Studiology

Keets

The business of hatching birds from an incubator is full of angst. Even when you know how to time all of the variables, water in , humidity up, remove the egg turner, etc... things can turn out bad. This, our 3rd time at incubating guinea eggs was almost 50% successful. Twenty-four eggs, nine healthy youngsters or keets on day 4. This clutch of eggs was from our oldest female, the one we call 'the old lady' at 6 years of age. I'm not sure it can turn out better. But when you're running out of guineas, down to 8 with 6 males, it's time to try the incubator. In their game of survival, more is better because they surround the enemy (mostly fox) and basically yell in a high pitched chant.

 This hatching started on September 9th and then stopped with only 4 hatched that day. Three days later, the rest have slowly arrived, more exhausted as each day passed. The last one, after day 3, died. You shouldn't help them, or so it says on the internet and so we learn. So sad to know that they're stuck in a shell. These are the weakest.

The alternative was to let the old lady sit on the nest for 28 days. The likelihood of her dying is very high, she doesn't eat as she sits, and we have yet to see one female survive to the end, something gets them in the night and eats the eggs.  So we took the eggs which usually involves a lot of hissing and pecking but this time she left the nest, just for a moment. You would have to understand the dynamics of the tribe to know that it was probably not her idea to sit on the nest, but she was the chosen one, the doomed one. It's a communal thing, a shared nest with all females laying and then one picked to do the deed. Kind of like the beta female gets the short straw. They know it's not a good thing. Of course I felt bad for her when we took the eggs, I mean what's she gonna say?! She has others to answer to. The funny thing, she sat on the nest, even though it was empty, I'm sure to concoct a story, an explanation. I wasn't home when she explained the situation to the 6 mean roosters but I do know that she is back in good graces, although I think it took a few days. As a side note, the other female is on a nest with 12 eggs in our vegetable garden and we've decided to leave it. 

Of the last eggs there was one more that made it out this morning, day 4. We'll see.

February Stuff

Twelve inches of snow fell last night, although it seems like much more. Going to feed the chickens was an ordeal but I was rewarded with a fresh, warm egg. The guineas usually stay in their roosting tree when we get this much snow, but flew down to the wood pile by the door. There they will sit all day, and probably all night because I don't see how they'll get enough momentum to fly back up into the trees. As they sit so close I can photograph them.

I've not mentioned the guineas in awhile but we are good at 11. Pearl # 7 has become a very nice gentleman and keeps 2 ladies (smart girls). The other guinea roosters are dominant, like a pack of bullies. But who's to say that the bully will attack a predator faster than gentleman Pearl, and save the damsel guinea? Alas, poor Pearl and his wives get no respect and are the last to get to the feeders in the mornings. So it goes in the world of alpha versus beta.

Before the snow, during the ice storm, I went out and photographed the snowdrops as they emerged. There's hope, spring is really coming.

And the snow always melts first from the hot compost piles. I took this picture yesterday, a day that never rose above freezing temperatures. 

My terrariums are still a source of joy. A little world of green. They have not been watered since I put them together and sealed the top. 

Tiny clay pieces decorate the inside. The detail in the painting is remarkable. This tiny man is the size of a penny, yet look at the detail in form and color. 

Because I knew I would be snowed in, I brought homework from the studio. I'm off to do a little painting myself, it's going to be a lovely day! Crank up the music!

 

From the Garden

Even though the big show of May is over, my garden is looking great. The rains have been regular and temperatures not too hot! Here are a few photographs taken in the last couple of days.

Hydrangea 'Endless Summer'

Nicotiana alata

Small steps in one of the miniature gardens, surrounded my corsican mint

A spring peeper, camouflaged to match the wall. 

The Abbott's Sphinx moth feeds on grape vine in its larval stage. The pattern is said to mimic grapes. Found this today at Oak Hill.

I took this photograph 3 days ago, it's the male guinea that watches over Moxie (our crippled guinea), my husband named him Ted. Moxie died yesterday, for no apparent reason, we've noticed that she's been a little less active and breathing heavy. Ted will have to move back into the guinea tribe, up until today his only job was watching over Moxie, his favorite lady. She was  3 years old, which is pretty good for a guinea, especially one with so many handicaps. 

There's a patch of Asclepias syriaca or common milkweed on the farm and not only is it highly fragrant but the Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies love it. Next will be the monarchs!

