The Bird House

Do you know how I can tell it's Spring? I fall into bed at night totally exhausted. I don't think I could cram one more thing into these days. I do love Spring and Summer. Well my chicks hatched. The ones is the incubator and the ones under the broody hen. I bought 11 hatching eggs from a gal I found online (5 guinea eggs and 6 chicken eggs). I put the majority of the chicken eggs under the broody hen and the guinea eggs in the incubator. The hen hatched out the chicken eggs no problem. I checked her for several days collecting the little balls of fluff and put them in the brooder. I felt awful taking them but our barn cats would not have allowed them to survive. I got 3 of the 5 guinea eggs to hatch in the incubator, I was hoping for all of them but oh well. I think incubators might be a little more tricky than I first thought.

Seven chicks and seven keets.

The first batch of guinea keets I bought at the feed store are now teenagers and outside doing well in their "nursery coop". I built a transitional coop in the back of the goat house so that they have a safe place to roost at night. Often times guineas roost in trees and are slowly picked off each night by owls. To prevent this it's good to train them to roost in a coop that can be shut each night. I moved out 10X10 foot dog kennel next to the new coop so they have an outdoor run while they are growing up.

It's bird central around here! It's been fun seeing what hatches and having little chicks and keets in the house. The kids are always over at the brooder feeding them dried meal worms through the little front window.