Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, interesting turn of events at coop opening this morning. My last remaining Guinea has passed on abruptly. He was somewhere in the vicinity of 11 years old, and I had noticed him acting a bit strange for a couple days, but thought it was just because of things changing with the roosters moving in with him.

I'll be honest, I was not overly fond of the Guineas for the many years they were here. I took good care of them as I do with all my birds, but I had long since decided to let the Guinea flock die out and not replenish it. It's bittersweet, because it feels like the end of a significant chapter with my poultry, but at the same time it does relieve me of a bit of extra work with him and allows me to devote the time, supplies, and space that had gone to the Guineas for so long to the chickens now, the birds I do want to continue keeping. This last one was a pied pearl male. This was one of the better pictures I took of him, years ago; the Guineas as a rule weren't the most cooperative for pictures.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Sorry for the loss, but another good long life.

I've thought about guineas, but they kind of scare me.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Honestly, I would not recommend getting them unless you are prepared for a totally different experience than chickens or ducks. Actually, genuinely, they're like a lot of traits with chickens amplified to an extreme. They imprint on their coop and have to be locked in for weeks to retrain them to come back to a new spot if moved. They will literally wander for miles in whichever direction they randomly decide on while free-ranging and can get lost or get into trouble with neighbors. They are LOUD, AND SOMETIMES IT JUST SEEMS LIKE THEY WANT TO HEAR THEIR OWN VOICES BECAUSE WHY, WHY ARE YOU YELLING, WHY, THERE IS NOTHING HERE, WHY?! They can fly over any fence, but 99% of the time if it's a wire fence, they can't figure out how to fly back because they can see through it and so they must be able to walk through it, right? If you want to herd them from point A to point B, expect them to randomly dart to the side or get riiiight up close to point B and then turn and run the other way as if magnetically repelled by wherever you want them to be. And if you ever thought that integrating new birds into a flock with chickens was difficult, you will find it impossible with Guineas.

Also, unlike chickens, they do not tame down for anything. I hand rear every one of my birds and not a one of the Guineas, once mature, would let me get within 6 feet of them at the very closest unless I cornered them. So they're not like a pet bird, more of a lawn art sort of bird. (And abstract art at that )

BUT, bear in mind that I was not a fan of them at all most of the time I had them, so my point of view may be skewed by that. For sure they are an experience all their own.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

They sound entertaining if you're not the one rounding them up!

If I were to get another species of poultry, I'm really thinking about turkeys. But, we had a fox visiting from spring through late summer. I lost 3 birds. It was pretty disheartening because the last one was my favorite muscovy hen. ☹ After that, they've all been locked up in the run and haven't had any free range time. Just recently I started letting a few out here and there, but only while I'm out there and only briefly.
So, turkeys will have to wait. I'm not sure I will ever be able to fully free range again. So, I would have to build a different enclosure for them and I don't think that's feasible right now.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

They sound entertaining if you're not the one rounding them up!

Ahaha, that's for sure!! Boy, was it ever frustrating to be the herder, though!


I'm so sorry you had to deal with a fox, and so, so sorry you lost your favorite Muscovy to it as well! That's one of my worst fears, especially living in a woods as I do. Do you have the space that you could put up a fenced area and hotwire it for them to semi-free-range in? I know foxes can jump some pretty tall fences, but it seems like if it's hotwired, that's usually enough of a deterrent that they won't try to jump it because they get zapped before they can.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Ahaha, that's for sure!! Boy, was it ever frustrating to be the herder, though!


I'm so sorry you had to deal with a fox, and so, so sorry you lost your favorite Muscovy to it as well! That's one of my worst fears, especially living in a woods as I do. Do you have the space that you could put up a fenced area and hotwire it for them to semi-free-range in? I know foxes can jump some pretty tall fences, but it seems like if it's hotwired, that's usually enough of a deterrent that they won't try to jump it because they get zapped before they can.

Yeah I could do that, but I have to convince my husband that he doesn't "need" to mow that section of the yard. Lol Maybe next spring I will have hinted enough that he will relent.
We live between corn and bean fields and it's very open. The fox was traveling from woods to woods through the corn field and just happened upon my ducks. But, I haven't seen it since the last episode which happened in August.
Want to know something? One morning on the way to work a few weeks after it took my Mocha, I saw it crossing the road. I almost (almost) ran off the road to hit it. But, I came to my senses. It's a good thing I wasn't super emotional that morning or ... my car would probably be in bad shape.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yeah I could do that, but I have to convince my husband that he doesn't "need" to mow that section of the yard. Lol Maybe next spring I will have hinted enough that he will relent.

Hopefully! I've looked only briefly at hotwiring but I might look further in the spring as well. I do want to hotwire around the pen I attach to my future Old English coop if I'm able to get that done next year, mostly because it'll be in the same general area as where that raccoon broke into a temporary pen and killed my baby Bumblebee in broad daylight. Gotta figure that out, and how to net the top of a wooded pen so that it keeps hawks out but doesn't hold onto leaves or collapse under snow

We live between corn and bean fields and it's very open. The fox was traveling from woods to woods through the corn field and just happened upon my ducks. But, I haven't seen it since the last episode which happened in August.
Want to know something? One morning on the way to work a few weeks after it took my Mocha, I saw it crossing the road. I almost (almost) ran off the road to hit it. But, I came to my senses. It's a good thing I wasn't super emotional that morning or ... my car would probably be in bad shape.

Glad that you didn't wreck your car for it! I'd be tempted to do the same, honestly. I think what saves my flock from being targeted by one is that we're surrounded mostly by cattle and horse farms, so any foxes that make an appearance around here probably meet an untimely end at the hands of another farmer or one of their dogs. Can't say I'm not grateful for that!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it, and happy holidays to the rest! Not really news here based on the time stamp of that last post, but I may be pretty quiet until closer to New Year's because of some stuff going on over here, maybe even after. If I miss out, happy new year as well!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hey, look at that, I'm already posting again!

Just wanted to quickly update that I just found a nest of tiny eggs back under the hutch that the five silkied Cochin girls sleep in, just a bit too small for the Silkie x Cochin mixes, who are the only bantams laying at the moment. I booty-checked all the silkied Cochin girls, since they're the oldest of the pullets, and they're definitely not the culprits! Then I looked at the Barred Rock bantam girls out of curiosity, and, well, it sure looks like Skeeter might be laying! Her comb and wattles aren't huge, but she and Findlay have been squatting occasionally, and her vent is MUCH wider than the Cochin girls' vents, and a bit wider than Finnie's... So I think Skeet might just be the one, at 24 and a half weeks old!

It's been too long since I got up the gumption to take their pictures last, but here's a quick shot of Skeet just now while I was investigating.

 

[Silkie Princess]

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it, and happy holidays to the rest! Not really news here based on the time stamp of that last post, but I may be pretty quiet until closer to New Year's because of some stuff going on over here, maybe even after. If I miss out, happy new year as well! View attachment 2939655

Merry Christmas!

Btw where did you get that sticker?