Uh oh... found an egg today! ... - A journal of sorts, from finding eggs to hatching them... Update

[Zootopia]

Umm, I wonder if DH will cave if he starts finding ticks on the chihuahua that sleeps with us?

I can't do that to her of course. We had 3 Guinea last spring, only one made it to now and DH Hates the racket they make. The surviving female is pretty quiet and hangs out with our Maran Roo. We only had a few cold days, no "Real" winter and already the ticks are on the move, the Rattle Snakes won't be far behind them and I have show dogs to worry about. Our chickens are free range but I understand the Guineas will do a better job on the ticks and snakes.
I could pick up a few from the feed store but if I'm gonna do this maybe having pretty ones, (or maybe even some of PeepsCA's BEAUTIFUL ones

) will help passify DH, and I'd love it too !! I actually came over here looking for the French Guinea, but do they come in these beautiful colors?
I am pretty new at incubating, we've had chickens for 20+ years but only got an incubator in Jan. I have been careful to make notes for hatching the Guineas, more humidity! I think this will be fun, but is Guinea math as dangerous as Chicken math? (For anyone but PeepsCA, LOL she has it BADDD

) That's Ok, we always kept a couple chickens but in the 7 yrs since we moved out here they've multiplied to +/- 70.

 

[perchie.girl]

  Umm, I wonder if DH will cave if he starts finding ticks on the chihuahua that sleeps with us?  I can't do that to her of course. We had 3 Guinea last spring, only one made it to now and DH Hates the racket they make. The surviving female is pretty quiet and hangs out with our Maran Roo. We only had a few cold days, no "Real" winter and already the ticks are on the move, the Rattle Snakes won't be far behind them and I have show dogs to worry about. Our chickens are free range but I understand the Guineas will do a better job on the ticks and snakes.
  I could pick up a few from the feed store but if I'm gonna do this maybe having pretty ones, (or maybe even some of PeepsCA's BEAUTIFUL ones ) will help passify DH, and I'd love it too !! I actually came over here looking for the French Guinea, but do they come in these beautiful colors?
  I am pretty new at incubating, we've had chickens for 20+ years but only got an incubator in Jan. I have been careful to make notes for hatching the Guineas, more humidity! I think this will be fun, but is Guinea math as dangerous as Chicken math? (For anyone but PeepsCA, LOL she has it BADDD ) That's Ok, we always kept a couple chickens but in the 7 yrs since we moved out here they've multiplied to +/- 70.

LOL... You can hatch guinea eggs under a broody hen too. Makes integration in the flock much easier. We have mountain Rattle snakes here some get as big as six feet long. There is a Vaccine to protect your dogs from snake bite. But if you have quite a few unless you can do it yourself might get expensive. But the best defense against snakes is having nothing for them to eat.... Guineas and Chickens do a pretty good job of clearing out the mice. Soon as I got my flock going I stopped seeing Rattle snakes.

deb

 

[Zootopia]

Thanks Deb,
That means I have to wait around for a broody hen then hope I can get guinea eggs? Is it that easy to find them? I've seen a couple of adults on CL but nothing else but the feed store.
As for the snakes, they come around for the water. The neighbors pond is adjacent to our property and any leaky hoses and the dogs pools mean the snakes come around at night. We have all our dogs vaccinated for RS but they still swell, and have necrotic tissue, they just don't get as bad and they don't die. We lost 3 dogs our first 2 yrs (before RS Vac was available), one bit in the neck, Vet said he couldn't have saved her if he'd been standing there. We have had 2 bitten who were vaccinated, one on the back leg that swelled, she did fine but the swelling effected her pastern and she never gaited properly after that. The property on one side and behind us is overgrown Mesquite pasture.
I hate to use pesticides, just the drops on the dogs and DE around the property. The ticks were bad last year and will be worse with the lack of any real winter. I love the rain but so do the ticks, I need a gang of Guineas. I'd love to get the Jumbos/French which ever breed naturally for meat too, but if they are more of an aggression problem, that may not work. I keep some chickens in the kennel and exercise yards to keep any dog food and bugs cleaned up (No the dogs don't eat chicken

, we raise them better) but I know I can't keep the Guineas in the open fence areas.
So when I get a broody hen I call a breeder (I need to contact one ahead, right?) and arrange for hatching eggs for pretty, colorful baby keets and let Broody do the rest. Easy, peezy.

 

[PeepsCA]

I think this will be fun, but is Guinea math as dangerous as Chicken math? (For anyone but PeepsCA, LOL she has it BADDD

) That's Ok, we always kept a couple chickens but in the 7 yrs since we moved out here they've multiplied to +/- 70.

