Guinea fowl nest

I knew my guinea hen had hidden her nest. Been searching for it for a month or more. I was afraid the weasel might have found it and eaten the eggs. Just a thought on my part, don't know if weasels eat egg but kind of remember reading that they might. Anyway yesterday my little dog Bluebird got too close to where she had made her nest. and did she, the guinea set up a fuss, Blue didn't know what the problem was. I looked closely and finally saw the nest. it is close to edge of lawn right at the base of a large daylily plant. She had pulled off old daylily leaves for the nest. As I didn't know where it was I know it got sprinkled with water when I was irrigating nearby.

I really had decided that 2 guinea fowl are all my garden can handle so didn't really want any more. She hasn't begun setting and maybe isn't going to. There are 28 eggs in the nest. I think I will gather them so that she won't begin setting.

Donna S

Wow, thats a nice pile of eggs. I'm glad you found them before she starting sitting and you end up with a few dozen chicks to get rid of.

Donna, That will put a stop to any possibility of keets. I have never felt that our guineas would do enough dust bathing to cause one to wish there were fewer of them. I still have 8 guineas. The 2 guinea roos in our combined poultry flock of 42 give my 30 chickens a few pecks too many ..... plus the dust bathing holes have never been a issue with me. If your 2 guineas had more space to wander .... perhaps the dust bathing holes would not be so trying or their eating too problematic. I do not have a vegetable garden worth mentioning so maybe you appreciate or understand their eating habits more than I do. The little veggie garden spot we have is fenced off so that even squirrels would find it a challenge to get into. So far the guineas do not know our veggie garden exists and the now veggies are mature (beyond seedlings) to the point where guineas would not want to bother the plants.

I'd be tempted to increase the protection from varmints and access to my vegetable garden from your guineas and see how much enjoyment the guineas might provide. I have pretty much decided that guineas are a better type of poultry to have than dual purpose chickens. They require almost no feed 11 months of the year. My flock of hens has decreased from 38 to 26 in the past 2 weeks. I expect our flock of hens will be down to a dozen by mid-August. I've gotten tired of spending money for feed. I'm eating eggs that cost $4 a doz. Kelly

Kelly, thanks for your interest. I have about 2 1/2 acres of completely fenced in garden that the guineas and 3 banties have for free range. There is one large drivethru size gate that now has a chicken wire drag at the bottom so no animals can get in and neither Blue nor the guineas can go out (if the gate is shut) which it mostly isn't.

It's not the dust bath places that I object to, they are mostly in areas that aren't a problem. Actually they ate or scratched out a lot of my flower seedlings that I planted out from the greenhouse. I even started putting bamboo stakes, one or two or three, around the seedlings b ut that did not deter the guineas. The one thing I had hoped they would do is eat and get rid of the many earwigs. But that hasn't happened, I guess the earwigs hide too well in the daytime.

When are you and your wife coming this way. If you don't find time this fall, then next May or June are the best month for visiting my garden.

The smoke from the large Tunk Ridge fire has been very bad since Sat. morning. It is just across the river from me. Largest fire in the area, last I heard was more than 10,000 acres The fellow who has worked for me more than 20 years was completely surrounded, he said, by the fire, with one fellow helping and a pumper truck. He and his wife stayed at the house and managed to save everything except one storage building. The tele. lines are burned in the area and I can't contact other friends living there. We had a loud T & L storm earlier this morning, and a hard rain, and it is still raining, which is great.

Donna

Donna, ...Next spring is the soonest. We're off to Glacier Prk tomorrow for 5 nights 6 days at the lodges. A vacation of a lifetime for my oldest son who just graduated and we wanted to treat him to something extra special.

My guineas have never had the opportunity to get into anything I care about because I'venever planted anything they wanted to eat. Kelly

hahaha if you gather the nest before she has finished laying she will just move to another location... trust me on this

Donna, The nest being protected by it location from skunks is probably why the eggs were undisturbed. Skunks find and eat 90% of our guinea eggs. There is little I can do to keep skunks out except by sewing a wire fence 2 ft out sideways from the bottom of our fence line. I may have a guinea on a nest because we've only counted 7 for the last few weeks. Either that or we have a hen on a nest ...... yikes .... more keets. Kelly

I've been out of town for a week on my annual bus trip to Reno. Got back Fri. evening.Luckily the weather was cooler and garden was okay. The gate was kept closed because i am still afraid the neighbors dog might go over the electric restraining wire and kill some more of my birds. Only have four now. I got two more half grown guineas to replace the Lavender female guinea that the neighbor dog killed. I didn;t nor did the lady I got them from know how to tell which sex they were. As it turned out one was a female and one male. My older Pied guinea soon let me know thant one of the two is female ane the other a male. Pied did not like the male and eventually he flew over the fence and I haven't seen him since. The other two seem contented to stay together.

This week i hope to get a couple of young banties from the same lady I got the two guineas from to round out my flock. The dog also killed my brown banty, so right now I only have two, a rooster and a hen, and they are both 7 years old now.

Donna

Donna, Sorry to learn of your misadventures with a neighbor's dog. That is an all too common problem with poultry owners. I use the SSS policy when killer dogs are on my property .... (shoot, shovel, shut-up). Not everyone can handle that problem in that way but the neighbors around here have become quite a bit more diligent about keeping their dogs restrained than when we 1st moved here 5 years ago. Glad to know you had a fun time in Reno again. We haven't been back since we moved here from Carson City. I don't miss it one bit. The slot machines in the grocery stores still irritates me. The Hwy 395 between Reno and Carson City was getting increasingly crowded. So many people are so dumb about pouring their weekly earnings into the slots. The one truth about gambling ... the poor are the biggest losers and the rich ... can afford to risk a few dollars regularly. The gambling / casino environment is too seedy for me to want to go inside. My siblings do so regularly .... chiming in that the buffets are so wonderful but I just can't get over the whole "fool and his money" idea surrounding gambling.

I don't much care for the slot machines and rarely play them. I like Blackjack and play that mostly.

Guess I am not supposed to have guineas. Early Tuesday morning the young female guinea went outside early in the morning, I don't know why, they had been staying inside until daylight. Anyway I didn't see it happen but I am sure the horned owl that has been mostly staying at my neighbors, ( not the ones with the dog) swooped down and caught the young female guinea. I have not seen the guinea since and the Pied male has been going around the yard calling. Nothing else could get in the yard except something flying as the gate was shut and the wire fence under the wood fence is tight to keep my animals in and others out.

I do have another visitor. A white pigeon, large, flew into the yard yesterday morning. I also got three young banties from a friend who lives south of Tonasket. i took my wood cage down to her place after Senior meeting yesterday and she caught 3 of her half grown black banties. I brought them home, they are still in the box cage in the back of the pickup, waiting until the fellow who works for me comes to help unload them. I shut the chicken yard gate last night after looking in the chicken house to be sure the three, 1 guinea, and 2 old banties were inside. And what did it see on the roost along with the other three birds was the white pigeon. Guess it decided this would be a good home. Have no idea where it came from/ Looks health so hope no disease or bugs.

Donna