Happy Harvest Blog
Guinea spa
I heard the musical little sounds of the guineas approaching the house (doesn't happen especially often), so I peeped out.They were going for the bath! There's a spot right by the trail where I was weeding out buckthorn, and the birds have decided that that's the optimum dust bathing locale. Now there's all divots and feathers. The guineas came in for the bath as purposefully as if they had little towels over their shoulders. It was their specific destination.
cool days, cool Moms
It's chilly in the mornings. The chicks are around with their shoulders shrugged up. The leghorn twins went back in the box. The cardboard is warmer on the tiny naked feet. Do you know what's really warm on the feet? Mom.Until she starts walking away - whoa! Ursa Minor surprised me with chicks this morning. She had that I've got chicks, ya know the face. And then there was all the peeping. Oh! there's a little leg, and it's attached to some black feathers! Yay, another black one. Oh, there's a whole little butt, already dry and fluffy.
dirt bath and other shenanigans
Chocolate's out of the chickery now too. This is great. All the small chicks with moms are at large, meaning I don't have to constantly monitor do they have shade, do they have water? Their moms take care of that now (lots of water options). Soon enough there will be another round of chicks hatching. She's diving right into the dirt bath. There's two popular spots at the moment, an old pig wallow, and this one under the corner of the hen rain tent, which is a bit of a sauna in the sunshine.
Keet bedtime
The guinea family is admitted to the greenhouse as early as 6:30, and usually by seven. They go to bed much earlier than the chickens. Galahad watches for my appearance, and they scamper in as soon as I open the door. Bedtime begins with some last foraging for a snack and a familiarizing walk around the greenhouse. Then they hit the ladder. They really do use it as a ladder, hopping up a rung at a time, zigzagging, until they get to the top. Then they have to fly to the perch.
Close call and a happy ending
I had a rough-ish day and came home wanting to just eat and go to bed, but then had unexpected visitors that disrupted my usually smooth bird closing procedures. With the delay and tumult, Galahad and his keet fleet failed to get back into the greenhouse! That they spend nights in the greenhouse is the only thing that allows me to sleep - it's a hard-won habit, as guineas usually want to roost outside, and inside is what keeps them safe from owls and foxes.
I was asked if the birds actually use their tents when it rains
Yes. Yes, we do. That's how I endure the ugliness of the plastic A-frames - seeing the birds all run to it when the rain starts pelting down. Haven't seen them all day, as they've been out somewhere being adorable, but Sir Galahad and the keets of the round table know where to find shelter. Awww, they're starting to snuggle in for warming!
Sir Galahad and the keets of the round table
Galahad and the little guineas went wild today too. Just like when it was just him, I left the door open and turned my back on it and whoosh- all out. Little keets flowing through the world like a school of fish. I don't know if they're already familiar with the great outdoors, but they seem pretty comfortable in it. They promptly disappeared into the weeds, making brief showings at the house, by the pigs, and at mealtimes. The slightest chirp from him and they all hop and gather up to him.
The sunflowers are blooming
The bees are feasting. The goldenrod is out too, so the pollen drive is on. Galahad is ready to be free again, but his little charges are perfectly content and thoroughly entertained. The greenhouse is crowded right now! I moved Daisy and Cotton back in the greenhouse for rain days, and the door is even blocked by a chickery. We had a rain day, and then a drizzle day. Daisy cares not, as long as she can dig. Cotton wants out, asap.
Cutest keets
I put a chair in the greenhouse for visiting the chicks, and the keets took advantage. It must have been perching hour because they were all having a little bit of vantage time, Galahad, etc perched on the edge of a chickery, one with broody hens in it. SO CUTE! There's quite a crowd for him to look after now. He's busy. What a star. And of course at night I found him in the peppers, all fanned out over the little crowd, some heads poking out. So he is sitting on them
Galahad is step-fathering the new keets
The bee swarm denouement can wait - this is too cute. So, also yesterday, I picked up ten beautiful little guinea babies! Keets are crazy cute, with their orange puffin beaks and long necks. They were almost completely silent on the drive home. Birds seem to like car rides, if not the transitions and banging doors. I was looking forward to Galahad's reaction to them, but I got home at bedtime. G hopped right up to his perch, and I installed the keets in a vacant chickery,
Galahad goes to bed
It's the last day of July, and I'm noticing the day drift already. Bedtime is slightly earlier at night. Before dark, I have to go out and open a door of the greenhouse to let Galahad the guinea in. The sweet spot is the time the chickens are still milling around but have lost their curiosity and have turned their chickpea sized brains toward their own going to bed, so that they don't also dart in (because they dream of it all day).
The guinea solution
I'm so pleased to have sorted out the guineas.I've tried so much. Building them a sky coop...well come to think of it that's about it. And giving them roosting apparatuses, like the laundry rack. They've tried lots of things. Roosting on the sky coop, roosting on top of the greenhouse, roosting in the trees, and roosting on my apparatuses, like the laundry rack. They are choosy, and illogical, and stubborn. But I've got it. They are accustomed now to living in the greenhouse all winter, and they have their stick swings where they sleep.
Sunny bird times
I have a guinea who's been taking an interest in the former skycoop, now grounded. I don't know if she's the mother who raised a brood in it, or if she was one of the brood. I was born here. However, she's been spending time in this little coop every day, very much making herself at home, like she's rocking on her front porch watching the world pass by. And sometimes she has company. The others hang around near her. Then there are the Silkies. They love a good pine tree.
evening snacking
The evening is a peaceful time. Chicken peace ebbs and flows. The early morning is not peaceful at all. The afternoon is a long siesta, usually broken by a period of ruckus, and then the late evening is time for some mellow scrounging before bed. A coop time snack. Here come the guineas. They get right in there. So different, yet so accustomed to living with chickens. At this time, the Silkies are all mostly in bed. The guineas are so cute, grazing in the lumpy field in their pair bonds, looking like rocks.
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