Minnesota!

[chickyfarm]

ChickyFarm. Having Guinea fowl is fun,, I just will not keep mine in the same coop as my chickens ever again. I like my chickens too much.

I actually plan to double the number of Guineas I have this summer.  I figure some will die over winter.  I have 9 now and I started with 20 running around last summer.

I have no idea when they will lay eggs, but I plan to incubate as many as possible.   They seem to be in demand all the time on Craigslist. 


I will have some whenever they lay eggs. You can get some keets or eggs from me then. Just know the babies are very fragile.  I can never understand if they are just clowns or bullies. The good thing is most of their bad behavior is to each other.

When I picked up the creamettes from Triplell We talked about guineas and she said they were not really domesticated and were 3/4 wild I think she pegged them.

sounds like you have a handful with Ed.

I plan on letting the guineas fowl free range while my chickens only free range while supervised. At least thats the plan for now anyway. Will guinea roost in trees?
Yes, you can count me in for babies if you hatch any

 

[duluthralphie]

Guinea fowl will roost anywhere They like on the roofs a lot. The problem with that is owls like them out in the open like that.


Mine roost in a separate coop/garage now and not with the chickens. I kicked them out of the chicken coop for bad behavior. They still go in there once in a while but I run them out when I see them in there...

They free range and eat with the chickens all day, kind of. They over lap during the day, but the guineas are way more active than the chickens. They seldom stay in one place for more than 5 minutes. ( truly they are nuts).

 

[lalaland]

had a weird chicken experience today. Noticed a year old hen squatting kind of funny, sort of straining, and when she turned around I saw something hanging from her vent. picked her up - she had an egg shell, semi hard, shaped like a giant cheeto. sort of a squiggly thing about the same width as a little finger, just a bit longer.

I gently pulled the rest out of her, and was kind of looking at it and one of the other hens jumped up, grabbed it and ran away with the rest of the flock chasing her. never did see it after that.

hoping it was just an isolated thing, and not a sign of things to come. wish I could have gotten a pic of it though

 

[ejb3810]

Ralphie I am a little surprised to hear about Ed's bad behavior. He was in a community coop all winter with 3 other roosters & a dozen hens, and it seemed that they got along without squabbling. There were also 6 guineas in there, and although they can be aggressive all seemed relatively peaceful.
It is spring (of sorts) hormones are kicking in, and Ed is probably determined to be "the cock of the walk".

 

[jbenson]

Ah finally caught up. Lots going on. Bff took home 4 young layers from my flock for her coop and they must like it because they have laid a few eggs so far since Saturday when we moved them.

Saturday a friend was over with his 2 kids while I was helping bff get birds settled and my overfull incubator got tampered with by the unsupervised offspring. Poached eggs instead of hatching this week and now I have to start over on my booted bantam project. Gah.

Some of those chicks were destined for stardom in a spring themed photo shoot I have been hired for this weekend (I bring and wrangle the chicks it is good fun). So, I freaked a bit about finding fluffy babies for the shoot since by Saturday everything I have will have full wing feathers. Lucky for me Anoka Ramsey farm and garden is getting chicks every Friday. I succumbed to the cuteness of the silver laced polish fluffy faces and ended up taking home 9 of them and 6 white crested black. They had significant shipping stress and quite a few were pasty bottom, but we got them cleaned up and given vitamins and lost only the smallest one. Going back on Friday for a handful of whatever looks the healthiest from the shipment they get that day for the Saturday shoot. Good thing I skipped elk river tsc since someone said they were clean out of chicks. I imagine it is because they are cheap.

I have bantam ee's if anyone is interested. I will be hatching more for at least another month or two. There was a whole slew that got cooked this weekend, but the ladies are being generous and I will reset this week.

 

[nordicacres]

had a weird chicken experience today.  Noticed a year old hen squatting kind of funny, sort of straining, and when she turned around I saw something hanging from her vent.  picked her up - she had an egg shell, semi hard, shaped like a giant cheeto.  sort of a squiggly thing about the same width as a little finger, just a bit longer.

I gently pulled the rest out of her, and was kind of looking at it and one of the other hens jumped up, grabbed it and ran away with the rest of the flock chasing her.  never did see it after that.

hoping it was just an isolated thing, and not a sign of things to come.  wish I could have gotten a pic of it though

Your post reminded me of this blog post I just read. Hopefully this is not it, but I thought it was interesting:

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/12/salpingitis-lash-eggs-in-backyard.html

 

[Bogtown Chick]

You by Walker or the other side of the lake? It actually snowed pretty good for a couple hours in Park Rapids yesterday. Nothing stuck but it was the same big wet flakes you probably got. I do wish we'd get more precip (as long as it's not snow and/or doesn't stick). Do you remember the big fire we had here two springs ago? That thing came within a quarter mile of my house. Scared the crap out of me! I do NOT want a replay of that.

Jailerjoe:

we're on the SE side. I think I remember the fire. DH may have been called for support with his volunteer FD. My memory is bad though.

I'm sure you'll sell your place quickly with that coop adding to the property value and all.

Good luck to everybody selling and buying out there. Busy folks!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Speaking of owls we took this picture last Thursday night. You can see the roof line in the picture of our pole shed. Inside and viewable from the one window on that side were my Cream Legbars.

Dirty bird...dirty bird. Eye balling my Creamettes!



My son and I walked out into the yard to try for a close up and she flew through the yard. Not a sound or swoosh of the wings. They are quiet...and effective hunters that is for sure. DH said that while hunting he's had an owl take a try at his rabbit lined hat. Haha...then it realized it wasn't a rabbit and dropped it.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Ralphie I am a little surprised to hear about Ed's bad behavior. He was in a community coop all winter with 3 other roosters & a dozen hens, and it seemed that they got along without squabbling. There were also 6 guineas in there, and although they can be aggressive all seemed relatively peaceful.
It is spring (of sorts) hormones are kicking in, and Ed is probably determined to be "the cock of the walk".

Ed, it may have nothing to do with anything but the fact it is Spring for that boy. I have males who are calm as can be, then one day they turn into the biggest buttheads and want to fight with everything. It is just Spring Fever kicking in, I am betting. Especially the younger males, they act like stupid 16-year old boys fighting over girls they like.

 

[lalaland]

Your post reminded me of this blog post I just read. Hopefully this is not it, but I thought it was interesting:

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/12/salpingitis-lash-eggs-in-backyard.html

well, dang. Now I can join the learn something new everytime I read this thread gang. Thank you for posting the link.

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed it isn't salpingitis - and because I have marek's in the flock, I already offer quite a bit of immune support to the flock. THe article said 2 years is most common, she hatched last June and has just started laying. Yikes!