Guinea talk.

[pattyhen]

I've noticed Spiderman and Mary Jane running towards each other and bumping their chests. I've never noticed them doing this before. Is a hug I'm glad to see you or this something they do before they mate? I've never seen them mate before so I don't know. I don't think it's aggressive behavier their not pecking each other after they bump their chests.

 

[guineapeeps]

I've noticed Spiderman and Mary Jane running towards each other and bumping their chests.  I've never noticed them doing this before.  Is a hug I'm glad to see  you or this something they do before they mate?  I've never seen them mate before so I don't know.  I don't think it's aggressive behavier their not pecking each other after they bump their chests.  

Patty: I've never seen any of my Guineas do this before....strange, but interesting behavior. You will have to let us know if it develops into anything further.

Sun: I am so sorry to hear about your pearl hen. Losing Guineas to predators is awful! I hope your little lavender family continues to do well.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I've noticed Spiderman and Mary Jane running towards each other and bumping their chests.  I've never noticed them doing this before.  Is a hug I'm glad to see  you or this something they do before they mate?  I've never seen them mate before so I don't know.  I don't think it's aggressive behavier their not pecking each other after they bump their chests.  

I've never seen that before. I've only seen one mating and it was just recently. One of my young girls ran around in circles with her wings out, body low, like a kid pretending to be an airplane. She stopped in front of the male, he hopped on, and it was over in 2 seconds. Faster than my chickens. The most surprising thing is she is only almost 4 months old.

It is so sad to think I am down to only two of my original flock. I think for the most part they lived a happy life. I don't like they came to painful, frightened ends.

It's very rainy today so I covered the run with a tarp but it doesn't extend to the annex where the guineas are. I made a lean to in there with some material left from the coop roof, which freaked them out. Mama was running about and baby was crying because she was cold and getting wet and kept getting stepped on. Finally they went under it. They really frustrate me sometimes lol.

 

[GlennLee]

Hi Sun - So sorry to hear about your Pearl. What a pretty bird she was and it's sad to think you are down to the last two of your original flock. Thinking of you....

I am glad that your guineas finally cooperated and let you keep them dry... they are so crazy and drive us crazy too. Gotta love 'em!

Patti - I have never seen any of my Guineas do any chest bumping. That's quite a thing that you saw it happen. Maybe it is related to a mating ritual; you'll have to see if Mary Jane goes broody now. I really think we are seeing and experiencing things related to Guinea behavior that may not have been seen by many others, just because we spend so much time watching them. Too bad we couldn't be getting paid for it! And, the new birds are in quarantine for one more week. I think they are too healthy - they're sort of wild and a bit crazy!

Two days in the coop / covered run, two days free ranging shortened time, and today was the first day they were out all day after losing the 4 to the coyote. I'm going to keep mixing it up so there isn't a pattern of opportunity. I don't know if it will matter, but at least I'll feel like I'm doing something. I can't be out there following them around all day long. I do walking sweeps a couple of times a day and drive the car around to discourage what I can.

So, I have a question for my peeps - I'm going to be having my neighbors take care of the birds while we are away visiting family next month. The plan was to free range the guineas every day, but I'm having second thoughts with the coyotes and I don't want to put my good neighbors in a difficult situation. Would you keep the guineas in for the week instead of free ranging them? Another option is to move them into the new coop and keep them in there for the week to acclimate, but the downside to that is, they would never be outside. In their current coop there is an attached covered run to the outdoors. Thoughts?

 

[guineapeeps]

Hi Sun - So sorry to hear about your Pearl.  What a pretty bird she was and it's sad to think you are down to the last two of your original flock.  Thinking of you....      I am glad that your guineas finally cooperated and let you keep them dry... they are so crazy and drive us crazy too.  Gotta love 'em!

Patti - I have never seen any of my Guineas do any chest bumping.  That's quite a thing that you saw it happen.  Maybe it is related to a mating ritual; you'll have to see if Mary Jane goes broody now.  I really think we are seeing and experiencing things related to Guinea behavior that may not have been seen by many others, just because we spend so much time watching them.  Too bad we couldn't be getting paid for it!  And, the new birds are in quarantine for one more week.  I think they are too healthy - they're sort of wild and a bit crazy!

