Recent content by MakeshiftAcre

He's found a home :)

Big, strong, handsome silver-gray male guinea fowl in search of a flock to lord over and protect. If you have guineas, you already know that he will protect you from ticks and bugs as well, and sound the alert against anything he thinks is dangerous. If you have laying hens only, he'd be a...

My 3 ducks drink from their bathing basin or the sheeps' water bucket during the day, and a gallon jug with a 3" hole cut in at night. Their food bowl is a silicone tube pan (it was a ceramic bundt pan until a cat broke it) with the central hole surrounding a stake set in the ground to keep...

They can all eat the same food; I understand that young ducks need more niacin than chickens do, but it won't hurt the chickens if they get extra niacin. Purina flock raiser is good for both ducks and chickens. If you want to use two different feeds, you can feed the chickens in a hanging...

Ditto! If you find anyone with silkie ducklings for sale, phantom1, please let me know!

Lasts about 2 days, though I try to change it daily due to mud. (I have 3 ducks.)

I use a 1.5 gallon heated dog bowl. I set a gallon milk jug, rinsed and refilled with water and capped, in the bowl, which keeps the ducks from getting into the bowl, though they can still stick their heads in next to the jug. I put two quarter inch holes in the jug, one at the base and one...

I've never had Muscovies, but my 3 khaki campbells are about 4 times as much work as my 5 guineas. OTOH the ducks are nice to each other, to me and to the guineas, while the guineas have a vicious pecking order and not infrequently injure the weakest or keep her out of the coop or away from food.

My guineas solved my tick problem. I found 3 a bare minimum for a large fenced yard, 5 seems ideal. I pen them at night and let them forage in the day. I don't know about meat, but I find guinea eggs taste better than chicken or duck eggs.

I recommend penning the guineas at night. Mine are penned at night and still handle tick control. I have one guinea of whom I would believe that he would attack adults, let alone children. If he ever does, he becomes someone's dinner. Perhaps tag your guineas, perhaps with different paint...

What I have always done when introducing new birds is to keep them in a fenced-off section of the pen until the older birds lose interest.

I agree you want to do everything you can to encourage them to nest in their coop. I use sheep for weed control.

Haven't noticed it clumping either, but ditto. I do have an idea that next time I try brooding it should be on a bed of PDZ covered by paper towels, though granted that would be an enormous muddy pain if the waterer should spill.

My five month old khaki Campbells have been using PDZ as their grit since they were a couple weeks old. Safe according to PDZ website. I think it gives their poops a more dirtlike and less tarlike consistency and may help the smell a bit. It goes in their grit cup and where they scatter it...

In my experience French guineas lay as well, and start laying sooner but are far more prone to ailment and accident.