact with your keets during their crucial first weeks of life.