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Sweet Littles

October 14th, 2014

Our guinea hen has been doing a great job rearing her littles. We haven’t had much luck letting them raise their own in the past, this year maybe she’s just more mature. I let her sit on 5 eggs and she hatched out three. Watching her teach her littles how be guineas is such a beautiful thing.
babies 1
Just last week they were finally big enough to not need brooding any more, these photos were from the week before. I love seeing the babies snuggle under mom to warm up on a chilly fall day. After they’re warm, they pop out and away they go, searching for delicious things to eat.
babies 2
Keeping fowl has many benefits besides eggs and insect control, it’s amazing learning experience. We often don’t get to see wild birds raise their young, I find that watching this process is one of my favorite things about keeping birds.

Have you ever been lucky enough to watch a bird raise a clutch from egg to fledge?

2 Comments to “Sweet Littles”
  1. Nebraska Dave on October 14, 2014 at 9:26 am

    Susy, my experience with hatching birds has been one that’s purely accidental. It seemed that always every spring that one of the laying hens would disappear and return some time later with a clutch of chicks. It wasn’t some thing we tried to do but usually just happened without our knowledge. We never took chicken head counts when the door was closed for the night so it was easy for one to sneak away and hatch some eggs. Guineas never did that. They mostly roosted out in the trees unless a rain storm was brewing, then they roosted inside with the chickens. It was a good way to know that a storm was coming.

    Have a great sweet ladies observation day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  2. Melanie in California on October 14, 2014 at 3:31 pm

    When my brother died I promised my sister-in-law that when she sold their home I would re-home his beloved back yard chickens. Papa Rooster and Pip, plus two bachelor uncles from an earlier hatch eventually came home with us and within two weeks of arriving Pip disappeared. I was heartbroken, assuming that a hawk had taken her. Three weeks later she was back with ten tiny pterodactyls in her wake! She was a great mother and when the chicks were old enough to be on their own, they split up into separate mini-flocks with each bachelor uncle rooster taking on responsibility for “his” chicks. They were all able to range freely around the place and except for the occasional half-hearted sparring match, never saw roster aggression. Everybody just got along in their various family units.

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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