My Guinea Update :-)

From: Ronny 1 (crafti1_at_webtv.net)
Date: 09/23/04 

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 01:25:03 -0500

Haven't been over here for awhile,so wanted to drop in and give y'all an
update on my guinea raising venture.

Last May 7th I bought 7-2 day old keets and 47 guinea eggs from a
neighbor lady. Got 25 eggs hatched out in my incubator around the first
of June.

Sat, Sep 18, 2004
Last Friday evening I finished up my poultry yard for my 25 younger
guineas. They'll be 16 weeks old this week. All they've known from birth
is living in a brooder and then in a 6'x10' pen. The pen is wire on 3
sides and the bottom,*** tin on the north side and an old truck camper
is the top. So the pen is made out of 1/2" wire/hardware cloth,tin,truck
camper top, 2x4's and 4x4's and it's raised about 2 1/2 feet off on the
ground on the 4-4x4 corner posts.

I've been meaning to build those birds a poultry yard for awhile;but put
it off due to some sickness and heat;but I started on it recently and
finished it last Friday evening. Now they have a 10x12 foot poultry yard
to scratch in and take dust baths in and they really like that. :-)

But I really should of built that sooner. Those poor guineas were used
to a wire floor for so long. So some of then jumped out of that pen the
other day,hit the ground,looked at it and jumped straight up in the air
and out of that wire sided poultry yard! LoL I had some guineas going
everywhere! And some afraid of the ground,grass,sapling trees and even
one guinea running the other way when he saw a big spider! LoL

They all calmed down a bit after awhile and I finally got them all back
in the poultry yard sometime after dark;but then they wouldn't go up the
ramp I built them to go into their old raised pen. :-( And I wanted them
in there as it's a lot safer than them being in that open poultry yard
at night. So I ended up picking up one guinea at a time until I had them
all back in that pen.

Now Saturday I let those 25 guineas out in their poultry yard about
8:30am or so. I was surprised that they all stayed in there, as they
could easily fly over that yards 4 foot high fence anytime they wanted
to. But most of them settled down to pecking, scratching and taking dust
bathes. :-) I had put them a little feed in there already to try and
keep them calm and then I also put them some fresh water in there.

Saturday afternoon I let the guineas out and they proceeded to go into
my 4 o'clock patch of flowers and harassed the grasshoppers. Yeah! LoL

So I stayed outside a lot that day and my 84 year old Mom came out
several times in the evening,just to sit and watch the guineas. :-) Oh
guineas can get noisy! LoL Onetime Mom told then to shutup and of
course,they didn't,so she threw her cane at them! LoL

I put them back in their new poultry yard before I took a nap and then
let them out again that evening. So they got to stay out until dark. Had
to guide some of them back through the pen gate and they still wouldn't
go up into the other pen on that ramp I built them,so I had to pick them
up again,one or two at a time and put them up in the old pen by hand.
<sigh> They love it when they get in there though as they know where the
feeder is! LoL

Plan on letting them out into the wide world again tomorrow :-) and from
here on. Let them catch more grasshoppers and other bugs! :-) So another
plus is their feed bill will go way down! LoL

Guineas are just plain fun animals to raise and watch in all stages of
their life. And the way I see it,if a person is where they can have
them,then they should have at least a few. :-)

Sunday 20th.
The 25 younger guineas had a high old time today. I let them out of the
pen at 8:30 this morning. And they have been catching grasshoppers and
eating grass seed and such all day long. The got over being so scared of
everything and went around the yard a number of times,out into the old
garden spot and late this evening they went nearly a 100 yards down the
old driveway toward a neighbor's house. I put on my shoes to go get them
then;but by the time I got down there they were already more than
halfway back home! I just hadn't seen them because they were on the
other side of the fence and there was a lot of trees and brush in the
ditch between us.
Yeah,those guineas are full of grasshoppers and all sorts of good things
they like tonight! LoL

I have let my guineas out early every morning since Sunday. I note that
they really love the crabgrass and Dallas grass we have that has gone to
seed. And they are still harassing and eating a lot of grasshoppers! LoL
Ronny

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