Recent content by damselfish

We have had guineas for about 8 years now. Congratulations on getting yours. 15 is a good number to give you a reasonable size flock by the time they are grown, since you will most likely lose some to predation (I'm assuming you're going to be providing them with free range area). We have...

I love my guineas but we have 40 acres. If someone had guineas next to me on a two or three acre lot, I would be very ticked off (ha ha, tick pun!). I think they are way too loud and wander-y for that kind of spacing. Keep 'em in mind for a future place, though. They are lots of fun.

Roosters are a gamble, some are mean and nasty and that is unfortunately the only kind we've had here after trying multiple times. It all depends on your personal circumstances. If you have no small children who can get hurt, and you have patience to try a few times, you could get something...

They look so cute! Was there a thread somewhere talking about how you set up the incubator? Congrats on the hatch!

Go buy one more dozen. This will cause your birds to lay, on the same principle as getting in the shower if you want the phone to ring.

Sorry you did not get an answer, and I don't have one either. That's just plain weird behavior. Maybe this thread coming back to the top will give someone else a chance to see it. You say you make sure they are not bothered...what about at night? Just throwing out ideas here...

Sounds pretty normal, some are slower to roost than others. If it's a problem for you, go in at night, pick them up and set them on the roost. They will get the idea (but they will get the idea eventually anyway). Our ten new ones, about the same age as yours, are not roosting yet. In our...

Yes, chickens can be fed on grower food forever. It's not necessarily cost-efficient and for hens you need additional calcium such as oyster shell, but it's certainly not going to hurt anything. Please be careful about introducing a chicken from somewhere random (I'm assuming the ones you...

No reason why it couldn't work, although you might not like stooping down so much to grab the eggs. Since the poop boards will stick out around 24 inches from the wall, it will be harder to reach back under there than to reach into a nest on a regular open wall. You could get around this...

Of course you can. Here's what you need to do: - First, catch one hundred ticks. - Second, catch one hundred bees or wasps. - Third, catch your guineas and put them in an easily controlled area with no other food or distractions. - Now alternate between: 1. Releasing one tick at a time and...

The chickens: 7 adult hens, with one four-year-old still here from my original batch of 4 (long story, got straight run when we were newbies, ended up with mostly roosters!). The other six are two years old (or is it three??? Time flies when you're having fun!). 4-5 eggs a day at this...

We converted our chicken coop this weekend to use your idea, and it's working great. I have the powder form of PDZ. A few things I didn't realize, just for anyone reading: - the PDZ soaks up the moisture and creates kind of a "chunk" of stuff that you have to get out of there. So don't...

I'm with the "let 'em hatch" bunch. If you take the nest they will just make another where you can't find it, and then you will in all likelihood lose that female, unless your predator load is a lot lighter than mine. I do not think you will have trouble selling them. We're in the same...

Glad things are going better for you, they sound very cute. Some do die sometimes in that first day or two and there's just not a lot to be done about it. Good luck with the fair!

You will most likely get a roo by accident. Sexing baby chicks is inexact. I'm also prejudiced since each of the three accidental roos that we raised carefully from babies, in three separate episodes, turned mean and eventually had to be killed so we and/or our visiting grandchildren could...