Guinea talk.

[guinealeghorn]

Merry Christmas!

 

[GlennLee]

Merry Christmas from Glenn Lee Farm!

A picture from last winter, but I still love it. Ella is no longer with us, but she left behind an egg - the only one hatched in the incubator this spring - and gave us Elwood!

 

[GlennLee]

Happy New Year! I hope everyone in the NE is fairing well in dealing with the sub-zero temperatures and windchill.

We try to leave the doors open as much as possible and let the birds make their own decisions about going out, but you know guineas! Sometimes their judgment is a bit off being our "wild" children.

Anyway, I had 5 who decided to spend the night in the trees! Yes, it was a bit brisk out, and 4 out of the 5 decided to make their way inside the next day. But there is always ONE in the crowd or the flock (as it may be) and she decided to spend a second night in the snow, with -20 windchill still up in her tree!

The snow really does a number on their perception of the world. They tend to stay out too late because it provides ambient light and even though there's a light on in the coop, they decided to hunker down and roost in the trees! Something that they seldom do here even in the summer.

Well, the next morning, the lone female was still alive and out of the tree, but huddled in under the eaves on top of the wire roof of the run. Luckily, I was able to get a ladder and detach the roof. As it sagged under her weight, she FINALLY decided it would be good to get inside for some food, water and warmth and flew through the opening and into the coop. A big sigh of relief!

Everyone has been on lockdown for the past few days with windchill warnings here. This afternoon, the doors are open again and they seemed relieved to get out again and bask in the sun. You know it's been cold when 10 degrees feels like a heat wave! I'll be heading down in about an hour to search for stragglers before shutting them in for the night.

Wishing you, yours and your flocks, health and well-being in the New Year and here's to Guinea Talk 2018!

 

[MartinsPoultry]

It's been bad here for windchill too, I have the barn open and they come and go in and out with the remaining flock but what I did to help them is spread an entire bale of hay on the ground on top of the snow to provide some protection to their toes, I find them laying in it as well to just sit in the sun.

Baby flock is managing well in their trampoline frame run and the A-Frame coup. But me being me I was peering in on them through clear plastic and we had snow fall the night prior it only dropped 1.5 inches covering the plastic and ground, and I slipped on it cracked my jaw on the leg frame of the trampoline jarred my brain a good bit, bruised my knee. So tomorrow is doctor call to see if I can get in for the first doctors appointment of the year. So fun...

 

[GlennLee]

@MartinsPoultry very sorry to hear about your accident, Christy. I hope you have a speedy recovery and that the doctor doesn't find anything wrong that would be a long-term problem for you. There has been so much ice with the cold - very treacherous! Our birds fare better than we do. Please take care of yourself and feel better and heal well! Hugs!

Very good idea about spreading the bale of straw. I do that in small amounts to try to encourage them to find a landing pad, but it only lasts for the day. Between the wind and snow it either gets blown away or covered up. Their coops have lots of for them to dig down into and it keeps them occupied when they are in on these brutally cold days.

Off to visit family in NC for a few days - hopefully, I'll miss that storm coming up the coast. So far, so good... hubby is staying home with the birds.

Stay warm and safe everyone.

 

[MartinsPoultry]

So young Guinea flock got a rude awakening yesterday. During normal feeding I caught them attacking the younger chickens so I had enough of it. I grabbed them and handed all 17 to James 2 at a time and we tossed them into the adult flock. Their worlds got rocked to say the least. Tempers flared but we managed to keep an eye on them. They and the adults had been in a see no touch for over 3 and a half to 4 months and it was time for them to join the adults.
Right now they are buckwheating and calling like crazy, they are even dust bathing with them. I am thrilled they are finally in with older ones this will allow the three other males in the older flock to pair up with some really nice females. As for extra Jumbo cockerels we might sell them to someone. I want to keep two males possibly for reproducing Jumbos, and turns our Oddball is a hen woohoo! A goofy looking hen but a hen.
Pictures will come once I head back out

 

[GlennLee]

Sounds like the tough love worked. Of course there are enough of them to hold their own as a flock. I still have two separate flocks. They interact once in a while, but roost in separate places. I'm going to try to post two videos. The one group (mixed colors of royal, royal pied, pearl, pearl pied, white) is staying in the small barn with the English Orpingtons and the other group (lavenders and pearls) is in a smaller coop with the Rhode Island Reds.

 

[MartinsPoultry]

So cute. I hope mine learn to coexist as one major flock if not thats ok. A couple of the bully chicken hens tried to mess with the one we named Lee and he got back at her she learned real fast.

Lee was being a kiss butt today with mommy and daddy because of what we did, but he was one of the biggest offenders.

One night of pushing them in and they went in by themselves tonight I was thrilled. I checked on them last night and even with the multitude of roosts I have some were cuddled with the ducks and geese for extra warmth.

 

[GlennLee]

So cute that they cuddled together. Sounds like they are doing well with the transition. I'm sure you'll be able to have them together in one spot from the sound of things. Of course, that could change once mating season starts! We had a balmy 28 degrees this morning and I was able to get some good pics and videos. Everyone is loving being out and in the sunshine.

 

[MartinsPoultry]

Its an amazing 47 here and everyone is loving it. We had two hawk scares one was being bombarded by a pair of ravens that hang around. I don't mind them so much as they know my feelings for the hawks. If dive bombing the predator isn't working we will stand there and wait to see where he goes since our yard is open. They managed to scare him off today need to reward the pair with some unshelled peanuts.

Not the best pictures but youngones are in there. Osb board i ripped off due to the twits getting stuck x.x someone forgot to give these birds brains I swear.