Personality Conflict | Chickens in the Road

Jun
11

Guineas are weird. In case you hadn’t ever noticed.

I’m not sure they feel like part of the crowd in the chicken yard. They keep to themselves as much as possible, like visiting beings trapped on an alien planet.

Everybody’s out of the brooder now.

The big chicks, the group of Araucanas we got a couple months ago, are growing and pushing their boundaries, trying to race past me every time I open the chicken yard door. They’re too young yet to go out into the big, wide world.

The “littles” as I call them–the smaller group of younger chicks that Weston brought home from Ag class one day–are just out of the brooder and scared of everybody. They huddle together in corners.

I love my pretty Rouens.

Their beaks always look muddy like that because they’re always standing in puddles and doing this:

The ducks need their own house and their own yard. We got them a baby pool and filled it up with water. That was dumb, don’t do that. A guinea got in there, got waterlogged and couldn’t get out, and nearly drowned.

I don’t think there’s a lot of room in there for brain cells.

We wrapped it in towels, dried it off, and kept it separated until it felt better. It recovered. And we took the baby pool out.

Someday the ducks will have their own fenced yard around the pond. Until then, they have to settle for what they can get.

The water’s always muddy like that because half the time the ducks are standing in it.

Which then doesn’t deter them from sticking their faces in there.

Aside from the big, regular poultry waterer, they have two big pans of water I fill up three times a day. And they wish it were more. The term “like ducks take to water” makes so much sense after you have ducks. Chickens and guineas, they just drink enough water to survive. They weren’t meant to live with ducks. They have nothing in common with ducks. Ducks, they live for water. They wax rhapsodic for water. Water is in their soul.

“Come live with me and be my love….

…..and we shall all the pleasures prove.”

Chicken: “Oh, brother.”

“I can’t take much more of this, Mabel, I can’t. I’m GONNA BLOW!”

More posts you might enjoy:

18 Responses
RSS feed for comments on this post | TrackBack this post

6-11
1:15
am

I can remember my dad saying “Now, he’s an odd duck”. The more I learn about ducks the more I understand that saying. Suzanne, they sure are pretty but I’ll stick with chickens!

Miss Judy

Flag this comment
6-11
3:07
am

Love all the pics of your feathered family members.

SuzieQ

Flag this comment
6-11
6:13
am

Awww…so much growing up going on.

CindyP

Flag this comment
6-11
7:32
am

Hehe.

Have a great weekend!

Linda

Flag this comment
6-11
8:49
am

I’m having the same “water” conflict with my 4 young geese (stupid raccoon got one of them through the fence) and the young chickens. I plan on working on a different set up today. I never even thought about the chicks getting into the geese’s kiddie pool! I’ll definitely be taking it out of there today.

KentuckyFarmGirl

Flag this comment
6-11
10:49
am

I have a kiddie pool for my ducks and geese with my chickens. What I did is put some big rocks in the pool near the edge so in case a chicken got in it could get on a rock and get out.So far the chickens perch on the edge and drink but none have fallen in.

Cheryl LeMay

Flag this comment
6-11
10:56
am

No offense, Suzanne, but those guineas are pretty ugly. Why do you have them? For their eggs?

Carol

Flag this comment
6-11
11:11
am

The guineas are just for fun. They eat a lot of bugs, too!

Suzanne McMinn

Flag this comment
6-11
12:21
pm

Their eggs taste just like chicken eggs, though the shells sure are thick. I’m told the meat is a great delicacy, very popular including (or especially) in fancy restaurants with real chefs, as lighter than pheasant and quail, but still a dark meat game bird. I can’t say for sure about the meat, though as far as the eggs go, I can speak about that.

BuckeyeGirl

Flag this comment
6-11
4:39
pm

How did you ever manage to get that first picture of the two guinea hens coming out of the coop at the same time? I want guineas ( and chickens and ducks and acres and acres of land and……)

lavenderblue

Flag this comment
6-11
5:36
pm

Now you know that is what they mean by “birds of a feather, flock together”. I bet the lonely duck is happy to have other ducks to talk with again!

monica

Flag this comment
6-11
7:59
pm

I had guineas last year that were raised with my chickens. They got so mean that I couldn’t let my hens out to free range & they beat the bachelor roosters & ducks up all the time, so they had to go. I miss their comical antics and the noise they make. They are good to keep snakes away from the house and great alarms when strangers are about (people or varmit) but I just couldn’t stand to see them abusing all the other poultry.

Love your stories of farm life. Reminds me of our place when our kids were growing up. Now I’m trying to get back into it for the grandsons.

Cindy

Flag this comment
6-11
9:09
pm

Oh yes, guineas are dumb and dumber. When I was young, the neighbor lady bought a flock of guinea hens; as soon as she released them they came screaming (literally) over to our house and decided that our property was their new home.
What a noisy bunch and they pooped all over our patio as they looked at their own reflection in the sliding door. Sometimes a guinea-hen took offense at something they saw the “other bird” (their own reflection) do and would fly up and into the sliding window.
They did work the yard over and ate a lot of crane fly larvae. But my dad still muttered and cursed the neighbor lady and “her d@mn guinea-hens” under his breath.

princessvanessa

Flag this comment
6-11
9:45
pm

I bet when you dump the water pans there’s an inch of mud too! They muck in the mud with their beaks…wash said beaks in the water…repeat. Fortunately, my ducks have access to a small brook…any other water is kept in the barn or it’s a big muddy mess! I do love my ducks and geese though!

cabynfevr

Flag this comment
6-11
11:34
pm

I never thought of that with my guineas but fortunately we survived. I do have a wading pool for my duck and goose – the guineas never tried to go into the pool – just drink. Weird how that happens. But I’ve “saved” a couple of my chickens who fell into the goats’ water so I do understand

bubbashome

Flag this comment
6-12
3:54
pm

Those ducks are cute! They need their own yard with a little pond that is fenced.

Runningtrails

Flag this comment
6-14
4:33
am

make sure that when you build that duck pond that there is a ramp for the babies to get out. A late friend didn’t realize that and lost a bunch of babies. The adults could hop out but the babies couldn’t and they all drowned.

maryann

Flag this comment
6-19
9:54
pm

We have three week old chick(en)s and am taking in any tip, idea, recipe I can

Cher

Flag this comment

Registration is required to leave a comment on this site. You may register here. (You can use this same username on the forum as well.) Already registered? Login here.

Discussion is encouraged, and differing opinions are welcome. However, please don't say anything your grandmother would be ashamed to read. If you see an objectionable comment, you may flag it for moderation. If you write an objectionable comment, be aware that it may be flagged--and deleted. I'm glad you're here. Welcome to our community!