Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[Dr HaHa]

CC it seems to me that the oaks are worse for ticks.

Narrowly avoided a huge mess. Bf4 I opened that can

and found rust inside the lid, some dropped into the paint but mixed in nicely. I hung it on the ladder in the b'room and proceeded to apply to the ceiling. I got off the ladder and saw some drops on the floor. Thought gee what the H? Looked at the bottom of the can and saw 3 spots that had drips forming there. Ran and got a piece of cardboard and covered the bottom and took it outside. If the bottom had given out there would have been 3/4 of a gallon falling 3-4' to the floor and splashing on everything.

I swear I would have put a match to the place if that had happened! The floor is currently concrete and it never would have gotten cleaned up. Think that was left on the floor when we got flooded out. L happened to be in Rapids she's pickin up a fresh can.

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I started with 3 guineas and within a few years I had over 100. I gave them all away. It was ridiculous. My inbred line must have been great mothers.

Edited to add: they were free range and slept in a huge tree near our yard light. They had to be caught with nets when we finally made the decision to get rid of them.

 

[kristip]

professional incubating friends.... we are in need of expert help... I know someone (jim??) had posted recently that if you change the incubator temp a little, you have a better chance of hens vs roos....

what do you do with humidity levels?

And, I am getting some eggs in the mail and know I need to wait a day or two to let them settle before the incubator, but how long can I keep them out before the incubator without them going bad?I am guessing I will get them in the mail tuesday or wed of next week? Can I keep them out until Saturday? ... just trying to get my timing right for hatching for when we will be home and school wants some etc.

So excited!

 

[jvls1942]

I started with 3 guineas and within a few years I had over 100. I gave them all away. It was ridiculous. My inbred line must have been great mothers.

professional incubating friends.... we are in need of expert help... I know someone (jim??) had posted recently that if you change the incubator temp a little, you have a better chance of hens vs roos....

what do you do with humidity levels?

And, I am getting some eggs in the mail and know I need to wait a day or two to let them settle before the incubator, but how long can I keep them out before the incubator without them going bad?I am guessing I will get them in the mail tuesday or wed of next week? Can I keep them out until Saturday? ... just trying to get my timing right for hatching for when we will be home and school wants some etc.

So excited!

first of all, it was not me who said such a thing.. I do not believe that temp or humidity has anything to do with the gender ..

one day is plenty to wait for the eggs to settle..

you can keep an egg up to about 3 weeks before putting them into the incubator.. However the sooner they go in, the better your hatch % will be.. I like to wait a day before setting a fresh egg. That is just a quirk of mine.. no scientific reason..

there is not much you can add to a usps egg that already has not been done to it.. so I would think saturday would be OK.

 

[Apyl]

good morning,

guineas:
I could write a book about them.. well, maybe a page..
they can be the wildest things on your place, or mild as chickens.. It all depends on how well you are at training them..

they are useless as tick control if you keep them penned.. they like to roam, your one or two acres will not contain them..

you have to lock them in each night and not miss a night.. If they spend one night in a tree, that is where they will go until an owl gets them all, one by one.. they are owl magnets..

if you are going to free range them, start off with quite a few.. they WILL disappear during daylight hours also.. foxes, hawks, the usual predators.. they are magnets for them also..

their eggs are good to eat, smaller than chicken eggs, ratio 3 guinea eggs to 2 chicken eggs, and the shells are tougher.

guinea mothers are the worse, if you let a hen hatch her own chicks, be prepared to be there when they hatch or you will be lucky to end up with two out of a dozen..

It is best to collect the eggs and put them into your incubator.. they are very easy to hatch..

the keets have to be kept dry and warm, something the mothers seem to fail to do..

one way to tame a guinea is to let a chicken raise it.. not all hens have the ability to handle keets.. keets are very independent right from birth and strike out on their own.. they will stay sort of in their bunch, but not really follow their mother..

another way to tame a guinea is to raise it yourself, with a batch of chicken babies.. I prefer this method.. a guinea will bond to whatever it is raised with.. I have one out of my 30 who sticks right with the turkeys..

about once or twice a day, the flock will have a shouting match.. anything or nothing will trigger it..

I have a long driveway, if a car pulls off the blacktop onto my gravel, the guineas are the first to notice.. this is an occasion for a shouting match..

the guinea hen makes a two syllable call, the male makes only a one note.. however when excited, the hen makes the one note also.. so if you are sorting them out, do it slowly and calmly or forget it..

you can also tell a male from the females by the crown on their head, and the wattles on their cheeks.. the males are slightly larger.. However the birds have to be about the same age, because an older hen might have larger crowns and wattles than a young rooster..

since the guineas are free rangers, their meat will be tougher when cooked.. but it is delicious,,
I prefer their soup to chicken or turkey soup..

in some restaurants, guineas are substituted for pheasant.. I don't know how they pull that off..I just read it somewhere..

guineas will start laying eggs when it warms up in the spring, and the days are longer.. they will quit laying around September.

