Happy Harvest Blog
There may be no keets this year
Ugh, it’s always awful logging in and seeing how long it’s been since I last posted. Almost a whole month!!! I will try harder! It’s been an action-packed month though. Major personal changes, and a whole lot of dental work. The toothache I’ve been “toughing out” (not a recommended course of action) for months, outlasting the waiting period for my dental coverage, needed a root canal so that finally happened this week, sweet relief!! but there’s more to do.
Keet care share
The keets have been around more; they even got walked nearly to the house. I hear their cheeping like tiny bells (they will grow into klaxons). They already have dart-and freeze-in-the-grass skills, scratching, dozing, and following skills. Little beings the size and weight of ping pong balls, walking, eating, pooping, thinking. They're so cute I can hardly stand it. They are already surprisingly independent, with a noticeably larger radius of dispersion than two days ago, and the flock moves faster.
OMG KEETS!!!
I went out to feed everyone lunch and got stopped in my tracks by a tumble of new keets! A whole new cast of characters. I think there's 13. They're hard to count. Little white ones and brown ones! The white guinea hen is back with a hugely successful brood! I've been seeing her at the food trays occasionally the last couple of weeks wolfing down food, at off-hours, so I've wondered.
Guineas going to bed
Now that there are chicks in the greenhouse, they like to come adventurously popping out when I open up for the guineas. Greetings, part-time residents. The keets are looking, and acting, quite grownup now. First, they all run by, seeing if the door is really open. Then they muster up somewhere and ... all surge in at once. Cheeks have developed a new trick. She watches and waits, and then gets right in the middle of the flock of keets and runs in with them.
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.
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.
All they needed was a keet ladder
Last night when Galahad and the keets went to bed in the greenhouse, there was a lot of noise, and G was running laps around the greenhouse-like he wanted out. He settled down, but I felt he was distressed, and maybe frustrated with sleeping on the ground. Tonight after bedtime, I thought the greenhouse was remarkably quiet. I peeked...and just about died! In case it's unclear what you're seeing, that is one keet perched on Galahad's back, yes, and all the keets lined up on the (swinging) perching rail, at 6' in the greenhouse.
Hens and their chicks
Daisy's chicks have the greatest outfits right now. Worthy of Björk. Silver is still special cottons chicks are little screamers. Always yelling, no apparent reason. They're moved up to the big Silkie house with the grownup hens. Making the rounds of the dish, literally. Feisty's chicks are the newest. Foxy's four: And Galahad's chicks! Monopolizing a feed dish.
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,
Guinea growth
They're also lost their "chick immunity", and can and will get pecked for being rude, especially by the layer hens. One of the guinea cocks seemed to be being a real jerk, chasing and attacking the chicks all the time. But I have a theory that that's a developmental strategy, like play fighting or wrestling, that he's teaching them the art of escaping attack (try catching one). Especially since the hen is right there letting him do it.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
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