 

Guineafowl Update

People keep asking me how the guineas are doing and all is well in guinea land. The last I reported, the "Tribe of 10", became the tribe of 8 and they had moved into the chicken coop because an owl was picking them off at night. Poor stubborn Pearl #5 (who was frequently picked on in the chicken coop), stayed out one February night and was promptly taken out by the owl. It was around midnight when we heard the squawking and something brushed up against our bedroom window. Then came the silence, that dreadful (you know what happened) silence. 

The new tribe, 7 mature guineas eventually moved out of the overcrowded chicken coop, going back to roosting in the white pines. The owl never returned, which confounded me, it seemed like it had a good deal (meal). Eventually we let out 4 adolescent guineas (from a previous incubation), to begin the process of mingling with the older ones. Never a smooth transition, the old ones pick on the newbies, particularly the roosters who act all asinine, standing on their tiptoes and charging the younger ones. Some males are so alpha, the perpetually stay in their own tribe. One particularly bossy guinea was named Paul because he danced (charged) so much that we named him after an American Idol contestant that danced just like him. He paired up with 2 females and became a tribe of 3 that never mingled with the rest. His 2 ladies included the one we have named our "old lady" because she has been with us from the beginning, which is 5 or 6 years. She actually lived alone for almost a year because everyone else had been killed off. She also survived "Snowmageddon" all by herself. Unfortunately a fox killed Paul and the younger lady, leaving our 'old lady' as a survivor once again. But things were different after that, she didn't get the respect she used to and Paul wasn't there to watch after her. She is one of the beta females now and I always know her by her black feet (all of the others have speckled feet). 

Two of the new 4 adolescents are pearl colored so I have named them Pearl # 6 and 7. A male and female, they have paired off with darker colored tribe members, which is a good thing since the pearls always go first. Clearly their lighter color makes them stand out more. I always hope that a half pearl family is better than a whole pearl family. You know what I mean?

The loyalty between guineas is incredible. They mate for life, which brings me to Moxie, the 1 legged guinea that lives in her own little building. She does have 2 legs but one is deformed from sprattle leg as a chick, neither of us (husband and myself) had the heart to kill her, something a lot of people think is a little ridiculous (and I understand). One of the males fell in love with her (last year) and stays outside her pen, looking in and sitting on the other side of the mesh wire, all day long. If we let her out, someone (an adult) has to watch her because her bad leg catches on things, which puts her in danger because she can't get away from a predator. Her dutiful husband follows her everywhere, always within 5 feet of Moxie. He is there every morning and then joins the others to roost in the trees at night. 

Lastly we have the little guineas that were hatched by a chicken. Eight successfully hatched but only 2 survived to the end. The chicken was an excellent mother, it was other things that reduced the numbers. Our Rhode Island Red mother eventually tired of the whole ordeal and moved back in with the other chickens. The 2 youngsters were kept penned up (separately) so we could integrate the adolescents first. When their time came they ran to their chicken mother, which was pretty cool because I can't tell one from the other. The older guineas tried bossing them around but they wouldn't have any of it, they think they're chickens. They eat with the chickens, go to bed early with the chickens (which can be an hour earlier than the guineas), just generally do chicken stuff. 

So you see, all is well in guineafowl land. They are great bug eaters (especially ticks) and make loud noises when anyone or thing comes to the house. If something is amiss in the yard, they all have to investigate. On this day I was photographing a viola plant.

The bigger problems will begin soon as they nest and sit on eggs for 28 days. Their nests are hidden well but sitting on the ground just doesn't work. How many will be left by summers end? I have been told that 1 smarter, older guinea, will teach the younger ones the art of survival. I am sure that's true because our 'old lady' is proof that some are just better at it than others. Now if she would just get some respect.

 

Piedmont Blue Ridge Horticultural Societies Spring Symposium

I will be a speaker at the Piedmont Blue Ridge Hort Societies Spring Symposium on Saturday, April 20th, along with Janet Draper of the Ripley Gardens in Washington DC. This will be an outstanding day of lectures. My topic is the mixed border, a look at my favorite shrubs to use with perennials. We meet in the library at Blandy or the Virginia State Arboretum.  The PBRHS hosts garden tours and lectures throughout the year, click on this link for more information. Blandy should be in great shape with lots of plants in flower for late April,  consider walking one of their many trails before or after the lecture. Their tree collections make a visit to Blandy great anytime of the year.

