The guineas are out!

[Deleted]

Well, today was the big day when I decided the guineas needed to go outside and get some fresh air and mingle with the big chickens. They've been confined inside the coop, separated from the big chickens by a chickenwire divider for the last 3 weeks. The guineas are only 4 1/2 weeks old, but they were driving me batty, and they've eaten an ENTIRE 50 pound bag of game bird starter! So I figured they need to get outside and get some rocks in their crops because they're going to be eating what the chickens eat now.

Soooo.... I went out this morning and opened up their outside door into the run, then I let the chickens out. The guineas stayed in the coop for several hours. Their necks were about a foot long and they were eyeballing the "great outdoors," but they were afraid to come out. Several of the chickens, including Zeus, the biggest rooster, went in with them, though. They ate the last of the baby food, but they didn't bother the babies at all.

Finally a little while ago, Rich went in the coop and took down the divider, and the sound of the screws being unscrewed (power screwdriver) scared them all out the door, so they finally were out. They're out there wandering from place to place in a huddle - it's so funny.

The only "problem" I've seen is that when they go around to the area behind the coop (that's where the chickens lay when it's hot because it's shady back there), Zeus tries to intimidate them. He pecks at them, but not hard, and herds them around a lot. I think he's just trying to instill in them the fact that HE'S the boss and they shouldn't get any crazy ideas about challenging his authority.

I was just out there again a few minutes ago, and Zeus was done with his lessons and they were all milling around together, chickens and baby guineas, pecking and scratching and dustbathing and all that normal chicken stuff.

The only thing I have left to worry about is when they all go in at night, whether there will be any fighting over whose side everybody is on. But more than likely the guineas will bed down where they always have, on their little baby-roost, and the chickens will roost on their side, and there will be peace and harmony in the world. At least I hope that's what happens!

~Lannie

[bergere]

That is great Lannie! Hope all works out for their first night! Pictures??

[Deleted]

I'm sure it won't be long and they'll all be roosting side by side. Guineas are funny to watch (but they are LOUD) and I could just picture them all in a huddle scampering to and fro.

Definatly we want piccies!!

[Deleted]

Of course I took pictures - I'm a picture-holic! But the disk is still in the camera. As soon as it's full (that won't take long), I'll bring the disk down here and download it and post some pictures.

I got a couple good ones of Zeus, too. Boy, he's getting SO PRETTY!

~Lannie

[Deleted]

LOL! Kaza, you were right! It was the funniest thing!

The babies kept trying to get back in the coop, but the big chickens were getting their treats (weeds) and blocking the door. Finally one of the guineas just put his head down and barrelled through, causing several of the chickens, including Zeus, to flap straight up and squawk loudly. (Zeus got goosed! )

After the chickens decided to go inside the guineas all came around in front, but they milled around like they didn't see the door (you know that great big hole that's 4' wide and 6' tall!) We finally herded them in, but instead of going to their normal corner where they've been sleeping their entire lives, they scurried over and got underneath the chickens' roosts. Then they started hopping up on the roosts and they were all over the place. They're not at all shy around the chickens, and they pushed a couple of them right off onto the floor! LOL! One of the babies was flying and maintaining a hover (don't ask me how!) up by the very top roost, which scared Odin and he lost his footing and fell, taking three of the girls, who were on lower roosts, with him. What a ruckus!! LOL! They all landed in a heap on the floor, and the hovering guinea took its place on the top roost! Odin and the girls got back up and found another roost to sit on, and that's how they spent the night, a bunch of chickens with baby guineas interspersed among them, all sleeping together. I went out about an hour later to check on them, and there were a bunch of big white blobs with a lot of little dark blobs in between. (It was pretty dark by then, so I couldn't see well.)

So I guess they'll be OK now.

Today it's a bit windy, so the guineas are staying inside. I have the big door open, but there's plenty of seed in there that the chickens have dropped from their feeder, and there's water, so I guess they can stay in if they want. Maybe they'll come out later.

~Lannie

[bergere]

Lannie,
Describing how they are doing, just put a big old smile on my face!
Sounds like they are going to fit in just fine.

Still need pictures!!

[Deleted]

LOL! They stayed in all day yesterday, so they got first pick of the roosts last night. You should have seen the chickens' faces when they came in to go to bed and there were 10 little Goldilocks' already there!

Today was cool and we had some rain early (YAY!), so I kept the big doors shut and just had the little chicken-hatch open. The babies finally ventured out and they're spending the afternoon dusting and pecking around outside.

I'll get those pictures up when I fill up the rest of the disk. Be patient, Bergere. Good things come to those who wait.

~Lannie

[Deleted]

Okay, here are the pictures:

I should run these in order, though. Here they are at 3 weeks old, still in their "nursery." You can see the wire divider that separated their part from the rest of the coop.



