Chickens

For years and years and years I have wanted chickens.   (Not that anyone really wants chickens….what I wanted were the eggs.)  Each spring, the local feed stores have oodles of the little peepers.  I would look at them longingly, but the reality of no coop left me chickenless.   So last year my husband went to a local farm supply store and bought ten chicks.  Bantams.  Bantams!!!  What good are bantams!?!?  They lay tiny eggs and they’re about the size of a cornish game hen when in the stew pot.   (Why do I let him go to town alone?)

I have to say though, I kinda started to like those fluffy little feet of theirs and they seemed to have personality.  But then they started crowing….yup…SIX of the ten were roosters – no eggs!  Rooster noodle soup!

 I made sure to order some layer/meat type birds to pick up the slack.  The beauty part is that once you have the chickens, you are FORCED to come up with a coop.  We should have done that years ago!

Here’s another chicken story, “The Trouble With Chickens”.

 GuineaFowl

A couple summers ago, Walli contracted Lyme’s disease.  Right then and there, I declared war on ticks.  I was told that the best (natural) way to eradicate those nasty little blood sucking bugs was with guineafowl.  (Here’s a link to Laura’s post on “Guinea Monsters From Hell”. She is PHOBIC about poultry!)

Turns out keeping guinea birds alive is trickier than one would think.  They like to wander, the entire flock shares one brain (not actually verified), they are not very trainable and their biggest defense from predators is yelling like crazy.   (Except when I am trying to catch them….then they are ninjas.)

Baby guineas are sooo cute!  

Not so much when they get older…..uuuuuugggglllyyyy!

Luckily I don’t give up easily, as long as there are ticks I am GOING to have guinea birds.  I don’t care how noisy they are.  Besides, I have a bantam chicken trying to hatch a golf ball so if I give her some guinea eggs to sit on it will give her life purpose – I call that a “win-win”.