Tribe of 10 Update

A week ago I let you know about the attacks on my guineafowl by an owl. Today I want to update you on their status. Apparently they read my blogs :)

The guineas moved into the chicken coop with the chickens to sleep at night. It's certainly not been a smooth and easy move, but they did it on their own. I'm amazed. Out of 10, not all of them go in, but 9 do and the one sleeps in a tree above. Not the same 9 go in, but it's much better than it was. If the owl is still coming, there is no way it can get in the coop. A roof and 2 gates keep things out, birds in.

In the morning, when I release the birds, it's a fiasco! Certain ones can't come out of the gate before others. We have 1 that's pearl colored in the group, she is Pearl #5, the beta of the group, but don't back her in a corner! So the pecking order becomes very obvious when everyones in close quarters. The chickens are a little put out but they sleep together, side by side. The guineas can fly out on their own, so after they fuss and carry on, they leave the coop and go back to wandering all day. It's working out pretty good, considering the alternative. 

A Stranger in These Parts

For the last 2 months I have not been sleeping well. Neither have the guineas. They are being hunted by night, something is actually getting into bed with them. Something is joining them in their roosting tree with only one thing in mind, dinner. Never before have I had this happen and I guess I've been lucky. The first night it happened, all kinds of commotion in the yard at 3 in the morning. Guineas were yelling and flying out of their tree. Duke, the protective yellow Labrador ran into the night to see what was causing all of the commotion. I pointed at their roosting tree and waited for him to catch the scent of something, a raccoon, a gray fox, something, there was no scent.

Meanwhile the guineas are on the ground, some gathered at the house where I had the light on. Others stayed on the ground in the dark. I have learned that they are basically blind at night, they will just sit and stay quiet. You can actually trip over them, they won't move. Not a good plan because now they really are fodder for a fox. So this started happening with crazy regularity. Every other night. It went on for a month. Sometimes it would be 2:00 AM, sometimes 6, but pretty much every other night. I looked on the internet for what it might be, raccoon, mink or gray fox, but I suspected an owl.

One day the guineas decided to roost in another tree.  At this point they had lost one with a small pile of feathers in the yard as a reminder. To their credit, and everyone will tell you, guineas are not smart, the tree they chose was a cryptomeria, a Japanese Cedar. This wonderful evergreen is denser than the white pine they left, in a less windy place, and right outside my bedroom window.  I gotta tell you, I was so proud that they actually realized that a move would help.

So we slept for about a week, until..... IT'S BACK!  At this point I had gotten used to the yelling at night, I mean I would always run out to see if I could stop a killing, but I knew I would not be able to bring them in the house. Guineas do what guineas will do. I would go back to sleep, it was out of my hands. Keeping the outside lights on all night helped a little. In the mornings I would do my count. What was 11 had become 10. We have remained steady at 10. 

So 4 nights ago, the ruckus broke out at 6:00 AM. It took me awhile to grab slippers and coat but I saw it, the owl was silhouetted against the sky as it flew away. I couldn't tell exactly what kind of owl, but my money is on great horned. I am sure that neither barn or barred owl could take a guinea. Even a red tailed hawk can't lift them. And believe me, they try, right after they slit their throat. I've seen it. So I was right about the culprit, it will be a long winter with this guy hunting them. A friend just told me that a great horned owl carried off a friends Jack Russel terrior! I started parking my truck so it is aimed at the tree and I hit my unlock door button from the key ring in my bedroom to put light onto the tree. 

 I know the owl can't fly through and pick them off, it has to get them to fly out in a panic before it can grab one. So when I caused it to fly away, it was still in the tree next to the cryptomeria, waiting, just waiting. So stay tuned, we will see if 10 can survive this habitual hunter. And please, no comments on how tired I look.

Mama Chicken Hatches Guineas

An incubation of guinea eggs this summer did not turn out so well. As it goes with guineas, you have to keep some coming  because everything in the world wants to eat them. We are down to 12 from a healthy 26 this spring. A hawk got one (well at least one that we saw), there were some foxes, probably plenty of foxes. It's usually the female that dies as she sits on her ground nest for 28 days. One guinea pair moved to the monks property in front of ours and nested near Route 50. As it usually goes, just days before eggs would have hatched, something got her in the night. So the male moved back and joined the crowd of mostly males. We were only able to hatch 4 in one incubation and a female guinea actually hatched 5 (in a raised bed with fencing around) but was sloppy and killed one, so we took them and raised them ourselves. We understand they aren't always the best parents.