Here they are on their first trip to the Great Outdoors!





And this was last night. They've taken over the chickens' roosts, even though they have their own, and Rich even built a new one and installed it yesterday afternoon. But they all want to be on the same one...



They're growing so fast...

~Lannie

[bergere]

Lannie, can you come over and build me a hen house!!! I really like yours!!

Guiness are cute and getting so big!

[Deleted]

I'd have to send Rich - he built it. ;D

Last night I had my first taste of a guinea alarm call. Wow! And you know what? I'm GLAD they make that much noise! (The reason for the alarm call was Pippin sneaking up on them from around the corner of the barn.)

This morning, Pippin was up on the roof of the run, and the stupid guineas never noticed he was there. I hope nothing ever attacks them from "UP" or they're toast. Stuff on the ground, they seem to see. Maybe they'll learn to look up when they get older?

They're also flying like little maniacs. They evidently can't remember where the chicken wire is on the outside run, and they just fly straight into it - BOINK! I hope they don't end up breaking their fool necks. I almost got hit in the head this morning when a bunch of them came around the corner, flying right at head-height. I had to duck fast, and I still felt one of them clip the top of my head. They're still small, fortunately, so if I catch one head-on (oh, that's funny!), maybe it won't actually knock me out!

I really can't wait until they're big enough to be let outside. This run isn't all that big, and I can see it getting smaller by the day.

~Lannie

Oh, by the way, here's a picture of the whole thing from the outside - I don't think I've posted these yet.

The front:


The back (and Gizzie trying to find a way in!):

[Deleted]

Nice coop! They'll start looking up when they are older, but they also get louder!! (If you can imagine that) My giuneas drove me crazy (and I never fully recovered as you all can tell ) I never liked all that racket, but they are good "watch-birds"

Kaza[/size]

[Deleted]

I know they'll get louder but that's OK. Even Rich said something positive last night when they did that. He laughed and said "Nobody will ever sneak up on us again!" LOL!

I just love birds so much, that I really don't mind the racket. Sometimes it drowns out the sound of the dogs barking!

This morning I was gently awakened at 5:15 by two roosters hollering to be let out, and one little cat (Gizzie) walking on my face and hollering to be let out. I remember when I had a job and lived in the city, having to get up by 6:00 every day and wishing I was retired so I could sleep in!

Now I know what retired really means! Yesterday I was tired, and today I'm RE-tired! LOL!

~Lannie

[Deleted]

Oh! I almost forgot! Rich said last night as we were talking about "watch birds" that he'd like to get at least one peacock. (Say WHAT??) He was serious, though. He was distressed because we have no place for it to winter (the coop and run are obviously not going to work), and thought maybe he could build him a little "stall" in the barn. Then he asked how much they cost and where we could get one!

I've never had a peacock of my own (just the ones visiting from the neighbors), so if anyone has had them, what do I need to know? Can they live in the barn over the winter? Not a southern winter, either, I mean like 10 or 20 below at night kind of winter. We had some friends in Eastern Oregon that had a pair of them and they went in a shed if they were cold, but winters there weren't that bad. Cold, but mostly sunny, not a lot of snow or wind.

~Lannie

[bergere]

Ah Lannie.... peacock's sound like children getting strangled.
If you want to keep them around... also make sure they have a mirror to look into. Kid you not...was the only way a friend could keeps her's on her place.

Sounds like the Guinea's are keeping your reflexes good.

BTW... I love your Hen house and run!! I so need a new one!

[bbird]

Lannie- That is such a great setup there you have for your birds. I like how it is all very visible from the outside. I also love to hear you talk about your birds, lol. Only other bird people would understand how much you enjoy them.

We had a peacock. Bought him and planned to get a peahen to go with him, but he was a stinker. You couldn't open the coop without him trying to get out and flying towards the door. About two months later dh went in to feed the peacock some snacks and left the door open like he does with the chickens and the peacock went flying out. On instinct dh reached out to snatch the bird, and ended up with all his tail feathers squeezed to his chest and a bald butted peacock flying off into the woods. He never did come back. I didn't think the peacock had personality like the chickens, turkeys, geese we have had but they sure are beautiful.

Thanks for sharing the pictures, I really enjoyed them. Keep them coming.

[Deleted]

A bald-butted peacock! LOL!

Actually, I think they sound like a woman being stabbed and/or strangled... Anyway, their calls don't bother me.

That's strange that the peacock took off. I've known several people over the years that have had them, and they kind of just ranged around the property, maybe visiting the neighbors once in a while, but never left permanently. Weird... I sure wouldn't want a $25.00 bird flying the coop! But there's noplace for it to go here, so maybe it would come back even if it decided to dash off one day. The only "woods" are right around our house.

