The Birds

The first group of mama chicks we got last April were all killed. We don't know by what. Our dogs seemed to leave them alone but we did see a neighbor's dog over by the pen but we never caught anyone in the act. So it's hard to put blame when you don't have proof.

 

From that first batch, the ducks and the polish rooster lived. Roy went and got more birds in July while Sy and I were visiting family on the East Coast. He got a silkie and guinea fowl in the mix. They all lived. He kept them in the coop longer and he thinks that helped them survive. Not sure if that's what it was but they are all happy out there.

 

He's on the wrong side of the fence trying to figure out how to get back in. 

A cute story - one of the birds got out of the pen and couldn't figure out how to get back in. She would follow Roy but when he turned to pick her up she would run. When Sy got home from school, they fired up the remote control monster truck and Roy had Sy drive it around the pen and use it to push the bird to Roy. It worked perfectly. Sy got the truck behind her and she ran right to Roy. He grabbed her and put her back in the pen. I wish I had that on video.

In the last few weeks, our mama's are starting to lay eggs and Roy decided we needed more; so he has gone out and acquired more chicks and ducks to add to the mix. They are in the garage right now and we are working to keep them warm until their feathers come in.

I guess we should have made their pen larger. It seems large but once they are all in there... I'm not so sure.

Now he has read about the guinea fowl and apparently they have other great attributes other than honking loudly when things are not in order. If there are 6 or more, they will leave the pen during the day. They eat snakes, weed seeds, ticks and mice. Best of all they leave the flower beds alone because they don't scratch like chickens do.

 

Since the drought, the deer coming into the orchard have brought ticks to our dogs. Gross. And we have spent a ton on tick medicine for them. In addition, when the canal overflowed and flooded the property with the September 2010 hurricane, we got bombarded with weeds. Ugh. It was fine when it didn't rain for months on end but now that we have had rain, it's a mess. So Roy has been out spraying weeds. So if we get a group of guineas, the goal would be to have them help keep up with the property maintenance and reduce our need for chemicals. Should be a win, win.

Fingers crossed.