ELeVan ~ Honaker Farm Journal

[elevan]

We now have 3 guinea eggs that have hatched under the girls. They are so cute taking care of their nest together

The 3 keets from yesterday are all doing well right now.

While I was in the field the guinea mama let me get really close to her and reach down and pick up one of her keets. She just watched me the entire time.

Then her mate jumped into the air and caught a horse fly and called to mama. She ran over and he gave it to her. She then ran over and dropped it on the ground for the keets. I've never seen anything like that with my poultry. The chickens will call their chicks to something that they found, but for the 2 parents to work together to obtain protein for their young like that. I'm honored that I had the chance to witness it.

 

[terrilhb]

I am so glad you were able to save some. Good for you. She is beautiful.

 

[elevan]

There are more eggs starting to hatch tonight. We moved the 3 that had been with the eggs under the other chicken hen, so she now is fostering 6 keets. The girls on the eggs are doing a great job of working together to hatch those eggs. I'm so glad I have such great chickens.

The kids learned a valuable lesson tonight - that they must be the boss when they are in the barnyard. Charlie, my rooster, flogged both of them - twice! Charlie is such a sweet boy which puts him toward the bottom of my roosters so I guess he found someone to show authority over. I showed both kids what to do to show Charlie that they are the boss but they each fell a little short. We'll have to keep working on it. I love my Jukebox Charlie but he just cannot think that it's ok to flog the children.

 

[elevan]

The girls have hatched out 3 more keets this morning! I'm hoping that they can hatch out all of the remaining eggs.

Guinea mama came out today with only 1 chick. And she kept losing that one. It's disappointing but this is her first time. This is also the first time I've allowed any of my poultry to brood their babies outside. Normally I would take mama and babies and put them in a brooder pen for a couple of weeks to allow the babies time to grow and so that I can control their environment. I don't think that would work with guineas though. I guess if I want keets they'll have to be brooded by chickens.

The ducks need a new coop - with a dirt floor. Soon! Their messiness is driving me nuts. These are the big ducks that I'm talking about. My smaller ducks coop with the chickens and only make minor messes around the waterer.

I've got a tension headache this morning. Right at the base of my skull. K and I go to the chiropractor this afternoon, so hopefully that will help.

 

[purplequeenvt]

The ducks need a new coop - with a dirt floor. Soon! Their messiness is driving me nuts. These are the big ducks that I'm talking about. My smaller ducks coop with the chickens and only make minor messes around the waterer.

I had this same problem with my ducks, they always made the coop so wet and messy. I fixed the problem by putting the waterer up on a stand over a base of large drainage stone. It worked beautifully!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Hope your guinea mama can keep track of the little thing. Do you have any pics? I know our vet has some but I have never seen them (just heard them).

 

[elevan]

Hope your guinea mama can keep track of the little thing. Do you have any pics? I know our vet has some but I have never seen them (just heard them).

I'll be darned if she doesn't have all 3 with her right now. I don't know where the heck the other 2 were this morning :/

I have a few pics posted in my journal...somewhere. I'll have to try to get some more. Especially of the new keets.

 

[elevan]

We were featured by a local food blogger from this past Farmer's Market. So I wanted to share the pic she took with y'all.

Every week she features (and purchases from) a different vendor at the market.

 

[elevan]

Well I don't know what to make of that guinea mama. She's trotting around the field right now with 4 keets. So maybe, just maybe that 5th one is still tucked away somewhere.

The girls hatched out 6 keets between last night and now. I took one of the girls and the 6 keets and put them into a broody pen. And one of them is a royal purple!

Then went back to examine eggs left under the other girl. 2 eggs were hatching and seemed to be struggling. The first I opened up had been zipped all around and the keet didn't appear to be moving. Unfortunately it was a loss. The other egg I opened had a very grateful keet inside. So the other girl is happily sitting on the rest of the guinea eggs and welcoming that 1 little keet into the world. She'll get any remaining keets that hatch. I'm out of broody pens though, so I'll have to pull a cage into play.

I also got an unexpected and pleasant surprise. Another broody was off her nest and tucked into a corner of the coop. Why? Well is has a cute, little chickie of course! I took the remaining eggs from her nest and tucked them under my last broody that is sitting on chicken eggs. Thankfully it's warm enough out that it really doesn't matter how long she's been off that nest.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Yay on both counts!