Yeah, my doggies are soooo deprived. I cook breakfast for them every morning, and they have dry food always available. But Murphy will tell you he is starving to death!Meg - you should be ashamed talking to us while depriving those poor creatures sustenance!! LOL
I am getting excited. My mother and aunt should be arriving some time today with my great-grandmother's baby grand piano...still have NO idea where we are going to put that thing, but it's a family treasure and I am so blessed to be getting it. I have fond memories of her trying to teach me songs from memory that weren't in English and I still giggle at the shocked expression on her face when she would realize I'd never heard this song or that!! It will be nice if we will be able to afford lessons for the girls and then one day they will be able to play!! I am having a lazy few days!! I am SICK of morning sickness that lasts all day and my house is beginning to show my lack of attention!! I have dust bunnies on top of dust bunnies!!I am determined even if I have to stuff saltines in my mouth while I clean...I'm getting some work done around here today!! I am even MORE determined to get some baking done as my poor hubby hasn't had a decent treat in AGES and I did promise that I would make a big batch of buckeyes and such for him to take to work!! I NEED to get on that. Anyone want to come over and help?? LOL FREE SAMPLES of a family secret recipe!!
DD1 is LOVING the chicks...she still fusses when they peck her little hands, but I try to get her to always have something in them for the chicks to eat (like a meal worm) so she will not get pecked, but she always drops it right as the chick is going for it, so... LOL My mother is hoping to be able to hold a chick as she has never done that before, so we'll see how it goes. I'm rather interested to see how she does, plus I'd really like to handle these chicks so they are not so skittish when they are adults. It will make checking them for parasites/lice/mites/etc SO much easier than having a hands off approach!! It's a pain to stand there and chase chickens while avoiding ducks and guineas!!
Guinea advice: My guineas are starting to get aggressive...(sadly I can't figure out just which ones) Is it "normal" for them to chase and peck the teenagers? I had 2 that actually chased and killed one of my teens (he was a sassy fellow, so I am sure he provoked it somehow...lol). I suspect the 2 that killed the chick were males because I have seen 2 chase each other and pull feathers out, but I cannot catch them and cannot get near enough to them to do anything as they are SO flighty (not to mention...their claws are VERY sharp). They all chase the little ones (not my chicks but my last hatch back in Sept/Oct) around and if they get too close, the guineas will clamp down on their tail feathers and the poor chickens run away screaming with a guinea attached to them. I didn't know if anyone had any suggestions on what to do...or if this is normal...or what. Could I be underfeeding them?? They all free-range so I don't give them much feed - just a coffee can in the AM & another in the PM... should I feed more?? (I am really hoping you all say NO to more feed...LOL) Thanks in advance if you can offer any help!!
On doing the lice treatment/checks...I always do them at night when the birds are perching. A headlamp works well, the birds are already confined and sleepy, and they don't make much fuss. And I don't try to tame most of mine down, as I want them more flighty since they free range.
I had guineas until they started attacking my chickens; particularly my roos. Then I decided that 100 chickens would eat more bugs than a half dozen guineas, and I sent them on their merry way. The clincher was when those "good guardians" were still out in the pasture near the dead tree in the corner, and all the chickens were huddled up by the henhouse...because there was a hawk sitting in the dead tree!
I had wanted guineas for years. We had them when I was a kid. I used to find their nests and use their eggs to play ball with, since they are so hard. I found out the hard way that although they will bounce, they will not survive a baseball bat!
Mom also found out, after we got this place, why she never got watermelons. When hubby and I planted them, she told me not to bother, the deer were going to get them anyway. Those "deer" were me and Daddy. We'd wait until Mom was about to get one, then we'd sneak out, break it open, and scoop out sun-warmed watermelon with our hands and eat it until we were full. Mom always thought it was deer. She never got a watermelon. I kept telling her to plant more and she'd get some, but she didn't!
Okay, sun's well up...time to do chores!
