Is it really spring??!?

It has been a LONG winter, eh?

Could spring finally be here?  I sure do hope so.  I haven't been on more as I've been having a Trigeminal Neuralgia flare up that is kicking my behind.  I can't even find words to describe it.  So I've had many days of getting up, milking the cow, take a nap, milk the cow, eat dinner and go to bed.

But in the meantime, I've also bought baby chicks to keep me happy.  Everytime things are really bad, I head to the feed store and get a few more fluffies to cheer me up...so now the current count is

Trip #1
2 Buff Orpingtons, 4 Americaunas

#2
2 Silver Laced Wyandottes
2 Gold Laced Wyandottes
4 Cuckoo Marans
2 Buckeyes

#3
6 Guineas (3 have died)

#4
4 Turkeys (3 have died)
2 Welsummers
2 Easter Eggers

#5
10 Meat Birds (1 has died)

#6
2 Buckeyes

#7
2 Dixie Rainbows
2 Brahmas
2 Partridge Rocks

So.....I have 3 troughs of babies in my pump house, and the first 6 are now big enough to live in the small moveable coop in the barn.  And just today, I had a chick hatched out by a broodie mama.  Only one (so it's likely a rooster) and it looks like a Barred Rock.  And one of the duck mamas wen't broody yesterday, so we may have ducklings in 40 days.

Baby Guineas and Baby Chicks...

It's been about a month ago....blush....but I got a boxful of guinea keets in the mail.  Now I have stories about my dear guineas....some real some my imagination.

A few years ago I got guineas...they are not the hardiest creatures.  Or the smartest.  Or the quietest.  But they are essential on the farm for the tick population.  Out of the 15 I got back then...6 survived for a while...and then there were two...And those two lasted for quite some time....but then Girl Guinea decided to sit on a nest WAAAAYYY far away from the coop.  And Boy Guinea (called Guinea-Guinea) would go out and check on her.  Then one day, the nest was empty of eggs and the girl.  She decided to spend a bit of time with Coyote.  
Have I ever mentioned we have a pack of coyotes around here?

Well, anyway, everyday Guinea-Guinea called to his mate:
"You-here? You-here? You here?" 
Alas, no response.

Finally, one day we didn't hear Guinea-Guinea calling for his mate.  We figured he was gone for good.  But then two weeks later, he came back.....
And then, gone again.  Now he's been gone over a month, so we are pretty sure he went to Coyote, ""cuse, me, 'yote?  Have you seen my mate?"

"Why yes, I have.....Would you like me to take you to her?"
"Yes, indeed, please."
And Guinea-Guinea and his mate are together again....in the Coyote's tummy.

SIGH

Anyhoo...good to know my luck with guinea birds is still about the same.
I received a box with 15 guinea day olds.  6 Dead on Arrival.  This is not good.
6 more died within 12 hours.  Then 1 more within the first 48 hours.  2 survived for about a week.  Then we lost another, and the last one looked like it was going to go too.  I brought it inside and kept it in a shoebox with a heating pad. 

The same day the guineas came, I needed to pick up some chick feed (as Bess had ate all the chick feed as her last meal :( ) And Rural King was trying something new and had Road Island Red Pullets (Females) and Cornish Cross Meat Chickens (day old). 

Some women impulse buy shoes.  Others hand bags.
Me? I impulse buy live farm animals.

So 2 RIR's and 6 meaties came home from the store with me. 

I feel pretty confident now at a month old, that these are going to survive.

Below are pictures from the day I got all the baby guineas and chickens.  I'll have to take and post more up-to-date pictures soon.



The big yellow looking ones are meat birds.  The brown/red ones towards the back are RIRs.  And the little gray looking ones are guineas.

 

Guinea getting a drink.

What's that peeping at the post office.....Guineas!!

Our guineas were hatched on June 29th and on July 1st at 6:30 am the post office called to tell me I had a very noisy box to pick up!

Guineas (once grown) love to eat TICKS!  And since we definitely have ticks....

The minimum order was 30.

At home in the brooder.

We've sold 4 to a really nice family, and have lost one of the "chipmunk" ones to the heat.  The plan is to sell about 15 more. They were much smaller than day-old chick and were about the size of a quarter. They are living in the brooder with Thanksgiving, the turkey, and the three silkies. 

Sidenote, we've recently discovered that the silkies are 2 hens and a rooster named Professor Chicken. (I don't know, ask the Boy)