LOL, yah I have Guinea Math bad

Kinda hard not to with all the adorable babies I hatch. Eventually I'll stop hatching new colors and I won't need to keep so many, lol (yah surrrrre). My animals are tick free tho and I have not had one crawling on me in 5+ years

And as long as none of the ding-dongs on neighboring 10 acre parcels do any tractor work in July, I don't see any rattle snakes on my land any more (never fails tho, whenever someone does some major tractor work clearing their brush all their snakes relocate from their land onto mine!!!

).

Too bad you don't live in Cali, I could set ya up with some eggs. You could always take a Sunday drive...

 

[perchie.girl]

If I remember correctly there are a couple of big Guinea Breeders in Texas. Believe me those guineas do a great job with the ticks. Get rid of or reducing the ticks should convince your DH. Not to mention the diseases passed on by ticks starting with Lyme, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Feaver.... There are more for sure. If you can get your little flock up to around ten the noise followes them out to free range. The large flock ensures you dont loose too many through the summer to do the job.

deb

Thanks Deb,
That means I have to wait around for a broody hen then hope I can get guinea eggs? Is it that easy to find them? I've seen a couple of adults on CL but nothing else but the feed store.
As for the snakes, they come around for the water. The neighbors pond is adjacent to our property and any leaky hoses and the dogs pools mean the snakes come around at night. We have all our dogs vaccinated for RS but they still swell, and have necrotic tissue, they just don't get as bad and they don't die. We lost 3 dogs our first 2 yrs (before RS Vac was available), one bit in the neck, Vet said he couldn't have saved her if he'd been standing there. We have had 2 bitten who were vaccinated, one on the back leg that swelled, she did fine but the swelling effected her pastern and she never gaited properly after that. The property on one side and behind us is overgrown Mesquite pasture.
I hate to use pesticides, just the drops on the dogs and DE around the property. The ticks were bad last year and will be worse with the lack of any real winter. I love the rain but so do the ticks, I need a gang of Guineas. I'd love to get the Jumbos/French which ever breed naturally for meat too, but if they are more of an aggression problem, that may not work. I keep some chickens in the kennel and exercise yards to keep any dog food and bugs cleaned up (No the dogs don't eat chicken

, we raise them better) but I know I can't keep the Guineas in the open fence areas.
So when I get a broody hen I call a breeder (I need to contact one ahead, right?) and arrange for hatching eggs for pretty, colorful baby keets and let Broody do the rest. Easy, peezy.

 

[PeepsCA]

All 20 keets from Hatch#6...
I had to take 485798759586 pics, they wouldn't hold still

mr bellmere, if you see this, here's 2 more pure White keets for you!


The Royal Purple in the very front is the runt of the hatch and was the very last keet to hatch.
Seems to be healthy, active and a little go-getter (so far), it's just about half the size of some of the first hatched keets!


I still haven't figured out what the 2 keets are that I questioned a couple days ago... but they are definitely not Royal Purples. In the pic above you can see one of them sorta in the middle/to the left, with it's back to the camera. Almost looks like a Chocolate... hmmm.

 

[Country Chickens]

That would be sooo cool if they were chocolates! I did say you'd get yours before my cheat could work out.

And, man, what a nice bunch! I am impressed with the keets AND with your picture-taking ability, irregardless of how many tries it took!

 

[PeepsCA]

I'm not holding my breath, cuz they just look so different compared to the other Chocolate keets I hatched the past 2 years, lol. All my Chocolates were lighter and had more of a reddish hue to them (more like the tint of the Browns that I'm hatching this season do). I dunno. I guess I'll know eventually, cuz they are keepers and will get wing bands in a week or so, lol.

2010 Choc


2011 Choc


2012 ????

 

[Zootopia]

PeepsCA: They are beautiful what ever color they are, I agree they do look different. So of course you need to keep them

Is the chocolate male all you need this year? How come you don't get set up to be able to ship? I'd think you'd saturate the local area after awhile. Besides you need to send me some.

I have chicks pipping as we speak and I won a bid on ebay today for a used Reptipro 5000. Once I get used to hatching in it I will be ready to try my hand at the Guinea eggs. The sooner the better really, so they can get to growing.

 

[Country Chickens]

Yeah, those do look pretty different--maybe you've hatched a new color! That would be cool. It seems like they color charts are always morphing and trying to catch up to the guineas but never quite managing it. I think they do that on purpose to keep us hatching!