Sunday, March 18, 2012

I'm baaack!

Sorry everyone, I needed a break from the blogging world!  But now I'm back!  And it's gonna be great!  Spring is here, the weather is great so much is going on, my only problem will be finding the time to write it all all!  So get ready and hold onto your seats, it's gonna be an awesome year!

Our winter egg production was down to 7 or 8 eggs a day, from 16 hens.  Still more than I'll ever eat!  Thanks ladies!!!!  Egg production is already starting to rise since the weather's been so nice.










Muffin the rooster has been feeling his oats and has started chasing me and attacking me when I enter the chicken pen.  Silly boy.  I remember from my lessons learned in the past to carry a broom, and he remembers getting swatted with the broom a few times, so he leaves me alone as long as I carry my broom friend.  It's funny that he looks to see if I have the broom or now.  He's too smart...


A baby deer spent a few months in our back yard this winter.  I assume her mother was killed by hunters.  This seems to happen every year.  I guess the mothers bring their babies to our backyard before hunting season a lot.  We have good grass and brush for deers to eat and provide a salt block.  When the mother's are killed, the babies seem to come back here, where they remember.  Luckily, a large number of deer travel through, and the babies join another herd.  If they're lucky, there's another baby deer in that herd so they have a playmate.

This little deer spent a few months with us, she was wasn't afraid to come up to the house, as long as we were inside.  Herds passed through, some even spending a few days out back with her, but she refused to go with them and leave the backyard.  Guess she was waiting for her mother.  Too sad!  Eventually she left with a herd, and we haven't seen her since.
The guineas have been feeling their oats, too.  They've been chasing each other and are pairing up and going off alone in pairs to make nests and lay eggs.  The only prob is that we don't have enough females to go around, so quite a few males don't have mates, and they aren't happy about that.  It seems that each female picks a mate for that season (maybe longer) and they stay together as a couple.  When the weather gets cold again then they all stay together as one flock to deal with winter.  We have a group of guineas that we raised from eggs from the last parent guinea flock.  The parent guineas, all except for 2 males, were killed off by a monster that lived in the woods.  I don't know about these guineas mating, because they all may be related, father and daughter, brother and sister, and these ones aren't that bright, so I can only imagine their children will really not be too bright.  Or maybe it doesn't matter if birds inbreed???  Let me know! 

The guineas are very friendly to us, and greet us every time we are outside.  They hate and attack chickens.  If a chicken gets outside the chicken pen they will eventually kill it by pecking it to death.  Even if I'm out there with it, beside it, they still attack it.  They don't attack cats or people. They love people, people sometimes have treats.  They do attack deer and woodchuck and especially love to chase cars.  Strange birds, these guineas are.  But I love them still.

I could go on and on, but theis is getting long, so I'll save the rest for later!

20 comments:

Chai Chai said...

Welcome back. Our Guineas are only attacking the poor rooster for now. Since the majority of them were raised by Mamma Chicken they tend to still follow her around if they are not paying attention.

Knatolee said...

Welcome back! I missed ya but I understand needing a break. I love the pics of the baby deer. :)

Razzberry Corner said...

Hi Chai Chai! Our guineas were raised by the chickens, but that doesn't make a difference to them! I think we have too many male guineas.

Hi Nat! My work has been taking way too much of my time! I hate how that happens! :) I have so much to talk about on the blog, all my chatter has been bottled up!!! :D

~Lynn

Carolyn said...

Hello there again! Yes, life does tend to occasionally get in the way of blogging, but we're glad your back.

Before we moved to the farm, I thought we'd have guineas and chickens, but after reading about every one else's guinea / chicken problems and our neighbors swearing that the they chased all their chickens into the woods (to be eventually eaten), I had to give up on the idea. Oh well, I'll just keep reading about them on your blog!

LindaG said...

Welcome back!
We want to have chickens when hubby retires, and were planing on guineas, too. We may have to rethink that now. :/

What breeds of chickens do you have that you got eggs all winter? That is great! most of the blogs I follow didn't get any eggs over the winter.

Happy Sunday to you all! :-)

Kessie said...

I'm so glad you're back! I'd been wondering how you were doing and how your new guinea flock managed the winter. I imagine they're really territorial right now, if they're attacking the chickens. Poor chickens!

CaliforniaGrammy said...

So glad you're back up to blogging and keep your fans up to date with life at Razzberry Corner. I had no idea guineas do not like chickens! Bummer.