Two days in the coop / covered run, two days free ranging shortened time, and today was the first day they were out all day after losing the 4 to the coyote.  I'm going to keep mixing it up so there isn't a pattern of opportunity.  I don't know if it will matter, but at least I'll feel like I'm doing something.  I can't be out there following them around all day long.  I do walking sweeps a couple of times a day and drive the car around to discourage what I can. 

So, I have a question for my peeps - I'm going to be having my neighbors take care of the birds while we are away visiting family next month.  The plan was to free range the guineas every day, but I'm having second thoughts with the coyotes and I don't want to put my good neighbors in a difficult situation.  Would you keep the guineas in for the week instead of free ranging them?  Another option is to move them into the new coop and keep them in there for the week to acclimate, but the downside to that is, they would never be outside.  In their current coop there is an attached covered run to the outdoors.  Thoughts?

About a month ago I had the same dilemma about letting my Guineas free range or lock them in while I was out of town for a week. (I too, have an indoor coop an covered outdoor run). I chose to leave mine locked in their coop and run for the week that I was gone. The previous year I let them free range while I was out of town and something got 2 of my Guineas while I was gone. I think the lack of people outside made it less threatening for predators. I'm sure they were unhappy being locked in but they were all safe and sound when I returned and we're extra happy to be let out to free range again!

 

[pattyhen]

I agree I would put them in their new coop and let them get used to that where they will all be safe. That way when your gone you will have peace of mind that they are safe. It will a lot easier to on the person taking care of them to just come and feed and water and not have to round them up.

I saw Mary Jane and Spiderman bumping chests this morning but they haven't did it since. Who knows

it might just be a little thing they picked up on their own. I'll let you all know if anything evolves from this.

 

[GlennLee]

Patti - have you been letting Spider and Mary Jane watch WWF? Maybe they are peeking in the window from that Glider Swing to watch a little TV!

And, guineapeeps and Patti - Thanks for sharing your thoughts on keeping them in the coop. I think it would be a better option than making someone responsible for rounding them up. They're usually very good about coming back to the coop around 45 minutes before the sunsets, but that would be the time they decide to go AWOL and you're right, the predators seem to sense when we are away. Yes, I think I'll just put them in the new coop for the week. Good way to get them settled in. So far they have been encouraged, but don't seem to want to go much more than just inside the doors.

Have a good evening....

 

[GlennLee]

Sun- meant to ask you about fermenting your food. I'm assuming it's for health reasons for the birds and what's the process you use to do that?

What do you all do to supplement dry food when they aren't out free ranging and eating grass?

Hubby is brushhogging some of the tall grass today to discourage the coyote, plus I like it mowed once a year to keep down brush from taking over. Birds will be out a bit later today and they'll be doing that "oh no, it's an alien" thing with sticking their necks out, keeping their bodies back and googling the entire area before going forward. Lots to laugh at today!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

GlennLee-

I only started experimenting with fermenting a couple of weeks ago and I have mixed feelings about it. It is a bit more work than just dumping feed in the feeders, but the birds seem to like (not love) it. I think I need to tweak my method and the food I am using. Right now I have a bag of Nutrena Meat Bird crumble that I am using. It is very fine crumble like chick starter so a lot of powder. If I put that straight in the feeder I know a good deal gets wasted. In addition, I don't know how they chomp down on mouthfuls of dry powder without needing a drink after each bite! It does cake up on the edges of the beaks too, especially my turkeys. So there goes more waste. So...

