where does the time go?

I can't believe that a couple of weeks (ok almost a month) has gone by since I last posted. Time is just flying by.....soccer ends this weeks (woo hoo!) and life will (hopefully) slow down considerably.

Since the last post we have a hen go missing. It's a long story but one night not all the hens went into the shed. 3 were left out (after a long search) and in the morning only 2 returned. One of the hens we actually found roosting in the swamp oak in front of the house. It was up about 25-30 feet in the tree. So we are down to 14. 7 lavender (the lighter gray) and 7 pearl (dark gray).

They are really funny to watch- now any time we are outside they seem to want to be around us. Last Friday we got some firewood delivered and were stacking it by the house when all the hens decided that they were going to come and watch.....













The only issue is that they can be loud. For some reason when they are around us the "talk" all the time. Sometimes it is enough to drive you crazy...

Another interesting guinea fact is that they love to look at themselves. Not quite sure why- they are quite ugly, but they love to look and talk to themselves in the windows. They have decided that they like to sit on the window well right below the kitchen window and squawk away.















Giggs (Logan's new kitten) has decided that he loves to sleep in baskets. He is really fond of sleeping in this quart sized basket. Not quite sure how he makes himself fit, but he does it all the time.













Here are some pictures from the last month.....















Enjoy!
Lisa

Someone is watching!

Ever get the feeling that someone is watching you? I had that distinct feeling the other day when I heard a tapping on the window of my craft room. I turned and this is what I saw......
















For some reason they have decided that it is a great place to hang out on the steps outside the craft room. I swear if I opened the door they would come right in. That would only add to the chaos that is our life already!! The guineas are spending everyday out in the yard- they are eating up all the nasty stink bugs that have taken up residence on the house- even the spiders. Yay guineas!

so we've had a couple of new additions to the household in the last couple of weeks. I finaaly got my baby girl.....















We also added a kitten to the mix. It's kind of funny. we've gone into this whole black and white theme with the pets....
Here is Giggs-














Have a good day!
Lisa

video

I can't seem to get the video to upload correctly so here is the link to the youtube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcIyoqXZpKA

Hopefully that will let you look at it.

Free at last

Well, since the last time I posted the Guineas have gotten to go free. Right now they are 7 1/2 weeks old and doing great. Still can't believe that we have all 15 still. They are able to go free a couple of hours a day~ still working on the coming back to the shed. They actually are starting to feel comfortable enough in the yard to start venturing around the woods. They especially love the shrubs in the front of the house to hide in.
Have to say that the Guineas are a trip. They still flock together and are very protective of each other. Stormy (the cat) has been trying to stalk them almost every time that are out. But it seems to me that Stormy is some what afraid of the Guineas- the 1st time he tried to get one they all chased after him. It was quite funny!
Here is a photo of him trying to get them:














I tried to upload a video of the hens but am having a problem doing it. I'll try again soon.

Lisa

Roosting

Well, the guineas have been in their home for a week and they seem to really love it. They're really starting to fly and roost. It is amazing to me how high they can get up. Right after we moved them, Rick put up a piece of scrap wood along the back side of the shed for them to roost. They love it! Every night we find them either roosting by the windows, on the board and on the ledge on the door.

The first night they went into the shed, Rick went to check on them after dark. Well, when he went in he could only find 8 of the 15. He was panicked at first until he realized that the other 7 were roosting on the door that he walked in. The next morning was when he put up the board for them to roost on.
Here is picture of 5 of them roosting on the door:














Lisa

Moving day

So I can't believe that the guineas are 3 weeks old. The time is just flying by so fast!!! We moved them to their shed last Tues- they were getting wayyyy to big for the deck box that they started out in. We finally had to cover the top of the box because they were trying to fly out!!!



There was many a morning we would go out to check on them and find at least 1 or 2 inside the grain feeder. they are such a trip. We have been working on hand feeding them with millet seed to try to get them to come over when we call. We're hopping that this will make it easier to get them into their coop at night once they are allowed to roam. I've taken to calling them like I call the dogs. Who knows if it will work.











