Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

My guineas sleep in the coop with the chickens at night except in summer. They have chosen a tree over the turkey pen and sleep in it under the canopy of leaves where they are unoticed. But they don't start sleeping there until the tree is full and they feel safe. I've had excellent luck with them and have only lost females who chose to nest out in remote tree lines where they got taken by coyotes. They can in fact be trained to sleep inside but it takes time.
And yes they are stupid. They will run back and forth and go crazy if they are in a two foot high fence when it's obvious they can just fly out.

 

[Trish44]

I am looking for Andelusian, black Giant, light Brahma, penciled Rock chicks in Kansas. Can anybody help me out? Some are for 4-H and some for my boss. She's a vet in Dodge City. Thank you for any advice!

I don't have the other breeds, but I do raise Silver Penciled Rocks, send me a PM if you're interested.

I have had a rather long and stressful few days. Friday morning, I found a snake skin in the kids' room (2nd story of the house). Fearing it might be a rattlesnake, I took the kids to stay with some family. We have since had the house sprayed for insects and have put a whole bunch of glue boards out trying to capture the snake. So far, no luck. The kids and I are back home today though. We have decided to get an indoor cat (which is a huge step for my hubby who greatly dislikes cats) and are taking other measures to do our best to ensure this is the ONLY snake that gets into the house. However, I have also been thinking about getting guineas to help control the number of snakes that can get into the yard. I have had multiple people recommend guineas when they hear how many snakes we encounter in the yard annually. We had a white Chinese gander, which my hubby hated because he was so noisy. I have been told guineas are loud but was recently visiting someone who had both white Chinese and guineas, and the white Chinese geese are the only things I heard. I would like something to alert me of visitors/intruders (both human and animal) but am concerned my hubby will hate them for their noise.

Those of you who have had guineas, please share your experiences with them. Are they good at keeping snakes and other things out of the yard? If so, does that also hold true with rattlers? What did you like/dislike about them? How did they do around chickens, ducks, cats, dogs and kids? Any problems with them spending time on the road?

Guineas are good watch dogs, they eat lots & lots of ticks & other bugs. I have only males out in my yard & the only time they're noisy is at feeding time & time to roost. They do alert if there is something that doesn't belong in the yard. Yesterday mine were yelling at wild turkeys that came in & they chased them out. As far as snakes I have not seen mine with a snake, so I can't speak to that. Mine are around my chickens, ducks, cats, & dogs & the only thing with them is they chase the chickens out of the run when I feed so I try to feed them separate or close the run till the chickens are mostly done. My free range ones stay in the trees at night. The secret to keeping them around is get them as keets because adults won't stay if you don't pen them. Mine were all raised from keets & never go very far. They aren't the smartest birds I can tell you that, but I keep them here for ticks because we have so many of them.

 

[Plinky]

What a crazy last 24 hours passed on 10 hens to my partner Heather (some were the favor hens who were going to need body armer if they stayed) and got a call from the SPCA that OP animal control brought in a Guinea Fowl with its wings Zipped Tied. At first I thought that they had just zip tied the tips of the wings but when I went up I saw that the Asshat who had this GF had put the zip tie through the shoulder blades so we had to cut it out and then pour stopping powder and hope that would clot as there is no way to sew the wounds closed. Their chicken vet will be up to check on it tomorrow I played GF sounds in hope of finding out its gender but got no response and its fully grown. So now waiting to hear from the vet on what needs to be done next for it.

That is just nuts. Animal cruelty laws in Jo Co?

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Plinky,
Yep we have great A.C.L. in JOCO , in fact once we confirmed that the location this GF was found in is the same location where the Silver Laced Polish was found last fall with a shoe string tied around its foot Animal Control are building an air tight case of Cock fighting and Animal Cruelty. It may take a bit but we will find who is doing this and they will be getting fined at minim possible jail time especially if we are able to catch them in the act. Until then I will keep taking in these broken babies getting them all fixed up and spoiling them rotten as a new member of our feathered family.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Mufasa the GF was given a clean bill of health and came home with us to our home today its a very sweet GF though we still don't know its gender.

 

[chicken danz]

@lizzyGSR , just a quick note. I have seen my guineas with a snake. It's rather funny to watch. They all get in a circle around the snake, yelling their heads off and go around and around it , like playing ring around the rosey. And they kind of take turns reaching in and pecking at it. The snakes get confused by the activity so the guineas can bite them without getting bit themselves.
Well on the contrary to Trish's post, I gave a friend of mine 6 male guineas that were full sized but still young. She just shut them in the barn with her other animals for a while and they have gone in there to roost ever since. I think they liked the atmosphere of the barn cause they could roost higher.

 

[SidChick]

[COLOR=333333]Greetings all,[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]I am heading to trial April 5th for the charge of harboring a rooster in the city limits.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]The Ordinance does specifically state no roosters when I purchased my overpriced permit, however we all know how hatching and chicken math catches up to us all.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]I have contended and pulled definitions on Cockerel VS Rooster as part of my defense as the culprit bird was 7 months old.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=333333]I actually no longer have the culprit bird as it was arranged to leave before the citation was even issued.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=333333]This has turned into a principal issue with me.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]They offered to drop the case if I paid the 86.50 court cost[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]Curious what others have done with rooster issues.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]Thanks[/COLOR]

I assume you live in Kansas. What town?

 

[Trish44]

Danz the guineas probably liked roosting in that barn way up high is why they stayed. Mine roost way up in the trees above my pens, especially above the guinea breeding pen because there are lots of females in there. I was just referring to just letting them loose with no shelter, they usually will migrate somewhere where they like the conditions better. I do tell people it's best to get keets though so it's easier to integrate them. They are a wild game type of bird, not like chickens at all.

 

[TeeMom]

I just had to share...we have our first home-hatched chickies as of this morning! Mamacita is one of our little blue Isbars and she has been sitting on a mix of eggs from our Marans, Isbars, Speckled Sussex and Barred Rocks. The roo is a blue Ameraucana. We have one of the Marans babies and the other was from either the barred rocks or sussex. Another Marans egg has pipped and there are 2 more that haven't done anything yet, but we are excited regardless. My kids have named the first 2 Tickle and Tinker.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Aww so beautiful congrats!!!!