Kittens

We found a mouse nest in our 4-wheeler and removed it twice.    We have seen the mice around the land and they are hug!  Barn kitties were on our list but they quickly moved to the top after these treasures were found.  My daughter thought it would be fantastic to watch baby mice grow up, I however did not agree, especially not in the 4-wheeler.

Our friends had a kitten they wanted to get rid of but we needed a friend for her, which of course led to 2 friends!  I am such a sucker for baby animals, just not baby mice.  Meet Chui, Rafiki and Masai...

Last week something killed all of our guinea keeps and we decided to move the kittens to our house.  They are enjoying the garage...a little too much! :-)  We need to strengthen the pen that we have been keeping the kittens in to make sure they are safe.

See you next time!

Keets

It all started with ticks!  Lots and lots of ticks in March and April.  As we researched what would be a resolution to our magnificent tick problem, guinea fowl were frequently mentioned.  

So our search began. Well, just to let you know, guinea fowl are much different than chickens in every way.  You cannot run to the feed store at any time and pick up a couple of them.  They usually hatch around May/June.  So we contacted several hatcheries and got on a waiting list.  And we were waiting patiently, truly...some of you know we don't have much patience :-).

One day as we were shopping for dog, cat and chicken food at one of our favorite stores, we decided to take a quick peek at the fowl for sale.  Much to our surprise, there were guinea keets available!  So we jumped right in and bought 12.

We were not prepared for these babies but how hard can it be to raise some poultry?   After all, we have raised chickens in our backyard for about 3 years.  Yes, I had read all about these new friends and every website warned that they are not like chickens, but boy I had no idea how different they would be!  First, they are extremely delicate, we lost 2 in the first 24 hours.  They need a flat surface to walk on because their legs are fragile, they drown easily and their bedding needs to be changed twice a day -and oh my they stink!

Thankfully, I have a mother hen for a daughter and she loves this stuff.  She desperately tried to nurse one of the keets back to life and cried many tears when it died in her hand.  So, after about 6 weeks, I had enough of the stinkiness in my garage and demanded they be moved to the farm.

Since we are not living out there, predators are a big concern.  Tim built them a cute little coop but we ended up using it for some other cuties (more on them in a future post).

Instead for now, they are in a big field, in a chicken pen.  We move them every day and hopefully they are eating lots of ticks.  They want to roam and have escaped once, they are fast!  My teenage son had to rescue one from drowning in the creek.  I am still not sure how these birds survive in the wilds of Africa, their native land!

Very soon, we will release them, and pray that they love us enough to come back to the pen every night to stay safe.   These are our first animals on the farm and I am sure there will be more to come on the antics of our guinea fowl.

Blessings to you all.