Here is their new digs before the big move:













Everyone helped out with the move- including the boys and Catherine. It was quite the production. The Guineas wings have really grown and they are probably with their wings spread around 8-10 inches across. When they get to flapping their wings it is pretty hard to hold them.

I have to say that they are pretty funny to watch- they definitely have a pecking order and move in a flock. There are a couple of them that will actually sit on your hand for a while~ you just have to watch out when you first pick them up. It is guaranteed that they are going to poop. Learned that they hard way for sure. I actually had one sitting on my shoulder the other day and it proceeded to poop on my shoulder- thank god the poop rolled right off......

Have to laugh at this one. Vicki, after visiting us and dealing with all the ticks, has decided that we need to rename the house Camp Tick. Hopefully the Guineas will help take care of that problem.

Here is a picture of what they looked like late last week:













Lisa

The first few days

Where to even start with this whole adventure...Rick has a friend from work who calls our house "the Ponderosa" At the Ponderosa, we have a huge tick problem-I pulled 45 ticks off Bones in 24 hours. So after visiting family in NY and telling them about our problem, Bill and Michele said something about Guinea Fowl eating ticks. At this point I was willing to try anything-Rick, on the other hand,was a little more hesitant. I ordered 15 guinea fowl from Ideal Poultry in Texas.

The keets (guinea fowl chicks) were supposed to arrive last Tuesday, but of course, life never works out the easy way. I planned to have them show up on Tuesday since I work on Wed and I was driving the boys to camp at VT on Thursday. But all good plans seem to go crazy. I called Ideal Poultry on Tuesday afternoon to see when the keets would arrive and how- was UPS bringing them, perhaps FedEx? Nope, good old USPS and they'd be shipped Priority mail. The only catch was, I had to pick them up at the Post Office. Well since I was going to Blacksburg and knew I wouldn't be in time to pick them up, I was a little stressed out. How was I going to get them? Who in their right mind would be willing to do such a weird request?! So I called Linda...













Of course 15 min after I left the house on Thursday morning, the Post Office calls. Our keets were there. I promptly called Linda (who had said yes to picking them up) and she said she'd get them by lunch. I get a phone call from Linda about 11:30 telling me that the USPS employee didn't want to give her the keets- she needed my exact address. Who in their right mind would be getting live keets in the mail and who would try to go to the post office to steal them?! I guess it happens more often then you would think- people getting live animals in the mail. Linda did tell me the woman in line behind her was thinking she was strange getting live chicks thru the mail......luckily she could say to her that they weren't hers.
Here are the keets at Linda's just after they arrived:















I have to say Linda really stepped up and took great care of the keets for me until I got home. Ideal Poultry sent the 15 keets and 4 rooster chicks (they use the roosters chicks to help keep the keets warm in travel). Only 1 rooster didn't make it. Linda said that Charlie and his friend gave the chick a nice little funeral and buried him in their backyard. Charlie and Hailey also gave them food water and love. Well, as much love as you can give a bird.

We meet up in the 7Eleven parking lot and did the keet transfer. All the babies were doing fine. Got them home and put them in their makeshift home- a deck storage box. We're still waiting for the shed to come.

The dogs- especially Bones- are interested in the chirping little pooping machines that are known as keets. Bones, as you can see in this picture is obsessed. He just sits and stares at them- probably thinking what a good chase they will be when they get bigger.....going to have to work on that one.













So for now everything is going along smoothly. All the keets, plus the rooster chicks are doing well. No one has died....yet. But I have to say, when I ordered 15 keets, didn't really think that they'd all survive.... We'll see how this goes. We're still working on what we are going to do with the roosters- Rick is standing firm on the notion that we will not keep them. So either I find them a home or he "takes care of them". The best had to be the other day when he tried to convince Matt to do it, but thankfully Matt refused....

While I was taking some photos this morning, I snapped a few of Stormy (the cat). When I looked at them I was surprised to find this one:














I think that says it all.....
Have a great day!
Lisa