[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]How I came to have these babies......[/FONT]
I had decided to raise guineas and purchased 6 from a friend, all french guineas and straight run. Well my kiddos one 6 year old girl and a 4 year old boy wanted pets, guineas don't make good pets. SOOOOO I came home with 5 chickens, pullets actually and all was well, until the pullets were set free from their pen by one of the dogs we originally thought they were killed by my daughters blue tick/lab mix. He was just a puppy and we know now he was not the culprit but our 10 year old Bichon Frise, who was playing with them....we thought she was too old for this nonsense. So after much soul searching we decided to go all in. DH (dear hubby) who was not at all interested in this project was inspired by this horrible accident and went nuts building. He built a coop and over 200 feet of fence for their pen. He then got involved in finding more guineas, of the original 6 only 2, a pair, chose to stay in the coop with the chickens. He found another friend who has guineas of all different colors, we purchased 10 keets and they are well. We have dark, white and mixed babies. I will post more pics of them as they grow, they will be a week old tomorrow. I decided to purchase babies from MYPETCHICKEN.com and along came 25 all female chicks at 6:30 in the morning the kids and I were at the post office. During all this craziness I have a friend with a spare rooster that was picking on another rooster and she re homed him to my place. He is beautifully, I don't know what he is but he is big, loud and lovely! We named him Papa, well since we had no hens upon his arrival he became friendly with the female guinea! Yikes, that's all we don't need is some very ugly babies, yes it does happen. I then contacted another friend who has boo coo chickens, she sells eggs and butchers her own pastured chickens for sale as well. She agreed to sell me 3 hens that were ready to lay any day. They are Star the red star sex link, Coco the copper maran and one Ameraucana. Star is very friendly and will let me hold her so the kids can pet her, Coco is kinda aloof but had figured out we bring treats and will stroll up to us to see what we have and the Ameraucana is kinda flaky right now so we will have to wait and see what her name will be. The guineas are more familiar with us and will stand at the gate hollering for a treat if the kids are close. They love apple peels and grapes the kids toss to them over the fence. The kids are totally freaked when the guineas eat the grapes whole.
My EE/Ameraucana Coco, then my Red Star Sex Link Star and my Maran Blackie.......I was corrected today by my 6 year old that these are their proper names. They change weekly so who knows. Thankfully I don't think the chickens know their names anyway....lol.
They had a fabo snack today of cantelope guts, yesterdays left over cream of wheat and salad leavings........ They were really quite happy with me. I hope to get some pics of my roo up so maybe someone can diagnose his breed. I have had differing points of view soooooooo will leave it up to the masses. We may be adding to our family this weekend, funny enough it is a trio much like my own. I Red Star Sex Link also named Star one EE named Mud Puddle and one Black Astroulpe named Susie, plus there is a Silkie family looking for a home from the same farm. The family is moving and have no way to keep them at their new place. I will keep you posted on that one. DH is coop building this Friday. Figure 16 foot square should be our finished dimensions giving us enough room to house 64 birds in that one house. We also will still have the smaller house that has the ability to house 8 mature birds.
We origionally built in for our Micro-flock. Welllllll so much for that idea, they really are like chips. I figure what is one more or 10. I guess I will be selling eggs by this time next year just to get rid of the surplus. I am also hoping the guineas can free range during the day once they are big enough. I think they will be fast enough to get away from my old lad bichon and big enough that she decides they really aren't good playmates. Stopped by a house today that has guineas and they had 4 adults and about 6 babies free ranging. They were beautiful out there together, that is what origionally let me to birds was seeing this family. Hope everyone has a wonderful day and will keep you posted!
I had decided to raise guineas and purchased 6 from a friend, all french guineas and straight run. Well my kiddos one 6 year old girl and a 4 year old boy wanted pets, guineas don't make good pets. SOOOOO I came home with 5 chickens, pullets actually and all was well, until the pullets were set free from their pen by one of the dogs we originally thought they were killed by my daughters blue tick/lab mix. He was just a puppy and we know now he was not the culprit but our 10 year old Bichon Frise, who was playing with them....we thought she was too old for this nonsense. So after much soul searching we decided to go all in. DH (dear hubby) who was not at all interested in this project was inspired by this horrible accident and went nuts building. He built a coop and over 200 feet of fence for their pen. He then got involved in finding more guineas, of the original 6 only 2, a pair, chose to stay in the coop with the chickens. He found another friend who has guineas of all different colors, we purchased 10 keets and they are well. We have dark, white and mixed babies. I will post more pics of them as they grow, they will be a week old tomorrow. I decided to purchase babies from MYPETCHICKEN.com and along came 25 all female chicks at 6:30 in the morning the kids and I were at the post office. During all this craziness I have a friend with a spare rooster that was picking on another rooster and she re homed him to my place. He is beautifully, I don't know what he is but he is big, loud and lovely! We named him Papa, well since we had no hens upon his arrival he became friendly with the female guinea! Yikes, that's all we don't need is some very ugly babies, yes it does happen. I then contacted another friend who has boo coo chickens, she sells eggs and butchers her own pastured chickens for sale as well. She agreed to sell me 3 hens that were ready to lay any day. They are Star the red star sex link, Coco the copper maran and one Ameraucana. Star is very friendly and will let me hold her so the kids can pet her, Coco is kinda aloof but had figured out we bring treats and will stroll up to us to see what we have and the Ameraucana is kinda flaky right now so we will have to wait and see what her name will be. The guineas are more familiar with us and will stand at the gate hollering for a treat if the kids are close. They love apple peels and grapes the kids toss to them over the fence. The kids are totally freaked when the guineas eat the grapes whole.
My EE/Ameraucana Coco, then my Red Star Sex Link Star and my Maran Blackie.......I was corrected today by my 6 year old that these are their proper names. They change weekly so who knows. Thankfully I don't think the chickens know their names anyway....lol.
They had a fabo snack today of cantelope guts, yesterdays left over cream of wheat and salad leavings........ They were really quite happy with me. I hope to get some pics of my roo up so maybe someone can diagnose his breed. I have had differing points of view soooooooo will leave it up to the masses. We may be adding to our family this weekend, funny enough it is a trio much like my own. I Red Star Sex Link also named Star one EE named Mud Puddle and one Black Astroulpe named Susie, plus there is a Silkie family looking for a home from the same farm. The family is moving and have no way to keep them at their new place. I will keep you posted on that one. DH is coop building this Friday. Figure 16 foot square should be our finished dimensions giving us enough room to house 64 birds in that one house. We also will still have the smaller house that has the ability to house 8 mature birds.
We origionally built in for our Micro-flock. Welllllll so much for that idea, they really are like chips. I figure what is one more or 10. I guess I will be selling eggs by this time next year just to get rid of the surplus. I am also hoping the guineas can free range during the day once they are big enough. I think they will be fast enough to get away from my old lad bichon and big enough that she decides they really aren't good playmates. Stopped by a house today that has guineas and they had 4 adults and about 6 babies free ranging. They were beautiful out there together, that is what origionally let me to birds was seeing this family. Hope everyone has a wonderful day and will keep you posted!
