I need some medical advice for our oldest hen.
Last spring, our oldest peahen 'Queenie' went broody in the tall grass where all our peahens nest. She showed up two weeks later with two nasty wounds, one on each wing, as if something tried to grab her. Her feathers were all messed up and...
So in the past, we had two methods of trying to hatch keats.
We would try to let them do it the natural way, in the fridges of our property, nesting in thick thickets and tall grass. But this usually ended in a well fed owl, ferrel cat, raccoon, or fox.
The other way was following guineas...
I have a mother penhen with two lovely peachicks. They are now six weeks old and are big and healthy. They follow their mother around their large enclosure in the barn.
I have been leery of letting them out into the big world because we lost a couple peachicks last year. One fell in the...
Does anyone know of a place we could get a couple of IB pea chicks before July 27th? I am 8 mo. pregnant and am having maternity photos taken. Since I am known as the 'Pea Chick' in this area, I thought it would be fun to take some shots with real peachicks. But our sitting peahen had her...
I got a call from our local Spee-dee Delivery man that he was chased back into his truck by a pack of clown-faced turkeys! He said they were screeching at him and he as a city slicker and afraid for his life.
I informed him that they were just guineas and as long as he wasn't a flea or a tick...
I have had three guinea hens nesting together under a low hanging pine branch in our windbreak in our backyard. There were about 40 eggs altogether. This morning, after I feed everyone I went to peak at the nest I noticed only 12 eggs. I was shocked!!!
But when the moms came back from eating...
All these years, living in rural Iowa, we have been pest-proofing our coop to keep out raccoons, possums, fox, mink, coyote, rats, weasels, neighbors' dogs. We've worried about hawks, owls, bald eagles, falcons... We've even dealt with a snake or two. We have trained our dog, a blue...
About three weeks ago, one of our peahens showed up with her feathers all messed up. It was suggested on here that she may have been attacked. I have kept a close eye on her. she was acting fine, preening out the crazy feathers and looking better so i never disturbed her too much.
But today...
We currently have two peacocks and two peahens. Our peafowl have always been much more stand-offish than our other birds. Because of this, I see it as a challange to get them to trust me. I am always trying to get them to eat out of my hand and get more use to me. One lady had tamed right...
In the evenings when my chickens are finding their roosts but the guineas are still looking for bugs, we've had a wild pheasant male start to come up REAL close making his CHUCK-chuck call. She I be concerned? Do you think he may try and mate with them? Surely the guinea Roos will keep him at...
We've had peafowl for years and have a new issue.
One of our beautiful peahens turned up looking all tattered and disshoveled with some of her wing feathers poking out every which way. She is acting fine. She just looks like a hot mess! I don't know if its from mating or what. But she looks...
On really rainy days we have had problems with our guineas. Unlike chickens who take shelter, our guineas don't seem to have any issue getting completely water-logged roaming around in the pouring rain. They come in at night looking pathetic! We have worried about them getting pneumonia...
Out guineas have always returned to the coop at night. But last night I had two that tried to roost in a pine tree close to the coop. Since we had an owl attack on a duck recently at around dusk, I encouraged the guineas to come home with a broom handle and a poke in the rear. Funny thing is...
My all white duck, apply named 'Whitey the Duck', got attacked by an owl last night. We found her under the duck coop in a pool of blood being pertected by the big drake.
After examining her in the garage, we found some puncure wounds on her side, blood coming out of her beed and a horrible...
We live in a very remote area. A few cars may drive down our road each day unless there are semi trucks headed to a hog confinment down the way a mile or two. All of our animals are free range and we may lose one or two a year to traffic. But we feel that its worth it for the life they live...
I should actually introduce myself since I have been posting for the past couple weeks. My wife and I raise chickens, guineas, ducks and peafowl on our acerage in southern Iowa. We are both artists and my wife uses the feathers from our birds to make jewelry that we sell.
Our current birds...
I have been reading on here about people getting their guineas to lay in boxes inside the coop and I was skeptical. Our guineas have always prefered a more remote, untamed location to nest like a fence row or our windbreak.
But today I went to collect chicken and ducks eggs from our coop what...
I have big coco maran rooster that is the boss of our backyard. He has always been a good general looking over all of our chickens, guineas and ducks here on our little acreage. This past week and a half, as springtime has finally sprung here in southern Iowa, we have had a lot of issues with...
I have seven blue sweedish ducks that live in a duck coop made out of an old dog house. They are usually free-range but I have them confined in a pin right now because of some overly aggressive guineas (oh the joys of springtime).
Recently we bought two little East Indies ducks and boy are...