Consolidated Kansas

[tweetybaby2005]

Holy moly... it stormed hard this morning. We started getting hails at around 6am and it rained hard with thunder, lightning. I waited a while before headed out to work but it was still raining pretty bad around 7am so I just went to work. We had about 3/4" of rain in about 30 minutes! My pond is filling up nicely though. I can imaging the chicken pen is a muddy mess and will be stinky for a few days.

Trish, Danz... how do you tell male vs. female guineas? My neighbor a mile north of us has them and I can't tell a boy from a girl. Do they make different sound?

I let my hen back to the main coop. She joined her flock mates and was quite happy. I hope she will do well out there.

I think we still have another round of rain coming but should taper off as the day goes on. The rest of the week, we have spotty rain chances.

Enjoy the nice cool weather. After yesterday's 90s, I sure like the cooler weather we have right now.

 

[chicken danz]

Once guineas are old enough to make their calls. The girls have a two syllable call and the boys have a single syllable call. I would say the boys go "Wheat.... wheat...... wheat" And the girls say "Two wheat.....two wheat....two wheat." There really is no other way. You can guess by their wattles etc but that isn't necessarily accurate.
I've been trying to get my laptop to connect to my internet. I changed my settings when we were in Nebraska to go with the motel and now no matter what changes I make it won't connnect. Grrrr! What good is it without internet access? I've tried everything.

 

[Trish44]

That was some storm this morning, the weather radio went off & it was right on us as soon as the thing went off. I don't think we got any hail but we did get hard rain & wind. I don't know if we have branches down or not.

tweety, most people say the female guineas say buckwheat & the males just make a chi chi sound sort of, it's a strange sound. I have a bunch of males running around outside because I don't have that many females left & I keep them in the pen. I don't want to lose the few I have left. The males out here are really obnoxious at night, I don't know if it's because the group came back from the neighbors & they compete with those that were here or what but they yell most of the night a lot of the time.

 

[chicken danz]

I hatched 4 guineas keets in this last batch, some lavender orps, some project brahmas, a couple pheasant and 4 geese.
Then I went outside and found 6 more baby Mandarins. I'm trying to check on them to make sure the hen that bullied the others doesn't start it with these as well. Maybe if they all get along okay I can put the other babies back out soon.
Or I'll be looking for more room to take care of all of them. They really aren't a bird you want to keep inside in a bin.

 

[okjenyp]

Ok a friend of mine posted she got eggs from her 3 month old chickens. Mine are a little over 3 months old. I guess I should get my nesting boxes spruced up??? I thought it's about 6 months when they start to lay... Anyone getting early eggs?? This is all new to me

 

[chicken danz]

I think your friend needs to recount months. The earliest laying chicken that I have ever known of would be a Serama and they can lay as early as 16 weeks. That's almost 4 months. If she has some tiny bantam breed she might be able to get eggs at about that time but doubtful. Most chickens take between 20-24 weeks to start laying. And then some breeds can be 7-8 months or more before they begin depending on conditions and season. It never hurts to get things ready ahead of time because it creeps up on you really fast. But I sure wouldn't be counting on eggs for a few months.
I spent a couple more hours pulling weeds in the flower bed today. My back was hurting so I decided to give it a reason. I need to do the same in the veggie garden. I'd rather just use the mini tiller but it's to wet to do that.

 

[okjenyp]

Thanks danz. I was tripping thinking I could start having eggs and not be prepared. I have stored empty feed bags in the nesting boxes right now to discourage roosting in them. But I will clean them out and start getting them ready anyways.

 

[Trish44]

I never heard of anyone getting eggs that young. Usually 5-6 months & some breeds even longer.

 

[sharol]

Ok a friend of mine posted she got eggs from her 3 month old chickens. Mine are a little over 3 months old. I guess I should get my nesting boxes spruced up??? I thought it's about 6 months when they start to lay... Anyone getting early eggs?? This is all new to me

I have limited experience, but that seems awfully young. Maybe 4 months? I had one of my hens that laid her first egg at 17 weeks (a Golden Campine). Most of them start around 20 weeks or so. Some lots later.

 

[okjenyp]

Well my oldest ones are 14 weeks old and a couple hens are starting to get red combs the other hens combs are still yellowish.