North Carolina

[Tikkijane]

So I have been living in our new home for 4 weeks now and I got a call from our old place saying I would never believe it but there are 20 baby guineas running around in the back field.

I couldn't believe it so I drove down there to look and sure enough, I counted at least 20, possibly 21-23 (so hard to count that many little moving babies).

Here is what was (and is) so hard for me to believe:

2 weeks before we moved, I discovered a rat snake stealing eggs from the guinea nest so I removed the remaining eggs and incubated them. I assumed the guinea stopped laying eggs because this was her second nest gone wrong.

Right around the time we moved, the female guinea disappeared and I didn't see her (nor did the landlady) for days. So we figured she was either broody or eaten by something. Later she was spotted with her boys foraging so it was presumed she was indeed incubating.

So how did she lay 20+ eggs in about 2 weeks?
How did that many eggs from one hen stay viable that long?
And how did she cover them all?

I just don't understand!!!!

P.S. I am positive it is only one hen. I raised them all from eggs last year and observed their behaviour and sounds and I KNOW there is only one girl!

WOW! !! That is awesome! I still don't know how my two keets hatched out 3 weeks *after* the last batch and 2 weeks after the new batch was set (under broodies). It's been almost a week since they hatched and no one else has joined them. Odd.

Did you bring her and the babies home with you?

 

[doubleatraining]

What do you all do with extra cockerels, grow them out and eat them?
I've got a couple Wyandottes, a Rock, and a Delaware that would be big enough size to eat, but would take them awhile...
There's a couple Leghorns that would be a waist of time, Easter Egger I don't know about.

People only want pullets (not that I blame them, I'm the same).
They're 6 weeks old I was trying to sell 10 of them for $20 but no takers

I raise mine out for dog food. I feed my LGDs frozen chickens.

 

[Tikkijane]

also I have a friend looking guineas .. ( idk if I spelled it right ) .. she wants 12 .. anyone have any ?

Go on the Guinea Fowl International FB page. My friend/breeder Carl near Raleigh just hatched out several hundred.

 

[Tikkijane]

It's hatchery stock and it's how he's holding it. 
I do have a cochin though.  She's more short and fat this one stands straight up and holds it's wings down not tucked in like the cochin.  Even though this one doesn't have the muffs my cochins' face is different.
They look completely different, different posture, different size.
I'll take a pic of her standing up next to each other.

D'Uccle have muffs and beards, although it can take a while for those to pop out. Bantam cochins are a lot bigger than d'Uccles; d'Uccles are supposed to have vulture hocks (dq for cochins) and their foot feathering is more profuse; not quite sultan level, but close/r. Fwiw.

 

[Tikkijane]

If you still have them I'll take them, they would be a gift for my dad. He has a lonely bantam cochin roo that he loves.

^^mille fleur d'Uccle roo

 

[Matt A NC]

Holy hot weather, Batman! I can hardly breathe today.

So this is our new baby. No one wanted her because "she was born with one eye." I have her in quarantine, but I'm starting to wonder about the eye thing. I was reading last night and saw something about Marek's and one eye, so now I am freaking out. Have any of you experienced it? I'm a bit new to the chicken thing.

Are you sure the eye is missing? Will the lids open? Her face doesn't look sunk in like it should be with a missing eye. I have a hen with a missing eye from a hawk attack 5 years ago. The difference is very noticeable.

The ocular form of Mareks is called grey-eye. It does not remove the eye, just distorts the pupil and eye color. It can eventually cause blindness in the affected eye.

 

[Banriona]

Just wanted to stop in and say hello! Our cat had kittens on the 1st - a batch of three, but one was super tiny and weak and didn't make it. Anyone wants cats in 6 weeks or so let me know. :/

 

[starlingdaly]

WOW! !! That is awesome! I still don't know how my two keets hatched out 3 weeks *after* the last batch and 2 weeks after the new batch was set (under broodies). It's been almost a week since they hatched and no one else has joined them. Odd.

Did you bring her and the babies home with you?

Hahah that's awesome! Crazy amazing animals and eggs.

I left her and the 20+ keets along with the father and the other male since 1. I never would've been able to catch them lol and 2. I sort of gave them to the old landlord since she said she liked having them around I don't think my new neighbors would be so pleased with guineas ranging in their yards.
My old landlord has a couple of goats and an LGD which was so awesome when I had chickens there. But the guineas and keets will benefit from nesting nearby as he should scare most everything away.
I have a friend who had raised guineas for years and he seems to think that most of the keets will survive to adulthood. I hope the landlord doesn't mind 20 guineas! she only thought she was getting 3!

 

[dutchbunny83]

Long shot-- Anyone know where I can buy HORIZONTAL poultry nipples in the Fayetteville area (already checked TSC and Lake Rim, the store downtown doesn't carry any of that stuff). Or anyone close by have some unused ones they're willing to sell me???? I need them by Saturday!


I ordered them online, paid for express shipping and everything and when they arrived they sent me the vertical ones even though I ordered the horizontal. They said I can return them, but there's no way to get the new ones sent to me before Saturday.

If anyone has any suggestions or can help, PLEASE let me know!!! I had ordered 25, but even like 5-10 I can get by with until I get more.
THANKS!

 

[DonkeyJac]

Just started raining here in the center! Yea!