Cottage Smallholder & Farming friends Interblog Guinea Fowl breeding event update, nearly six months of fun
I am growing fonder of my 19 week old Guinea Fowl by the day. They are the progeny from the Farming Friends & Cottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event. This event was started six months ago when Sara, from Farming Friends, sent us an egg box of six guinea fowl eggs in the post (next day delivery) to put under a unhappy and bullied broody hen. This hen has now become an international superstar and even though she is unaware of her fame, Mrs Boss is finally a happy and contented bantam. Nurtured by Mrs Boss, five out of the...
read moreCottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event. Update; our guinea fowl are now 15 weeks old and flourishing.
Back in June 2007 Sara at Farming Friends sent us six guinea fowl eggs in the post to put under our broody hen Mrs Boss. Five eggs hatched out. Sadly, our favourite and the only snow white keet, Lightning, died. The remaining keets are doing well and are now 15 week old. They are now grown up and are young adult guinea fowl. I am besotted with them. They have started making the raucous guinea fowl sounds when they hear the grain bin opening. Hearing their call, Inca throws herself at the wire of the chicken run. They are passionate about their...
read moreWe think that we have a male keet. Farming Friends & Cottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event
Back in June Farming Friends sent us six guinea fowl eggs in the post to put under our broody hen Mrs Boss. Five eggs hatched out. Sadly, our favourite and the only snow white keet, Lightning, died a couple of weeks ago. The remaining keets are doing well and are nearly three months old. They are bigger than Mrs Boss now. They hang out in a gang with Mrs Boss in tow. She alerts them when there is chopped lettuce or Swiss Chard in the offing. Their instant response is to fly up the run and land in the roof of the Day Centre. Mrs B and the hens...
read moreLightning. Sad news for the Farming Friends & Cottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event
I went down to the chicken run this morning to check on the gang and give them their morning corn. There appeared to be a rumpled white paper bag inside the run. Then I saw the orange legs. Lightning was dead. The grief was overwhelming. This small white bird had truly got under my skin. He (we never discovered whether it was a male or female guinea fowl) was so brave and adventurous and naughty. And being all-white, he was special. I love white birds. They remind me of angels. I loved watching him grow up and discover his world. He was the...
read moreKeets update. Farming Friends & Cottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event
The keets are nine weeks old. They are the progeny from the Farming Friends & Cottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event. Nurtured by Mrs Boss, five out of the six eggs hatched out and have delighted us for nine weeks now. The keets are growing rapidly and becoming more and more independent. Mrs.Boss becomes more redundant as each day passes. I went down to the run at dusk to find one keet roosting on the roof of the hen house and the rest indoors. They seem to go to bed much later then the chickens and the more adventurous...
read moreRoof top protests and The Great Escape
When we released Mrs Boss and the keets on Sunday evening I expected them to repair to the luxury of the castle to sleep. Mrs Boss was having none of that. She clearly was keen to return to the familiarity of her five star hotel, The Hen House. Luckily, the keets wanted to join her and eventually tentatively negotiated the steep staircase to the communal penthouse bedroom and the snug hay filled nesting box beyond. This was their final roosting space for a couple of nights. There was a problem. Mrs Boss’ old enemy, Barbie, had gone...
read moreThe release of the keets from the castle
Mrs Boss has been looking after the keets for six weeks now. She is a small feather footed Bantam. And the heroine of the Farming Friends – Cottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event. Mrs B has proved to be a bit of a star, hatching out five keets and tending them well. She also appears to enjoy the attention of the paparazzi. On Sunday we decided to open the castle door and let the keets discover the world of the chicken run. Mrs Boss stepped over the threshold with a coterie of four keets, one was left behind trying to...
read moreMrs Boss jumps: the Svengali Bantam
Mrs Boss is the Bantam heroine of the Farming Friends – Cottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event. She has been broody more often than not throughout her four summers. As a result, she spends weeks either in the anti broody coop or being bullied by the other hens in our flock. Sara at Farming Friends took pity on this diminutive feather footed hen and sent six guinea fowl eggs to us in the post for Mrs B to hatch out. Within days Mrs boss was living in her own castle within the main chicken run. Suddenly she had privacy,...
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