Good Morning! in 2018

[windwalkingwolf]

Sorry for your losses, Bert and Carla

[SusanH]

I am amazed you can grow an apricot tree. Details please!

I cannot claim any credit for this. I only know it is an apricot because my late father planted it for my mother for a Mother's Day many years ago, maybe the 80s. She's been gone since 91. He said it was a male tree and that it had bloomed breathtakingly every spring for years. It doesn't now, not since we got the place in 2012. I even wonder if this is the same tree. Some day I have to do an ID on the leaves. It is lovely to sit in.

[SusanH]

Any ideas? I moved my 3 ducklings and 5 chicks from the brooder to a small store-bought coop ("for 2-4 hens") in stages, first ducks then chicks, first days only, then overnights if warm enough. They like to snuggle together. I would fish out the chicks to take them in at night until they were full feathered around six weeks, and then I fished them out to put them into their bigger permanent coop. The chicks insist on going to bed with the ducks. The mini coop is too crowded. The coop is too cramped even for three ducks. So I have set up a plastic dog house to house the ducks. And I keep trying to stuff the chicks into the big chicken coop at night. Still, they all go sit outside the mini-coop at night even if I lock them out. So today I moved the mini-coop next to the duck and chicken houses. Of course tonight I go out to lock everyone in, and there they are. The ducklings and chicks are sitting on the ground where the the mini-coop used to be. I took the chicks and stuffed them in the big coop, and herded the ducks into the mini coop in its new spot. We will see what happens tomorrow. I predict IF the ducks move to their new house, the chicks will join them. I guess that's ok except the chicken coop is way better for them for winter and for laying and for roosting and generally for being chickens. Anyone have suggestions? I really don't want sorting birds into their species-designated houses to be my nightly routine, even if it's kind of entertaining now.

[poultry_admin]

We had Guineas that imprinted on Turkeys. They were in the same brooder for a while and became inseparable afterwards. We gave up and had them in with the Turkeys. Was just waaaay easier than trying to catch them every day.
So clearly I don't have a solution to your problem , maybe someone else???

[Farrier1987]

Need someone with experience with guinea hens. Do they go feral? Was driving yesterday mid day and on the side of the road, a km or so from any residence, four guineas on the shoulder. I know nothing or a little less about guineas. Someone that does could maybe start a thread, I would kind of like to learn some about them.

[poultry_admin]

Hey, don't forget to enter this month's picture of the month contest by submitting your entry here:
viewforum.php?f=94

smiley-with-camera.jpg (13.22 KiB) Viewed 3269 times

I'll set up voting next Saturday, so make sure you have your pics in before!!

[WLLady]

Oh guineas will wander all over the place. And they are not too bright.
So it is quite possible they were lost and didnt know it....

[Jaye]

Any ideas? I moved my 3 ducklings and 5 chicks from the brooder to a small store-bought coop ("for 2-4 hens") in stages, first ducks then chicks, first days only, then overnights if warm enough. They like to snuggle together. I would fish out the chicks to take them in at night until they were full feathered around six weeks, and then I fished them out to put them into their bigger permanent coop. The chicks insist on going to bed with the ducks. The mini coop is too crowded. The coop is too cramped even for three ducks. So I have set up a plastic dog house to house the ducks. And I keep trying to stuff the chicks into the big chicken coop at night. Still, they all go sit outside the mini-coop at night even if I lock them out. So today I moved the mini-coop next to the duck and chicken houses. Of course tonight I go out to lock everyone in, and there they are. The ducklings and chicks are sitting on the ground where the the mini-coop used to be. I took the chicks and stuffed them in the big coop, and herded the ducks into the mini coop in its new spot. We will see what happens tomorrow. I predict IF the ducks move to their new house, the chicks will join them. I guess that's ok except the chicken coop is way better for them for winter and for laying and for roosting and generally for being chickens. Anyone have suggestions? I really don't want sorting birds into their species-designated houses to be my nightly routine, even if it's kind of entertaining now.

How old are your chicks?
Is it possible that they are too young to feel comfortable in the big coop with the more mature hens yet? When I had young chicks last year, they had their own little coop in the run. They always went back into their little coop together at night until they reached an age where they decided they wanted to join the others in the main coop. They weren't welcomed at first, so they wound up going back to their little coop on a couple of occasions, but they persisted, and when the big girls stopped chasing them out and they were able to roost on the ladder leading up to the main roost bars, they never went back. As they got older they joined the rest of the girls on the roost bars. Maybe if you have a similar setup, you can let them decide for themselves when to transition to the main coop, and just put the ducklings in their new house?

[SusanH]

Thanks, Jaye, that's reassuring, that the chicks might decide on their own to embrace their chickenness and move on their own. So the real problem is getting the ducks to move out of the little coop. They can barely get in it! But maybe they will discover the new house today or tomorrow. Maybe I could put a feed dish in there. I guess I just need to be patient.
The chicks hatched April 20, the ducklings April 10.

[baronrenfrew]

guineas go feral? : no, but they will wander an easy kilometre. the problem is they'will pick a wild spot to lay eggs, then the hen will sit, then get taken out one night by a raccoon or a fox. If I wanted eggs (and wanted them to live) I had to clip their wings and lock them up until egg laying was over. they will surprise you how dumb they are. a lady had some, and she had a large run with a four foot fence for her dog. a guinea would fly in and not know how to get out and the dog would get it. the last bunch I raised, when let out the first day, didn't come back in the shed that night preffering to hang out in an open barn. from 10 four survived the first night. then i locked the dummies up and promptly sold them.