A Very Fowl Update

It's been over a month for the chickens and almost a month for the guineas being released into the coop and run. They've taken to things pretty well. Though they stick with their own, they don't seem to mind each other as is evidenced by the current roosting arrangement.

Bigger chickens and "top" guineas sharing the top of the roost

You may have noticed that I said "bigger chickens" in the above caption. Well, another tie-in to my love of baseball involves a mid-season trade. Tomorrow (July 31) is the deadline for baseball teams to trade players for the remainder of the season. A couple of weeks ago we traded in a few chickens.

It seems that the lady who sold them to us wasn't as good at sexing them as she'd hoped. (Full disclaimer: She did say she wasn't 100% certain on how many roosters we might have gotten.) Out of 8 chickens (4 Orpingtons, 4 Easter Eggers), 6 of them were roosters. That's about 5 too many for that small of a flock. She'd previously agreed to switch out any roosters we wanted for hens.

Original Easter Eggers - Of the 4 pictured, only the bottom left chicken is a hen.

Original Lavender Orpingtons - Only the chicken on the right is a hen.

So we kept one Lavender rooster and switched out the remaining 5 roosters. When I arrived to meet her for the swap she told me she still wasn't sure if what she brought with her were all hens. It was still a best guess. Armed with some advice from my brother-in-law and advice I gleaned from the internet, I chose the ones that I thought were hens and brought them home.

The newbies. 3 Easter Eggers and 2 Lavender Orpingtons (with our original Easter Egger hen)

Their initial reaction to joining the flock, which I did while feeding the others mealworm treats as a distraction, was to hide in fear in a corner of the run. Pretty much what we expected. After a week or so of being "hazed" by the bigger chickens and learning their place, they have settled in and now seem to be accepted members of the flock. They do still get pecked at by the two bigger Lavender Orpingtons occasionally, but that's pretty normal for the new kids on the block. Here are the newbies:

This one looks like a Roadrunner

This one looks like an osprey (at certain angles)

This one sometimes looks like a hawk and other times like a Killdeer

These are the two new Lavender Orpingtons

We kept SideEye Bill - our only rooster

Our original Lavender hen

Our original Easter Egger hen

As for the guineas, they're doing fine as well. Here they are at the feeder.

I asked everyone, chickens and guineas, to pose for a group photo

The guinea close-up you didn't know you needed. Nice eyelashes!

Our next experiment is allowing the guineas to free range. Recently we let two out and they were panicked the whole time pecking at the wire trying to get back in. The next day we let four out and they seemed much more calm. Pecking at bugs and grass. It was the guineas inside that were worried this time. We hope by the weekend we can let the whole flock out about a hour before "bedtime" and see how they do.

Of course we also have to teach Lulu that the guineas aren't quail or other game birds that she needs to retrieve. We'll see how that works out.

They've got their eyes on each other.

Fine Feathered Friends

So the chickens are just a little over 6 weeks old (hatched on May 20th) and we've had them almost that long, getting them on the 24th. Needless to say they have grown considerably. They went from this size:

The day we brought them home

To this size:

In their run enjoying part of a cucumber.

Just some general observations of the chickens... They are much more social with us now that they've been moved to the coop/run. We call them as we get close and give them treats once or twice a day of discarded veggies or some sesame seeds. They always come running to the door of the run when they see us coming. They even greet me when I return on the lawn mower, though they don't like it when it first starts. We also think we might have 4 roosters (3 of the Lavenders and one of the Easter Eggers).

This is our (99% certain) rooster. Emily calls him "SideEye Bill" and the name has stuck. He's the first one to greet/challenge us when we walk up to and into the run. Right now he's pretty gentle and allows us to pick him up. He puts himself between us and the other chickens at first.

SideEye Bill

This one we call Jonathan Livingston because of her/his resemblance to a seagull.

Jonathan Livingston

Neta calls the one on the right "Cadbury" because he/she is an Easter Egger. Actually they're both Easter Eggers, but the dark one got the name. The other remains nameless for now.

Cadbury (right) and friend

Another of our Easter Eggers, but we have yet to name her/him. We're open to naming suggestions so feel free to email us, contact us on Facebook or stop by and offer up some names. And NO...we won't entertain Chicky McChick Face or the like.

Don't forget...we also have Guineas! We picked them up on June 15th from a Flint River Guinea in Thomaston, GA, about 3 hours from our house. We ordered 12, but...the breeder gave us 18 as she wanted us to have all of the colors she was offering:

Coral Blue
Cinnamon
Royal Purple
Bronze
Chocolate
Lavender
Pearl Gray Pied
Buff

Here they are on their first day home.

Sixteen of the keets were 2 weeks old and two of them were only a few days old. We don't have names for any of them yet. It's probably too many to give names to...plus we're not all that "close" with them yet.

The lady who sold them to us told us that at 2 weeks, guineas can pretty much fly wherever they want. She wasn't kidding!  We had a 4 inch gap in the top of our container after raising the water bottles and not long after had an escapee.

HELP! I didn't know I didn't want to be out here all alone!

After two weeks of having them in the house we decided the time was right to move them to the coop/run as well. We figured they'd get along fine with the chickens. So we headed out to the coop.

There was lots of screeching and squawking involved.

After gently moving them from their over-crowded brooder container to the coop, they headed straight for the farthest corner of the coop and tried to get as far away from any living thing as they could.

If I get close enough to the wall, no one will see me!

So the guineas have been in the coop for about 4 days now. They're doing fine. They don't like it when the chickens come in and eat their food and drink their water, but they deal with it. They've gone outside in the run once only to discover there are...GASP!...chickens out there...and promptly hid in the corner. I had to wrangle them back inside. But today I went out there and opened the door and they were eating and drinking and didn't run for cover when they saw me (HUGE progress).

They have taken to the coop pretty well and will eventually work their way outside more once they realize that though the chickens might pick at them, they'll be able to pick back, as they'll eventually be bigger and badder than the chickens.

They love high places.

The two little ones seem to be keeping up with the others. Though having the first rung of the roost at 18 inches is just at their limit, but they manage.

One of the little ones is taking a breather from making it up two rungs.

So one final interesting note about the guineas. Yesterday I went out after dark to make sure the chickens and guineas were in the coop. Returning to the coop is something the chickens just learned a few day ago after trying to hunker down and sleep in the run for the first week or so.

As I came around the barn the run was empty. Good! Everyone was inside the coop. I opened the coop to see how they were all getting along. The chickens were nestled down in the pine shavings, but...NO GUINEAS!!! They were gone! They were not cowering in any of the corners. They were not up on the roost or in the windows or anywhere I could find them. Then I heard a couple of them make noise. And there they were...

Because...guineas!

At night they crawl up in the eaves of the coop to get away from the chickens...and to be higher than everyone else...because they're guineas.

They'll outgrow the small space soon, but for now it's whatever makes them safe and happy.