Another guinea is down

Today was a day of rain and thunderstorms.  They were pretty crazy, but it came in spurts.

In the morning, I looked out the window and saw six guinea.

Six.

We have seven.

Guinea travel in packs and when they're separated they go crazy trying to get back to each other.

Johnathon went outside and walked through the woods on both sides of the house towards the neighbors' properties and behind the house where the goats are.  I figured a wild animal or the neighbor's dog must have gotten the bird, but he couldn't find any sign of the bird.

Four hours later we got in the car and headed down the driveway, but stopped half way there because the guinea were all about 50 feet from the main road.  Normally the cars driving past us on the road will scare the guinea back up towards the house, but I knew if I drove towards them, they'd probably go out to the road.  So Johnathon and I got out of the car to walk towards them and then herd them back up towards the house.

It was as we were getting out of the car that I realized there were seven guinea again.  I was relieved that nothing had happen to the seventh bird, until I realized that he was hopping around on one foot.  It took awhile, but we eventually caught him and carried him up to the kennel.  We couldn't see what was wrong with his leg, it didn't feel broken, but he definitely wasn't using it and didn't want us touching it.

We put him in the chicken run with the chickens, but the rooster immediately pecked at him.  We herded all of the chickens into the coop and closed them in and then left the guinea in the chicken run by himself before we left.

Tomorrow, we will have to investigate what's wrong and try to find out how to fix it...

The long walk home

After living here for a year, we finally got down to the one restaurant in the small town next to us last week.

Chuckwagon Restaurant just sounds country doesn't it?

Johnathon ordered a burger that was larger than mine.  It not only had the typical burger patty, bun, lettuce, tomatoes, and onion, but it also had a sausage patty and a fried egg.

He ate almost the entire burger.

Jeremiah had a kids' burger and green beans.

After dinner the boys decided they wanted to walk home.  In fact they started to run home.

While it was along the main road through the town and there were cars going by, it's still out in the country so it's not too busy.

I drove along with them, pulling to the side of the road in front of them, waiting for them to run past me about a quarter mile, and then driving past them about a half mile and pulling over again.

They made it.

2.6 miles, running almost the entire way.  Laughing and smiling the whole time.

When they got back to the house, I had to drive past our driveway and make a u-turn to come back because of the median in the road.  This is what I saw when I pulled into the driveway:

Faith just doesn't know what to do

This is a good video for being able to hear what guinea fowl sound like.  It's also a good video to see that our dog isn't eating the birds (yet).  She could have gotten to them but she didn't.

Okay, so I will admit that about 5 minutes later one went right past her and she playfully snapped at it.  She could have bit the bird (and eaten it) but she didn't even touch it.  She wants to play and luckily, so far, she understands that she can't actually touch them.

Poopers' final resting place

A few days ago we made Poopers stepping stone to place over her burial site.

And here is where it's been placed

I can't find the guinea

I asked my oldest son to go make sure the birds were in the coop tonight.  He's done this all week since I've been really sick.

This is a simple job.  He goes out, peeks in the coop to count the chickens and roosters (5 total now that we've sold four of the cockerels) and counts the guinea that perch on a board in the chicken run (7 now that we've lost Poopers).  When he comes back in, I ask how many birds there were, and as long as he says 12, we're fine.  He always says 12.

Tonight, he comes back in and says "I can't find the guinea."

He's serious. I pull my boots on, grab a flashlight and head outside.

I grab each of us a long piece of wood to help shoo them once we find them and we start walking to the treeline.

I've read about guinea.  They will leave a coop.  They will fly up into the trees and roost if they need to.  If they don't think they are getting enough food at this home, they'll find another home (in the wild, in the woods, wherever).

Since all of the birds have been wandering further from the coop and actually going around the side of the house eating all of the bugs, I figured that maybe they went over near the tree that had fallen down and when it got dark they just went into that tree to roost.  But I didn't want them to think this was okay and I didn't want them outside of the goat pen at night where any creature could get them.

We started at the garden, worked our way around the driveway, and then made our way around the house to where I thought they would be.

