I thought I’d never say this, or even have the opportunity to say this but…. I’m all about these birds we own. We have 25 layer chickens. They are well taken care of by their livestock guard dog, Claire. They only get dragged around in Claire’s mouth sometimes. Not always. So they are in good shape most of the time.
Sweet Claire and her flock.
Over in the barn and pasture across the driveway, we have the meat chickens that I showed you in May as day old chicks. They are, believe it or not, getting ready for the butcher in two weeks. They are shaping up to be beautiful birds. And while I am kinda freaked out about them ending up in the freezer, I am excited to taste a home-made chicken for sure. I had a feeling I would be ok about this business. Although, I haven’t loaded them up on a truck in the dark of night. Yet.
Meat Chickens. Freedom Rangers.
Right now the birds that we are most in awe of (or I should say, entertained by) are the guineas and the turkey. They are now in charge of the place. It’s nice to have something/body else take control for a while. Don’t you think? We had two turkeys. One passed on. I can’t remember if I passed that on to you. Yeah. Right in front of me. Laid down, flapped his wings real hard then plunk. Died. All his meat chicken friends were standing in a circle around him wondering what the heck was going on. When they realized he was dead they started pecking him. To death. Or to kingdom come. The turkey that is left and the two guineas we kept up by our house are rulin’. They parade up and down the driveway thinkin’ they are all about it. Usually one guinea is on each side of the larger turkey.
They have become the best of friends. At night and in the morning they get up on the stall rails in the barn and tell US ALL ABOUT IT!. Guineas are very very loud. Sometimes ear-piercing. The turkey can certainly hold his own as well.
They are ugly, ugly creatures but both Pops and I have a grand time being entertained by them.
We have 5 more guineas down in the lower pasture guarding it and eating bugs. They do so well at guarding that the first night something ate 3 of them. Very sad. Death is becoming a common occurrence here. ( I hope I still have some time left on the farm before something gets to me.) We started with 8 down there. Now we lock them up in a pen at night. They have free reign during the day.
Birds, at least the ones we have, are VERY social creatures and they like us to be part of their posse as well. We like it. And they are SUPER easy to care for and bring lots of food and fun.
God bless,
Karen
The Shieling 