The guinea babies have figured out where the fence is, finally. Now when they fly into it they flip over and do it feet-first! I swear, I can spend hours out there watching them do silly things and I never get tired of it. Best of all is when they goose one of the chickens!

And last night, they finally decided to try out the new set of roosts Rich built. 8 of the 10 were up there fluffing and preening when we finally left. The chickens seemed VERY happy to have their roosts back to themselves, with no screaming children to contend with.

They've also discovered greens. We give the chickens kochia weed in the evenings, and some of them have gotten rather large (the weeds, I mean), so we just toss them out in one piece and the chickens pick the leaves off. Well, the guineas found out that stuff's good to eat, so they all swarm over one of the weeds, perching on the branches, to eat the leaves. I was kicking myself because I want them to eat bugs, not plants (I was planning on them being in the garden), but honestly, how can I MAKE them eat what I want them to? No way. Besides, until they're big enough to free range, they have to depend on the bugs coming to them, so I can't very well deny them a salad now and then. Heck, they might never go in the garden, and if they do, they'll probably tear it up worse than the chickens could ever think of doing. I've never seen any of the chickens scratch as furiously as those guineas. I heard they didn't scratch... yeah, right!

So we just have all our little birdie friends here at Love Acres and they can eat whatever they want and we'll still love them. ;D

~Lannie

[Deleted]

Wow, what a racket we had last night. We went out at sundown to sit with the chickens and guineas, and there were two juvenile grackles in the run. They were flying back and forth, hitting the wire, falling down and panting, flying into the wire again... Their feathers were ragged from all the bashing to and fro. I have a big fish net that we attached to a long pole to use to skim the big stock tank with, and now it's being used as a "bird catcher." I nabbed one of the grackles in mid-air and managed to get him out, but the other one I had to follow back and forth about 17 times before he got so tired he quit running. All this time, the chickens are trying to figure out why Mommy is running around waving a net, so they decided to go hide inside the coop. The guineas were helping to raise the excitement level by flying from one perch to the other and screeching. (But now I know how I can catch a guinea if I need to... )

Rich had the camera with him, so he took a picture of the poor, exhausted grackle babies:


By the time I finally got the other grackle out, it was almost completely dark, and I missed out on my chicken-visit! They came out for a few minutes and played with Rich but I was busy filling their water containers and topping off feed, so they were all in bed by the time I finally sat down. Sigh...



Then this morning when I went out there, 3 more birds (sparrows) were in the run. Two of them flew through the chicken wire and got out and the third one I had to catch like I did the grackles, but the sparrow was a lot quicker. And it was HOT this morning. Anyway, it all ended well, the sparrow was saved.

I think that because of the hot dry weather, the wild birds are not finding enough food and water so they're finding ways into the chicken run at the seams and alongside the building where the top of the run abuts the siding of the coop. Rich suggested maybe I should start throwing feed outside the run for the wild birds, and then maybe they won't keep trying to get inside with the chickens and guineas. I did that this afternoon, and so far, I haven't seen any more birds inside. We'll see...

~Lannie

P.S. Here's a picture of the guineas on one of their new perches that Rich installed last week. Yesterday they finally figured out what they were!

[bergere]

Lannie,
Your guineas are really cute!

For feeding the birds outside. I would not...more than likely you will end up attracting raccoons and the like and that would not be a good thing.

We get wild birds in our hen house all the time.. we just shoo them out and the birds around here have plenty to eat.
The Chicken feed is just easy for them to get too. Fast food is a lot easier then looking for what they normally eat.

[Deleted]

We don't have raccoons here (no water), although last night we did see a dead badger on the side of the highway about 25 miles west of us. There's a little creek that runs under the highway right there, so I guess that's where he lived.

But when we got home it was well after dark, and I went out to shut the little chicken door on the coop, when I realized that all 10 of the guineas were sleeping outside on their perch. I opened up the big coop door and picked them up one by one and put them inside, but obviously they want to sleep outside, not in the coop. I'd be tempted to just let them, but I don't want them to be in the habit of just roosting outside somewhere because I've heard they're too stupid to go inside if it's freezing. I've had people tell me they've found their guineas frozen solid on a tree branch in the middle of winter. Or maybe it was under the tree, and they were exaggerating, I don't know.

So I guess I'm going to have to put them in by force every night. I really want to let them be as close to their natural instinct as possible, but since they're from Africa, their instinct tells them nothing about 20 below zero. Argh...

~Lannie

[bergere]

Oh,,, am sure you have plenty of predators...if not one type then another.

It is a good thing you are putting the guiness in the hen house at night. Hopefully they will get the idea. Either that...or they like you picking them up in the evenings. ;D