The Birthing Center

Momma guinea has been sitting on her eggs, about 22 of them if I counted correctly, for a long time now.  She started at the beginning of May and the normal incubation time is 26-28 days.  I've been taking a peek at her every day to see if there's any action.  Today is the day!

Dad is in the waiting room pacing back and forth.  I'm not making this up, people.

There's a cracked egg and the little puff next to it is the keat that just came out of it.

The tiny little puff next to the mom is one of the fully hatched keats.  Cute little puff.

She's sitting in this alley between pastures where the goats want to graze.  If they get too near, she yells at them, so they keep a wide berth (pun intended).  See how they are all lined up against the fence.  They're trying to pass her and get to me at the end of the alley.  The goat on the right is having a look at whatever is in the grass screaming at her.

Momma guinea must be pretty intimidating for those goats to plaster themselves up against the fence as they go by her.  I don't think I'll have to worry about the keats getting trampled.

What I will have to worry about is Harry and Ginger eating them like chicken nuggets when the momma decides it's time to move them.  I'll have to be pretty vigilant so that when she's on the move, I can get the babies to a safe place.

Who wants some guineas?

Stalkers

The guineas are stalking me now.  If I happen to be at my computer when they saunter by, they all line up and look at me through the window.

Dumber Than a Chicken?

I didn't think it was possible for any animal to be dumber than a chicken, but I seriously think guineas are.  The first guinea outing was successful because they didn't go more than a few feet from the coop and I only had them out an hour or so.

The second day was a different story.  I let them out in the late afternoon hoping that they'd go back in the coop around sunset like the chickens do.  I had watched them for a while, so I knew they were meandering along the fence line in the garden paddock where the coop is and they didn't seem particularly interested in flying over the fence even though they easily could.  So far, it seems that they only fly when they are startled.  I figured they were safe - Ginger had her shock collar on and she can't jump the fence into that pasture and she she's still only looking at them out of the corner of her eye - so I left them to their own devices for the afternoon.

When I went back at sunset to close them up in the coop, not a one was in sight.  The grass is tall, so unless they are standing with their necks stretched up, I 'm not able to see them.  I listened for their chatter (they seemed to constantly chatter), but didn't hear a thing.  So, I went in search of them, following the fence line.  I finally came upon them at the farthest end of the paddock, seemingly bedded down for the night in the tall grass.

Well, it surely isn't safe for them to stay there where any predator can get them.

So, I herded them gently back across the paddock toward the coop.

I discovered if I move slowly and calmly along behind them, they will stay in a tight little group in front of me.

When we got to the coop, instead of going through their little door, than ran round and round, flapping at the sides trying to find a way in.

I herded them around the coop about a dozen times.  Each time, the herd ran right past the door and one would happen to look at the opening and go through it like, "Hey, what's this?"

I became exasperated and finally opened the big door and herded the last two through it.  They couldn't miss it because the door itself blocked their route around the coop.

I sure hope I don't have to do this every day.

The Release of the Guineas

The guineas have been in their coop all this time.  I've been hoping to condition them to seeing the coop as their home or safe place, calling, "guinea, guinea, guinea" as I feed them in the confined space, so that they know my call means food.  It works for chickens, but guineas have a bit different temperament, so I don't know if it has worked yet.  Another reason for keeping them in the coop was to give the dogs time to accept them as part of our farm family and not view them as prey.  So, the fowl are big enough to be let out to forage for themselves and I had some free time to devote to watching them to make sure the transition would be safe.

To get ready, I put Harry on a leash and the shock collar on Ginger just in case the guinea activity triggered their chase response.

I opened their little sliding door and they all crowded around the opening, afraid to venture out.  The ones in front got pushed out by the ones in back and then they all piled out in a rush and congregated around the front of the coop eating grass like they were starving.  Maybe they were...I guess they can only bear to eat the chicken scratch for so long.

Harry was perfect.  He only spared them a glance and then seemed completely uninterested in them.  Ginger perked up and watched them for a while.  Then, as I saw her crouch into her stalking stance, as soon as she took one step towards them, I gave her a shock.  She immediately stopped and turned away from them.  She didn't try it again and, although, she gave them a few looks out of the corner of her eye (as if just looking at them might bring on a shock), she didn't try to rush them again.

We stayed out there a good long time, then I put the dogs out of the paddock and just watched the birds  from outside the fence as they went in, out, and around the coop.  After about an hour, they seemed to tire of eating grass and most of them went back in the coop.  I took that opportunity to herd the rest of them in there and close the door.

I'll let them out for longer periods of time each day until I'm fairly confident that they'll be reasonably safe and can be left out all day to free range like we do the chickens.

The Guinea Coop

Yay!  The guinea coop is finished.

I'm diggin' it.

The guineas are diggin' it.

We thought it would be a good idea to reuse one of the old screen doors that we took off of the house when we remodeled.  Jordan took the screen off, cut the top off and rebuilt it to fit the a-frame, then replaced the screen with chicken wire.

(Coming soon...when the weather cools a bit, I'm going the paint the door a fun color)

We have several extras of these latches that we use on the paddock gates.  Of course, if we were to walk in and let the door shut behind us, we'd be locked in.  Hence, the orange baling string that is tied to the latch and strung through to the inside.

This is the door the guineas will use when it's time to let them out.  Jordan calls it the "Shelly door".

It slides up, like so, and can be propped open so that the guineas can come and go without having the big door propped open, which wouldn't work on windy days.

The back slides open for easy access to the nesting boxes and, hopefully, future eggs.

Another view of the back.

Jordan made a "track" for the nesting boxes to fit into.  These are drawers that came out of our kitchen during the remodel.

The frame is made out of treated lumber and we already had plenty of chicken wire laying around.  All of the cedar is from the trees that Jordan cut down and milled.  For this project, he cut a "rabbet joint" into each board so that they would overlap and the enclosed area would be water tight.  He also sealed all of the wood, which really brings out the pretty grain.