.............jiminwisc..........

ETA: IMHO
these are just my observations with my guineas.. I feel I wrote as accurately as I can..
as with anything, there are exceptions..
guineas kept in pens have a better chance of raising their offspring.. guineas who nest along the edge of the woods will loose most of their chicks and many times the hen will die on the nest from predators..

Thank you , that's great info. Its definitely something to think about.

 

[Bigfamily4me]

Quote:


Crap Doc! Now I have to open mine?! Gggrrrr not on my plans. Wy did you have to go and actually get motivated?

 

[Terri O]

Good morning (still)--very bright out there this AM! We have to goout and cut up a huge tree that fell on my fence! It was a bad day for fences yesterday for sure! This is one that I put up to make catching ducks easier so I definitely want to fix it--it worked GREAT! So we are procrastinating and laughing at all the funny stuff on here! Dh is even mildly interested now that the 3 letter work has been brought up! Yes NJ you have hit it right on the head (so to speak) that you guys rarely think of anything else! My DH has now said too bad we (the women) think about it -20% of the time! I could say more...but I wont! LOL!
There is something bothering my chicks--they have now turned into the noisiest ones I have ever had! I will look into it shortly-they probably are wanting some mealies...spoiled brats!
So I am still ill today...kinda dizzy, maybe feverish. Not sure...Dh is getting me more IB then I will be OK to do chores...and cut trees. Then the vet is coming to do coggins tests and shots...and rabies shots for the dogs. Tomorrow we are going to Augustina to watch DD20 ride her part of the competition for UW Madison...I hope she does well! (I might stay home and be sick)

Jim--I enjoyed your tutorial about Guineas...I agree with most everything you said too. I do have a few that roost in the trees right now. They are with the turkeys and I think that is why they havent bee owl bait yet. Most of them are in with the chickens at night and have taken to laying in the nest boxes. THis is a new thing for my place because they usually make the nest out under the trees. I have had 2 get taken by preds while they were on nests and two that have hatched out the babies. They are the cutest things when small...WAY cuter that chicks even! Especially the pure white ones. So cute attempting to follow the mama around...but day after day there are less and less until there are none. If you can--pen them up when they have babies. THe ones that turned out the best for me were raised with the turkeys in my basement room and then penned until they could fly. Mine run in two groups now--maybe they will form one this year and all be together. Since I live right close to a busy road they occasionally like to go to the other side and run around in the woods...for the most part they stick around though.

OK I think the procrastination has to be over now...that tree isnt going to cut itself up now is it! Oh yeah...Bigfam...if you didnt want to paint--I guess you shouldnt have issued the challenge now huh? What guy cannot rise to a challenge? (that is why I am going outside now and telling DH that I am starting on the tree!)

Later folks--have a fantastic day! TErri O

 

[Angiebubs]

Tough morning. Rcvd a letter that my DD12 has now missed 11 days of school and is being monitored for attendance (She has Diabetes and celaic and low immune system). We were planning on a trip to Vegas in April to see my dad he is 82 and not a lot of time left-plus his living situation is imploding.BUt with her attendance-not sure how we can now do this. Then find out my DD12 state tests came back very high-yet she is failing 2 classes....homework from missing school when sick-teacher gives 24 hrs to turn in 3 days worth of homework. This on top of getting house rented out, still trying to get H & R to figure out my taxes from LAST yr so I can start on this yrs taxes (reciprocity issues), taking on someone elses workload at work on top of mine, and 18 hrs so far on the ph trying to get DD12s prescriptions re order so on. (=bad morning)

So I go out to the coop for a sanity break-and my Roo Wally decides to pick this time to attack me-what a lil &#^##!!!!! As Im dealing with this-one of my lil bantys is out in the run screaming-barn cat found a way into the run-throw barn car out into the barn-where the (Cat killing) dog starts chasing her OMG!!!!!! Twilight zone.

I have someone that wants Wally but now Im trying to figure out how to catch him-and I had told this person what a lil sweatheart he is-What now? I won't kill any of my chickens but am stuck as I dont want my peaceful time with my girls to turn into me fearing being attacked!!!

 

[Bigfamily4me]

Poor girl! I'll send you hugs, but they have to make it though the slush so you might not get them till Monday!

Here's hoping everything settles down to one calamity at a time. Next time walk up to Wally with an attitude and tell him to piss off before he gives you attitude. Bring along a stew pot to make your point. He doesn't have to know your bluffing, and you can always put the pot on your head as a helmet...

 

[tiki244]

Hope your day starts getting better Angbub

Wally needs to be trained.

Congrats on the hatch BBP.