They weren't there.

So we made our way around by the bonfire pit and our outhouse (I'll have to tell you about that later).  They weren't there.

We were about 100 feet away from the coop and I was worried.

How far would they have gone?  Do we need to go into the woods to look?  What if they went out onto the road?  Did one already get eaten by something?  Did I scare them too many times when I took food out to them today?  Did the lawn mower freak them out today?

Then Johnathon says, "I see them".

I look to where his flashlight is pointing and walk over to the chicken run.

There they were, the entire time.  Perched on top of the coop, where they have been before.

I turned around and went back in the house.

Our Coop

Our coop started at a $10 shipping crate that I found on Craigslist.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of ours but it was similar to the ones in the middle of this picture:

I started by raising the lid to create a slanted roof so that it wouldn't hold snow and rain and the gap was needed for ventilation with chicken wire keeping other creatures out.  We used a pack of shingles on the roof.

Then I used hinges and some hooks and handles to create a door on the back so that I could lift it up to retrieve eggs, and lower the bottom door when I needed to clean out the coop.

Then I built a simple shelf for nesting boxes 

and cut the hole for the door to the chicken run.

After a few weeks I installed some plastic storage bins to create more nesting boxes and our coop is complete.  (Yes I know the one on the far right is lower - I did that for a reason).

We use pine shavings in the nesting boxes and on the floor.  I also put in some lime and some "DE" to help with the odor, moisture, and flies.

There is a water feeder and a feeder with grain for them inside the coop, as well as everything outside of the coop.

Frustrated on the Farm

I bought the 8 chickens from someone I thought was a friend.  I told him I wanted a specific breed of chickens, he said they were.  I found out the day I picked them up that 3 were purebred and the other 5 were mixed with the breed I wanted.

It's been about 5 or 6 weeks now and I just found out that NONE of them are the breed I wanted.

Oh wait it gets better.

There are only three females, and 5 males... plus I bought the white male rooster so that's 6 males.

Roosters are like typical steroid gym guys at a bar - they'll fight over the chicks and try to show who's more powerful.  That also means that I won't be getting many eggs - chickens lay (on average) 2 eggs every three days.  So in a week I'd get about 7 eggs with my current batch.  I had been planning on getting about 18ish every week so that I could share with friends.

This all came about because I'd decided to name them and I took pictures to help keep them separated, and then after some research with the pictures I found out the truth about my bunch...

So I'm looking for new homes for 5 of the guys and when the fair comes to town in 2 weeks I can buy some new females since I saw them selling last year.

Here are the men:

The rooster that we are keeping - he already crows

Both of these are boys

And here are the girls:

The girl is the one in the back

Death is just a part of life

One of our guinea died today....

Poopers was the only bird that we had named so far, and the only guinea that will ever get a name since they're so hard to tell apart.  Poopers was the baby chick that had a protruding vent when she was a week or two old and we had to clean her rear end several times a day in order to help her poop, which she needs to do in order to survive.  That's how she got her name.

Shortly after she recovered from the protruding vent issue, she hurt her leg.  Unfortunately, it was broken, and it healed the wrong way.  She was already smaller than the other birds because of her previous health issues, and now she wasn't able to keep up with the birds and it was hard for her to walk.

The vet came out today and I asked her what we should do.  The other birds had begun to attack Poopers and go after her pecking at her for no reason.  The vet also said that because she was walking on her elbow, she would end up getting cuts and infections and they would be very painful and would eventually cause her to die.  Basically the most humane thing to do was to put her down.

I asked them if they could do it, because I am not country enough to take care of that myself.  I also asked them to do it somewhere that I wouldn't be able to see.  They took her back to their truck and gave her a shot to put her to sleep.

I explained to Jeremiah why they needed to put her to sleep and after a moment he said "and then they will bring her back?"...  I had to explain that she would never wake up from this sleep.  He was quiet and after a minute he walked about 50 feet away and sat down to cry.

This was the first time I've ever had to deal with an animal in my life dying when I've been around.  I've had dogs die, but it was after I hadn't seen them for a couple years and they lived with the parent that I didn't live with.