John Going Gently said...

nice to have you back!!!

Razzberry Corner said...

Carolyn Renee - I'm sorry to have influenced your idea to have both guineas and chickens! That's sad! :( I love both the guineas and the chickens.

Linda G - I'm also sorry to have influenced your idea to have both guineas and chickens. Maybe if they are both raised togather and stay together they don't pick on one another. Our guineas totally free range and the chickens have a huge pen and coop. The chickens only come out supervised, and even then the guineas attack them. We do have another pen which doesn't have a roof which we used to separate chickens into, but the guineas would fly into it and tortue the chickens! But still, I wouldn't give up on having both guineas and chickens!

Kessie - Surprisingly, everyone survived winter fine. No guinea deaths at all. We did loose a few chickens last year, don't know why they suddenly got sick and died. I think that just happens sometimes. Our birds are not super young anymore. But everyone is fine now. (Sadly, Raspberry and her sister Bella both died. Two of my fav hens) :(

CA Grammy - how are you doing these days? I've missed ya!! :)

John Gray - Thanks, it's nice to be back! :)

~Lynn

Leigh said...

That's so funny about Muffin and the broom. I'm not so sure I'd keep him around, lol. Hope you break was restful. Glad to see you back to blogging.

Farm Girl said...

I forgot about all of the weird hangups guineas have. They do like to chase cars. I am glad you are back. It is nice to get caught up with what has been going on.
Your pictures are nice of the fawn.
I look forward to some more of your posts.

Razzberry Corner said...

Leigh - Muffin is a great rooster. He feeds and protects the hens. He constantly is on alert, looking for danger. He is gentle with the hens, only mean to me. And I know the broom trick, so it's ok. :) He's a keeper! Although he did peck me today because I didn't give him a treat that he could feed to the hens, but I fed the hens treats instead. He's very possessive.

Hi Kim! It's good to be back talking about guineas again! :)

~Lynn

Country Girl said...

Welcome back! I missed reading and seeing your farm! We are coming to see you in May! I will deliver some eggs to my bro in law Tom! And I want to meet your chickens again and take a walk through your woods! See ya!

Dog Trot Farm said...

Welcome Back! Ramon, the banty rooster is still in need of a new home, or maybe I had better invest in a new sturdy broom! Beautiful eggs, spring is in the air, thank goodness! Greetings from Maine, Julie.

robin said...

The weather has been too great. I got a sunburn walking around touring the last couple of days. Thank goodness it rained today. It's good to see you back. :)

Razzberry Corner said...

Robin!! Are you and Lee in Washington visiting???? :)

~Lynn

Robin said...

Yes we are. I tried to write at mount Vernon but I don't think it went through. We leave Tuesday. I've been loving DC

robin said...

For some reason I thought you lived in Virginia instead of Maryland. We are driving though Maryland Tuesday and I am excited. The state seems really pretty. Have you ever been to the assateague island?

nlchipman said...

Was just reading your blog about the missing guinea hens. We rarely let ours out of the pen because we have fox and raccoons in the nearby woods and have been paranoid about losing the guineas. But this past weekend we were home and the weather was beautiful and we felt guilty so we let them out. Saturday they wandered around clucking and clattering and come home before dusk so we could put them up for the night. Sunday we let them out and they wandered a bit farther than they had the day before. About 3:30 two of our three wandered out of the woods back into the yard, but the third never appeared. we went searching for several hours and found no sign of her. No feathers and no nest. Before bed time, the male walked along the edge of the woods and call for her a bit, but she never appeared and never answered him. Is she gone for good? :(

Razzberry Corner said...

Hi Robin,
I'm sorry I realized I never answered you! Yes, we've been to assateague island. It's on the Eastern shore, and is a little drive from us. We're much closer to DC. Glad you had fun in DC!

nlchipman - It sounds like your guinea female may have been killed. She wasn't used to be outside, maybe she just got scared away from the others and couldn't find them. But most likely she was killed by a fox or other woods animal. I'm sorry. They only go broody after they've laid a nest of eggs on which to sit, which takes weeks, so she's prob not sitting on a nest somewhere. Guineas and woods just don't go well together. We go thru a flock of guineas every year, it seems, and our battles with the fox, coons, owls, etc, are continuous. Once Randy slept outside for about a week and finally found a coon attacking/killing the guineas when the slept. He got a taste for blood. The fox always are walking around our house in broad daylight. I have a pack of coons on my back porch right now, and it's only 730PM!
~Lynn