For fermenting, right now I am using three half-gallon jars. Those are the biggest I could find at the time and the amount of food I can do in them is fine for breakfast but I could certainly use more room for expansion because the food goes right up to the rim. I fill the jar about halfway primarily with the crumble but I like to mix a small amount of scratch into it as well. I then add warm or hot water almost filling the jar, wait a bit for it to expand, and then add more water. Its hard to find that right balance between just enough water so it is moist through and through and not having it come out soupy when I try to serve it. Anyway, each day after I feed I refill the jar in this manner and it goes to the end of the line (of three jars). So, a jar that I fill on Monday won't be fed until Thursday. The jars that I am using are mason jars with the two piece lid, so I don't use the center section and I cover it with a coffee filter and then put the ring part of the lid on (I hope that makes sense). Fermentation is anaerobic, so you don't need air to be able to get in, but you do need the gases produced by the fermentation to be able to get out or you risk an explosion. And of course the filter helps keep bugs out. Still, it is attracting fruit flies so that is something I need to figure out. I think bigger containers will solve that because right now when it expands sometimes some of the "juice" gets wicked into the coffee filter and that is what is attracting them.

Some people use buckets - either a series of them or just one. Using just one seems nice. Basically they ladle out however much food they need and then add back in some dry food and water and stir it all up. The only issue I have with this is, the next time you feed they won't get all fermented food (some will be the new food you added the day prior) and it would be hard to ensure a good exchange of feed so you don't leave any in there too long, because it will go bad. I still have almost a full bag of the meat bird crumbles so I'll keep going with it at least to the end of the bag.

For feeding the fermented feed, you are only supposed to give them as much as they'll eat in about an hour. I ladle mine out into 7 plastic take way trays saved from a local Chinese food place. That lets me put down enough feeding stations that everyone gets fed without a lot of fighting and bullying. If I keep going with it, I might try to make a sort of trough system I could just pour it into. The other change I would like to make is to switch from crumble to grains but I can't find any local mills that sell or make small batches of poultry rations. I have been looking for information online for how to make my own and I plan to go to another feed store that sells lots of different grains and figure out what that would cost me. I want to make sure I can come up with something nutritious for the birds but easier on the wallet, especially with winter coming up.

Last week I went to a different feed store instead of TSC because I wanted to see what their prices are. They are a Southern States store so the feed is made somewhat locally (PA). I think they work sort of like a franchise and use local stores and feed mills, so price will vary by location and day, depending on grain prices. Anyway, I was able to get 50# of 20% Meat Bird Pellets for $13, which was a good deal, and I'd been wanting to try pellets with the birds to see what they thought. The turkeys loved it. I think it is more satisfying to eat than the mouthfuls of dusty crumble. The younger birds (including the 5-week old keets) also really like them. The smaller birds just pick through to find broken smaller pellets for now, but they don't toss the bigger ones on the ground. The only ones not on board are the oldest guineas. They don't want anything but dry crumble. I'm going to stop catering to them, though, especially now that there are only two, once their baby is old enough for the pellets. Anyway, the pellets go into my big feeder and I put that away at night into a large trashcan, and I put it out in the late afternoon if they are free-ranging all day. Right now it is rainy and dreary so everyone is staying in the run, so I need to put the feeders out earlier, but I don't endlessly fill them because I think like people they will eat out of boredom as well as true hunger. I go out every now and again and toss them some scraps or birdseed (I'm out of scratch right now). My scraps consist of almost anything leftover from cooking or cleaning out the refrigerator, including meat, vegetables, grains, bread, you name it. I have bought them a watermelon when its hot, and I will probably buy them a pumpkin before long.

 

[pattyhen]

I also tried the fermenting food and I went back to the dry crumbles. I added like 2 tablespoons of vinegar to the feed with warm water in a bucket and stirred. Then I put a towel over the top of the bucket and let it sit for two days and fed. Nobody was impressed with the food of course they don't like change very much. There was flies everywhere within a very short time. I think they might enjoy it more in the winter time when it's cold and there aren't any flies.

I just finished the best book I have ever read. The name of it is Water for Elephants by Sara Cruen. It's about a man in a nursing home thinking back on his life. It's one of those books where you can't put it down. It has a happy ending too and Iove books that end happily.There is also a movie about it and I'm going to try and find that.

Spiderman and Mary Jane come in the house yesterday. I held Mary Jane and she enjoyed every minute of it. I think she wanted another bath but I checked her and she was in good shape. My husband had a dentist appointment so he couldn't hold Spiderman. He paced back and forth in front of me and Mary Jane. I think he was a little jealous of all the attention she was getting.

I hope everyone has a nice day. Today is the first day of Fall.