Update

Well, hello there my friends.  I haven't been posting lately.  I just have been busy, and when I have a few spare moments I consider all the work that must be done, and decide it's more important than sharing my world via the blog.  I have really missed my communications and support from my online friends.  It's awesome how blogging builds friendships between people with the same interests.

And so, I will probably keep my blog posts short and targeted, but I will try to continue the blog through the winter here at Razzberry Corner.  Winters are cold and rough times, but many holidays all fall in during wintertime.  I guess we need to find something to keep us happy when we are working extra hard to keep everyone warm, and so we have holidays!

So here's a quick update on the happenings here at our farm...

White Boy Guinea

White Girl Guinea over on the right

 The guineas are all doing fine.  I am so surprised that even the "slow" white female guinea is doing great.  She is my favorite now.  She had an issue after birth, when she was an infant, and her developing slowed down.  She did weird things, like walk backwards instead of forwards.  She didn't make good decisions and was brushed aside by the other guineas, often missing out on treats because she wasn't fast enough.  She got very sick at one point and couldn't stand on her own.  We considered putting her down many times.  She quickly was put on antibiotics and vitamins and miraculously she recovered, but she never recovered all the way back to normal.  When they got bigger, the other guineas made her an outcast.  She appears to be blind in one eye still.  But she's a fighter - she wandered alone, and eventually a pair of other shy females who were ousted by the guinea flock joined her and she became the leader of her own little flock of ladies where everyone was accepted.  I always make sure to feed the separate little flock treats, and most times now the 2 flocks join together and just separate during treat feeding times.  The white female guinea is the only pure white child from our white male guinea papa.  He was one of the last 2 guineas to survive from last year's flock.

The young guineas, who were born this year, started laying eggs this autumn before it got too cold.  If I searched I could find their eggs out in the bushes. Next year we will raise more guineas from our own eggs to maintain the flock.


Below is a picture of a typical dozen of our chicken eggs, plus the two little guinea eggs.  we only have light brown and green eggs right now, despite the fact that we got 4 Rhode Island Red and 4 Cuckoo Maran chicks this summer.  Both of these breeds lay dark brown eggs.  Those chicks have now all grown up into beautiful LARGE birds, much bigger than all our other bantam birds.  However, we think that all 4 Reds are roosters, and 2 of the Cuckoos are roosters!  We had a "great" system for picking the chicks from a mixed batch that was being sold at the local farmers market.  We read online how to tell the differences between the sexes of the chicks for these 2 breeds.  Evidently, we did it exactly wrong for the Reds.  Well, hey, we know how to pick Rhode Island Red roosters from a batch of chicks now!  The 2 female cuckoos haven't laid yet, although they are adults.  Possibly we're wrong and they are roosters, too, who knows?  I'll post some chicken pics next post, and will give you more chicken news.  There's always drama in the coop, you know.

Stay tuned, I do have some GOOD, no GREAT, news about Bobby the outside cat...  But you're going to have to wait for it!

Shadow