broody Light Sussex

She had been sitting on 4 eggs for 10 days when we managed to buy a dozen fertile guinea fowl eggs, so we swapped them. Poor thing, guinea eggs take 28 days to hatch, so she's had a long haul on the nest. She has a week to go, and is NOT giving up!

Getting a hen to foster them is said to be the best way to raise them, guineas being (apparently) lousy mums. She will also protect them from the other hens and they will more readily accept the keets because of this. They will eventually live in a separate flock, but encounters will be more harmonious. (We once tried to introduce 2 adult guinea fowls, but both the guineas and the chooks became hysterical with terror.)

Oh, and we put her original eggs into our new incubator - 2 were viable and hatched, and have been re-homed with the neighbours.