My husband has been doing some research and read that chickens make better guinea mothers, so he stole a nest full of fresh guinea eggs and put them under a broody chicken. It takes 21 days for chicken eggs to hatch (versus 28 for guineas) and like clock-work, she jumped off of those eggs on day 21 and ran around basically saying that she was done, finished. Amazing, they can count! Fortunately she changed her mind and went back to the nest box. So on day 27, 9 new guineas hatched and our chicken mother has been phenomenal!  I have never watched how a chicken cares for her young, so I have been fascinated. She tends to stand, legs bent, just high enough for the babies to gather under her, but low enough to keep them warm. She clucks at them as warning when we come around or they wander too far. She is teaching them how to scratch and look for food, sometimes knocking a few down in her enthusiasim. Guineas don't usually scratch like chickens, so this will be interesting. 

The other chickens are midly curious. This is Lucille looking on.

So with any luck, we will have young guineas, possibly very confused young guineas. Call them chiguineas. 

Patterns

Sometimes, in the middle of our busy life, something happens to make you stop and focus. This just happened to me, a pattern on various objects was reappering . It took a couple of days, but I found myself with something in my hands that made stop to ponder. That something was a large snake skin (recently shed). It had been left in a tree and I had watched it, way up there on a branch, thinking how can I get it down; intact? Then it was blown from the tree and landed in my path as I walked the dog.  Not completely intact, but close.

What an amazing pattern! And then I thought to myself, this pattern has been on so many things in the last 2 days, well actually in my whole life. So I picked up the other objects to confirm.

A plastic mesh bag:

A little bit of lace:

 It must have the element of strength as it seems to hold so many things together. 

Dragon fly wings

Different than the patterns of camouflage like these guinea feathers:

Little things can be so fascinating.

 

 

A Guinea Tale

This is a love story, a tale about a guinea hen named Moxie. Hatched from a batch of guinea eggs in an incubator, it was one of two batches that resulted in 14 guineas each. After years of owning guineafowl and watching their numbers decline (all manner of mammal and raptor hunt them and they nest on they ground for 28 days), we decided to go the incubator route. Moxie was one of two in the first batch to have sprattle leg. This crippling leg damage comes from slipping in their brooding pen while their leg bones are still developing. Learning from the first time, we changed the litter in the bottom of the pen and never had that problem again. If it's caught early, a band-aid can be used to keep their legs together, unfortunately we were too late to correct the stance, so two of the 14 were doomed to hop around on one leg.

baby guineas, 6 days old

After a month or two, the young guineas are moved to an outdoor pen where they imprint on the area, eventually free to roam the yard, eating seeds and bugs of which ticks are a favorite. One of the sprattle legged babies was killed, likely trampled and crushed, not agile enough to keep up or move out of the way. Moxie persisted and a special perch was added, low enough for her to hop onto. As youngsters they crowd onto perches or anything that gets them off the ground for sleeping. Once released the guineas fly up into trees to roost at night.

As the guineas were finally released into the yard, Moxie was put in a special pen. She was joined by newly acquired bantams, Pequeno Maxwell and his two ladies, Priscilla and Lucille. My husband hoped that Moxie might be a female and eventually raise her own young, staying in this safe place to nest. By day the pen door was opened and all had the freedom to come and go. Moxie stayed.

Pequeno Maxwell with Priscilla and Lucille

In the mean time, guineas were pairing up, they mate for life and are incredbly loyal. The females make a cry that sounds like "come back", which they repeat incessantly. The males have a very forward stance, like they're on their tip toes. A few small battles broke out between energetic roosters, we have an older rooster named Paul who had staked out the territory at our front door. With over 20 guineas running around, it was impossible to keep track of who was paired with whom or even if they were all here. A few are pearl colored and they are largly rejected by the darker ones, running in a flock of their own.

the gentle rooster

About three days ago a male (gentle as can be) started paying attention to Moxie. When her pen was open he would go inside. If I came near the pen, he would watch me, like he was guarding her. They went on a walk together but poor Moxies backwards leg kept catching on things and she had to be rescued. Last night he spent the night. Moxie has a husband! Okay, he might be the odd man out when it came to giving out wives, but really....isn't that just the greatest story?  I decorated the pen with beads, it's now the honeymoon suite. 

Moxie and her husband

 Hooray for Moxie!