South Carolina

[WestKnollAmy]

Jackie B. :

It's official (as if it wasn't before). Guineas are stupid. And fast. And need to be penned up as long as possible. I am now covered in spider webs and probably posion ivy as my 3 made a bee line for the woods when they escaped. At least is great weather out!

Guinea boy cooped up with the chickens last night and I have no idea where Guinea girl is so I hope the keets are okay.
This is some adventure, eh?
You will have grey hair way before your time....not to mention poison ivy, chiggers, scratches and bruises!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:
Egad! They are so tiny. How absolutely precious!

I had one lone Silkie hatch out yesterday so now I have to trot down to the barn and get 2 or 3 of the smallest ones from last hatch and put in the brooder tank with it. I wish I could just sit and hold the precious thing all day.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:

Joy has a flock. You might want to check with her right now. It will be a while before I have any since mine are all only 5 months old.

They are super personable! I have been showing mine off to folks who come over and I just open the tractor top up like you see in the photos and they fly up onto our arms and wait for petting. These are nice, very small birds that enjoy daily contact. DH says we will be bringing them in the house when it gets cold!

I would not go that far but they are easy to deal with. I can scoop them up and put them right back into the tractor. Sometimes they take a short flight but come back to me without any problems.

I weighed mine yesterday and they are right on the nose for the correct weight of their breed. People kept saying how small they were and granted, everyone's I saw were a lot bigger so I wondered why mine were so small.

Glad to know mine aren't puny! They are the perfect size for their breed!

If you are going to wait until next spring to get some I will be hatching a few out then. Mostly I will sell the hatching eggs but I know I need to hatch a few out for other people that have asked for some.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:
Yancy, please let us know what the fecal shows. I hope it will be something you can treat quickly and get her back on her normal track. She is too pretty to be laying around, not showing herself off.

This time of year will make the most vigorous animals and humans feel sluggish. With night temps being a bit chilly and day temps still being pretty warm (supposed to hit 89 today?!) it can mess up our immune system.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:
Nah, Joy! It can't be a dirty house! Mine has to be worse than yours!
I have 60+ Guinea pigs in one room and you know how messy and dusty shavings make the rest of the house, not to mention the hay I feed them. We are not breeding them anymore. DD has decided not to have any more to show so once her show crew have gotten too out of condition then she will not be going any more. I will seriously miss it as I have met some incredible friends through this adventure. We do not have any more pregnant sows and only 2 babies left to sell with one new and upcoming show potential.
So now we are on our way to a somewhat cleaner house as some old piggies start flying off to heaven. (See! Pigs do fly!) Our oldest one and the last of her immediate family, had her 7th Birthday on Friday. That is old for a Guinea Pig!

I did clean my bathroom the other day. Does that count?

It's my kitchen that I hate to clean! DH picked up some last night so I could make some homemade ice cream from some of that fresh cow's milk. We had fresh Peach ice cream for supper. Yum!

And what was the deal with all the egg buying this weekend? I sold every egg I had yesterday! My gosh! I usually always have at least 5 dz sitting here but people came all weekend buying 5 and 6 dz at a time! I picked up several new customers and turned some regulars away til today. It was crazy! Okay, not crazy. Just awesome. Several folks have chickens but theirs are not laying. When you only have a few it is easy to notice when some are not laying but with several hundred I always have eggs. They may be small but I have eggs!

I am sure the Guinea eggs will hatch great in your 'bator. I know you will be thrilled to get some more lavs and other colors. I like to see the colors out mingling around. I don't want to turn any of my lavs out but if I have several males I will let some go with Guinea boy. He comes to flirt with the girls every day so they know him. They have gotten out of the trampoline pen a few times because the ducks go under the fence into there. I have no idea why since there is more food and water in the duck pen but you know ducks.

But with some Guinea in the pen still they do not wander off and I can open that little makeshift door and they go right back in. Goodness knows they could never figure out how to go back under the fence.

Jackies' keets are the ones that went on the walkabout yesterday. They are about 3 weeks old now and are ones from Heidi's (Redbug) hatch. Keets are sure different from chicks!

But we are learning. What an experience!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:
What she said!

I had mine to get it several years ago. That was before people were coming onto my place so it wasn't from humans (as many had tried to tell me!) and once I found out what it was my vet friend looked it up to find treatments and said it probably came from wild birds since we used to have so many feeders out. DH and I used to bird watch a good bit before chickens. Now they are more entertaining to watch in the yard but we still have some fun with the wild birds. We often saw sick wild birds and did not know what they were sick from but thinking back we now realize some of the things they were showing symptoms of.

I used no treatments for mine when they had it since like emptynester said, it is pretty much done by then. Mine also had the dry form. I have new birds since then, of course, but no one has gotten it since that year.

And yes, the mosquito are bad this year. Considering the chickens, ducks and Guineas I have I am amazed to see the bats and common nighthawks enjoying their meals of lots of skeeters! I dump my pools every other day and I thought with the "drought" we are in that I would not have so many but they are worse this year than last.

 

[RedBugPoultry]

Quote:
What she said!

I had mine to get it several years ago. That was before people were coming onto my place so it wasn't from humans (as many had tried to tell me!) and once I found out what it was my vet friend looked it up to find treatments and said it probably came from wild birds since we used to have so many feeders out. DH and I used to bird watch a good bit before chickens. Now they are more entertaining to watch in the yard but we still have some fun with the wild birds. We often saw sick wild birds and did not know what they were sick from but thinking back we now realize some of the things they were showing symptoms of.

I used no treatments for mine when they had it since like emptynester said, it is pretty much done by then. Mine also had the dry form. I have new birds since then, of course, but no one has gotten it since that year.

And yes, the mosquito are bad this year. Considering the chickens, ducks and Guineas I have I am amazed to see the bats and common nighthawks enjoying their meals of lots of skeeters! I dump my pools every other day and I thought with the "drought" we are in that I would not have so many but they are worse this year than last.

Amy, did you loose any birds to the pox when your birds had it? Young chicks? I was looking at a silkie rooster I have this morning and saw a number of little black, dry spots all over his face, wattles, comb. I am thinking this has probably been going on longer than I realized. The only birds I worry about are my 2 peachicks(pc) in the hutch but DH and I have talked about it and we are going to let it run its course and not try to give shots. I hope it does not turn in to the wet pox. The PC in the shed is doing very well this morning even without any buddies in there with him. I think the keets and chicks just made his situation worse by opening up the pc's sores.

Just to let people know--I have been treating the sores on the PC in the shed with neosporin and it has been helping keep the sores soft so he can see, as the sores he has are around his eyes and mouth. This morning he could open both of his eyes and active and eating. I did notice a few places on his legs that might be spots also but they have not opened.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

So, I take it..."fowl pox" is the actual real "chicken pox" virus?..we all know and love so well? Eeeek

 

[RedBugPoultry]

Quote:
Fowl pox only affects birds but it is a virus like chicken pox. When I first saw it on the birds I have to admit it creeped me out and even though I had not touched the bird I had to go wash my hands. It looks like only small sores developed on my silkies rooster but it is very big sores on my polish rooster.

 

[RedBugPoultry]

Quote:
Fowl pox only affects birds but it is a virus like chicken pox. When I first saw it on the birds I have to admit it creeped me out and even though I had not touched the bird I had to go wash my hands. It looks like only small sores developed on my silkies rooster but it is very big sores on my polish rooster.

If it did not creep me out so much I would take pictures......