The boys have never known anyone or anything to die besides bugs and snakes, although they know that the animals at the barn are killed for food.

Poopers is in this video - she's the bird on the bottom right corner next to the brown block of grain treats... She's slow to move but when she does you can see how she has to hop everywhere...

We dug a hole tonight, wrapped her in a large piece of pink felt and tied a yellow ribbon around it, and then buried her next to one of our big trees.  We'll be making a marker for her tomorrow.

RIP Poopers...

Free Range

Yesterday I decided to let my chickens be free range....

I opened the door and walked away.

They were out all day and in the late afternoon Jeremiah and I went out to herd them back into the kennel.  They all went back in fairly quickly.



I'm sure they were happy to be free all day and I am happy that they're helping the guinea to eat all the bugs. And they're helping to clear things out  - every day I find things they've uncovered in the ground :)

Freedom for the guinea

The guinea are suppose to be able to fly.  They are suppose to fly out of the kennel during the day to search for bugs, and then come back to the coop at night for safety.  This is what I read, so this is what I've been going off.

They had flown to the top of the kennel a few times, and a couple of them did get out of the kennel and wander around.  They are like pack animals though, so they stay near each other even if that means they're all huddled near the fence - some inside the kennel and some outside. 

There are some guinea in front of the kennel - outside it - and the rest are inside it on the other side of the fence.

The problem was, they didn't seem to understand that they needed to FLY up to the top of the kennel to get back inside where the others were.  On those days, we would be out in the dark catching them and putting them back inside the kennel or the coop.

Today I opened the kennel door and was able to get all the guinea to go out the door so they could wander around.  One chicken managed to get out too.  The darn bird was not working with me to go back inside - and since I was working alone I had to try to keep the chickens inside, while also trying to leave the door open and scare the chicken back in with them.  Wasn't easy so I left her outside for a few hours and then went back to try again. 

When I went back out this afternoon to try to get the chicken inside and to refill the water for everyone (heat advisory today) I had more luck.  The goats seem to think it's interesting to go inside the kennel. 





Luckily Carrie and Kelly decided they wanted to hang out near the door and this helped to get the bird to go inside rather than running past the door again.

 

I took some pictures and video of the guinea, I was trying to get video of them making all their noise but it seems like every time I pressed record they would get quiet.

I will admit, I am nervous about them coming back tonight.  They aren't going far from the kennel, but I don't think they're going to want to go back inside on their own and since all 8 are out they have less reason to stick near the coop.  We will see.

On a better note - here are the tomatoes that I picked from the garden today and yesterday :)

Update the next day: It only took 10 minutes (at the most) to get the birds back into the kennel yesterday evening.  With Jeremiah standing by the open gate posing like a linebacker I scooted the birds around the kennel towards the opening.  It was only a minute of hesitation on their part, wondering if they should run around him or straight away from the kennel, and then they all filed into the coop.  Today I was only able to usher 5 of them out of the kennel and one chicken got out too.  When will they learn to fly?

What's a little vacation...

One of the reasons I thought chickens and dogs were the only pets I would have is because I thought they would be easy to manage on those rare occasions when we were going on vacation.  The dog typically goes with us on vacation since I rent dog-friendly houses on the beach, and I figured chickens just need a ton of food and water left out and they'd be fine.

That isn't the case, and I realized that within a few days of having all of the birds in the coop.

The chickens have three water dishes outside in the kennel area and one inside the coop.  I clean and fill them each morning and by the afternoon they are disgusting and dirty again.  Each morning I dump a huge scoop of feed for them, and by the afternoon they need more.  They have two big feeders in the coop that last two or three days before I need to put more feed in.  And every night I have to herd them all into the coop and close the door because I am worried about a creature coming to eat them.

When our (new) tradition of a week at the beach was getting closer, I realized I really needed to find someone I could trust to come to the house twice a day to feed the goats and the birds and then to put the birds into the coop at night.  Finding a dog sitter was always hard, this was going to be far worse.

