Birchtree Farm

So we've had this chicken living in the house (see post from March 2nd) for almost a couple months now, and we've been trying to integrate her back into the flock. She had healed from her hawk-inflicted wounds, and grown almost all her feathers back.

A few weeks ago I tried to put her back out with the flock, but they picked her back bare and as she is white, any bit of blood just shows that much better and encourages more picking. Back in the house she came.

This week I have been letting the chickens out of their pen to free-range, since the snow has melted back significantly, and they can get into the woods and scratch around. I figured it was a good time to try to get the house chicken back outside as she was starting to grow new feathers in on her back, and she certainly looks better than a lot of the hens who are nearly bare-backed from being "ridden" by the roosters. With everyone roaming around, they would have other things on their minds besides picking on the "new" chicken, or so I hoped.

However, the roosters notice everything, and a "new" hen was not to be overlooked. It seemed to be going OK the last couple days. I would put her out in her crate where she could see everything but not be harassed right away, and then later in the day I would open the door. She'd come out and immediately the roosters would run over and jump on her to mate, but then they'd get distracted by something and go off elsewhere.

Today however, for some reason they were upset by her being around, and she ended up in the coop hiding in the corner while they did their alarm call over and over and over. By this evening she was again picked bare on her back, and was hiding behind the coop door with her head in the corner when Ken went out to close things up for the night. He brought her inside with him, in her crate. We set out some food and water and she went right to it, as apparently they had not let her eat or drink for most of the day. Then she walked around the living room for a while, and finally settled down behind a chair for a nap.

So, I posted to a couple of local email lists that we had a chicken looking for a new home, either with younger chickens that wouldn't harrass her, or in a pet home, since she's tame enough now that you can walk over to her and pick her up. Within 10 minutes I had a phone call and a new home was arranged. Hurray! I hope she'll do well there. It sounds like it will be a good fit.

Link: http://birchtreefarm.com

As of tonight, I have uploaded the files for our farm website, which now links to this blog. Please visit Birchtree Farm!

Thanks!

Can I just tell you how annoying guineas are? I mean, really, really, really annoying. We started with 8 guineas keets and high hopes. We now have 3 and our hopes are considerably lower. There's a pretty bad tick problem around here, and guineas love eating ticks and other creepy-crawlies. People who have guineas say they never see another tick after getting them.

However, guineas are very loud. They make a sound that has been characterized as "buckwheat! buckwheat!" They will go on FOREVER making this noise once they start up. They're sort of like watchdogs. Little annoying yappy watchdogs. They "go off" at anything perceived as dangerous, like, a leaf falling in the woods. You know, really scary stuff.

The other thing about guineas is that they appear to be really really stupid. One person described it this way: "All the guineas in the world share the same brain."

That pretty much sums it up.

As an example, they will fly over the fence and wander around the yard, or they will fly up into a tree, and then fly down. Then they walk over to the fence and run up and down the outside of it, because they can't figure out how to get back inside the poultry yard!

Last night one forgot to come in for the night, so she spent it up in a tree somewhere. This one also happens to be the one that makes the most unnecessary noise. This morning, just as it was starting to get light, I heard this incredible racket. It started out like the usual "buckwheat!" thing, and then rapidly degenerated into something that sounded like she was being slowly pulled limb from limb. I really thought something must have gotten hold of her and was taking her apart. About the time I got out the back door, there was only silence. I flicked on my flashlight, and she exploded out of the tree directly above me and went over the house and it sounded like she flew directly into a tree. As in flew INTO it, not landed in it. You know, like Daffy Duck as Robin Hood: "Yoikes! And away!" [whump!]. I went out on the front porch and I could see her silhouette up in a tree, apparently still all in one piece. So I went back to bed.

When I got up an hour later, she was on the ground, running along the fenceline, trying to figure out how to get back into the poultry yard (sound familiar?).

After breakfast I went out to do chores. I always feed the sheep first. She had by that time flown up to the top of the chicken coop. The whole time I was taking care of the sheep, she was on top of the chicken coop screaming to the world. A nice quiet Spring morning. When I finished with the sheep, I threw a scoop of scratch down and she flew down and started eating, and FINALLY shut up.

I've been told that after they reach a year old, they mellow out a bit. That will be sometime in June. If they don't relax this summer, they are either going to freezer camp, or I'll sell them to someone who likes guineas and/or doesn't mind the noise. I think the chickens and Muscovies will do their part to reduce the tick population and the guineas may not really be necessary. At this point I'm almost willing to take the chance.

If you really like guineas, don't be offended. They just aren't for everyone. Maybe you'd like to make me an offer? ;-)

The house chicken laid an egg. She's done it before so that's nothing special. She's laid 4 in the last 5-6 days. But with the fourth one this week, she must have been trying to impress us. This had to be painful. What do you think? Yes, those other eggs are normal large size eggs from some of our other hens.

Yesterday Ken and I drove a couple hours to pick up some Muscovy ducks that were being given away by a man who could no longer keep them. We had been planning to get some ducklings this year, either locally or shipped from a hatchery, but when I posted on a farm bird list my wish to find Muscovies, a couple people emailed me with a contact regarding some birds being given away. The contact was a lady who agreed to house all the ducks (and Toulouse geese) that the man needed to get rid of, and yesterday was moving day. There were a couple other people that came along to pick up both ducks and geese and we all motored over from her house to the man's place to round them up.

He had all the ducks caught and inside a large wire dog crate, so we picked out the ones we wanted, and the other people did the same, and then the rest went into crates in the woman's pickup. The geese were still loose, so they decided to come back and round them up later.

We took 7, after only figuring on taking 4 at the most. But there were so many, and not enough people to give them homes, and so we took a few more.

As we drove back, we were following the pickup. When the ducks stood up in their crate, you could just see their heads over the tailgate. It was quite amusing watching heads pop up every so often and swivel back and forth as they tried to figure out what this new circumstance in their life meant. Or maybe they were just complaining about the frost heaves! I started singing a silly little song about "all the little ducky-ducks, riding in their trucky-trucks". I was tired. That's my only excuse.

So, why Muscovy ducks? And what ARE Muscovy ducks, you may be wondering?

They are originally a South American species of duck, not related to the Mallard. Just about every other type of domesticated duck was derived from the wild Mallard. They are fairly large, with males weighing up to 15 lbs and females up to around 8 lbs. They love bugs, and do not need a pond to swim in, although they have webbed feet and can swim. They actually will roost like a chicken and have claws on the ends of their toes to help them grip. They are very very quiet as well. The males make a soft hissing sound, and the females a sort of soft trilling coo. And did I mention they love bugs? Slugs and spiders too. They are a great aid on the farm where there may be an overabundance of flies, mosquitoes, or other insect pests. They are very hardy and are excellent foragers. They also are wonderful mothers, and can raise a few clutches a year. Their meat is lean and it is said to resemble veal, but with less fat and calories than turkey, and is served in high end restaurants.

So, those are all reasons why they are popular on small farms and why we wanted to acquire them.

They are beautiful birds. The natural wild coloration is black, but in domesticating them, several colors were developed. They also come in white, chocolate, blue, silver, lilac, and probably a few other colors and patterns. They can also have various white markings with any of these colors. The ones we picked out appear to be variations of blue or chocolate. They have red fleshy growths called "caruncles" around their eyes and over the top of the beak, and the males develop these more than the females, rather like chickens and their combs and wattles.

So, on to the photos! These were taken while they were in a crate on our front porch where they spent their first night here. They are now outside in the poultry pen, in their own shelter.