Birchtree Farm

Our newest additions to the farm are 8 guinea keets, or baby guinea fowl. They are around two weeks old, give or take a few days. Their main claim to fame is that they eat bugs almost exclusively, along with a few seeds here and there. They also are very alert to anything strange in their territory and will sound a loud alarm call. We are mainly hoping that once they are allowed to free range they will keep the tick population around here in check, as it is very very bad. And I hope that they won't disturb anyone with their funny calls.

Once we get the coop finished, they can move out there and learn that it is their home, so they don't wander off and will come back each night. Apparently it takes a few weeks to imprint them on their home base, so they'll have to stay in the coop until that process is complete, and until they are big enough to safely let outside.

So today we were working on getting the last few details of the coop done. Ken worked on the wiring, and I worked on building a "chicken door", which is the small drop down door that the birds will use to go in and out. The last bit that still needs to be done is using hardware cloth to close the gaps at the top of the coop where the rafters overhang so that nothing can get inside up there. It will be nice ventilation but without the wire, a fisher could potentially climb the coop and drop down inside to have a chicken or guinea dinner.