The original plan was that a neighbor was going to come do the first half of the week, and then the girl renting a room in our home would do the second half of the week. 

The first day that we arrived at the beach I received a text message at 7:30, two hours past feeding time, from the renter.  She asked about the animals being fed and said she cleaned and filled their waters because it hadn't been done.  Turns out the neighbor didn't come as promised.  I hated to ask her to help even more, but the renter agreed to take care of the animals for the entire week.

I relaxed because I knew I could trust her....

And then Wednesday came.  The goats were out.  Jenny is about 100 pounds (or more) and does not want people to get near her or touch her.  Kelly is about 30-40 pounds and is also slightly skittish, but not as bad.  And the two were out.

They didn't go far, they know where the food is, so they were just hanging out around the mudroom (where the grain is kept.)

I text a friend that lived a few miles away and he came over to help the renter catch the goats and get them back into the pen.  It was about two hours later that I received word that they had finally managed to get everyone back inside.  They both told me not to apologize, it was a funny story they were ready to tell their friends.  How many people can say they wrangled a goat?

The next morning, they were out again.  The renter got them in on Thursday night, on her own.  Friday morning, they were out again.  I told her to just leave them out, they weren't going anywhere.

We got home from our trip on Saturday evening and all three goats were out by then.  Carrie had managed to tear our screen off the screen door to get into the mud room and when it was raining they all ended up in the mud room. 

Welcome home.

Sunday morning we got out to finish the new goat pen we had been building.  They now have about two-thirds of an acre fenced in for them to graze and enjoy.  The chicken coop and kennel is inside their pen area because I've heard they can help keep other creatures from getting to the birds and I am hoping the guinea will help to keep the ticks away from the goats too. 

It's only a matter of time before the goats get out again.

And then we had fowl

When we bought the property, I knew I wanted to have chickens.  My rule about pets was "it must have fur and be over 40 pounds" because I don't care for small dogs or cats and there is no way I would have a reptile or snake in my house.  My rule for outdoor animals was that it must have a purpose.

Chickens have a purpose.  They give us eggs.  No, I could never eat one after I'd raised it.

So the plan was to get chickens.  Simple enough.

But spring hit, and after a very warm winter the ticks came out in full force.  I happen to be talking to my school principal and she mentioned that she had guinea fowl and they eat ticks.  I started researching these birds and found that a couple things

• They make a loud crazy noise all the time
• They are known for being "alarm systems" and will alert you when anything unusual comes onto the property
• Owners say that once they got guineas, they never had ticks again
• They are ugly

I was sold simply because of the tick issue.  I started looking in to buying some but found that they are pretty rare.  They only lay eggs in the warmer months and are horrible parents so it isn't as easy to get some of them hatched like it is for chickens.  Everything I found had to be shipped from out of state - in groups of at least 50.  Then I found someone on Craigslist that bought a group of 50, but only wanted 25 so she was selling the rest.  I bought 12. 

They were 3 days old when we got them, and after a week they were twice the size and I just knew I had too many.  One day I saw one that was much smaller than the rest and I noticed something was wrong with her rear end.  After some google searching I found out that these birds have one "hole" for laying eggs, mating, and eliminating waste.  I also found out that this little bird had a problem in which her feces was dried up inside of her and it would kill her.  Several times a day I had to clean her rear end with warm water.  She did not like it, but she was small enough to fit in my hand so she couldn't exactly get away.  I also read that Preparation H helps with the swelling so I had to go buy some from the store.  It took a little over a week, but she finally seemed to be better, although she was half the size of the others.  Because she is the only one I can tell apart from the others, and because of her issue, she was the only bird that was named... Poopers.

When they were about 3 weeks old, I sold four of them to someone on craigslist because they were getting big and I knew I had too many.

I also started working on building a coop for them.  It took me about a week to finish the coop, but I figured it was big enough for the guinea and the chickens I planned to get.

At 6 weeks old, the fowl were ready to leave the cage in our basement and so I moved them into the coop, and the next day I got 8 chickens (June 24th).  I picked up a rooster a few days later (June 27th).

We now have our birds settled in.