Friday, May 20, 2005

Guineas and Geese and Turkeys, oh my!

A short time ago Brian and I bought 2 guinea roosters and decided to keep them in the little shed near the house so I could help a bit with their care. Hubby built them a very nice caged home inside the shed, with a door to their outside run.
Since guineas have to be kept insided for 6 weeks to get used to their new home, hubby set the coop up so my part would be easy and would not involve an y touching of guinea parts. So far so good!

A week later my hubby ordered 10 baby turkeys and 10 baby chicks. Since he was going away for this entire weekend, he put them in two separate cages inside the little shed that houses the guinea roosters. He filled their water dishes and food dishes and set up separate tubs of food -- one forturkeys, one for guineas, and one for chickens. I was shown how to open all cages and re-sto ck the food supply,plus refill waterers.

I stocked the shed with a supply of long gloves. If you recall, I have a bird phobia and can't have them touch me. I was sure I was almost mentally and physically ready to tackle this. Then Brian came home with 3 baby geese (the night before he
left for his 4 days away). Their mother had died and he couldn't leave them to die so home they came. He partitioned the chicken cage so that the geese could be in one section. He set up their food and water dishes and reassured me that they would be NO trouble! All I needed to do was pick fresh greens for them (dandelions, grass, etc) a "few" times a day, and toss in some turkey pellets.

I don't like geese. These geese were cute to look at but destructive little buggers. They knocked over their food dish. They pulled at their sheet (all the babies have sheets on the floor of their cages) until a corner fell into their water dish. Did you know that a sheet acts like a wick? Within a few hours of his leaving, the geese were soaked,their water was gone and their food was knocked out the bottom of the cage.

The guineas shrieked almost constantly. They wouldn't eat the blades of grass I was bringing them several times daily. They kicked and threw their pellet food out of the cage.

The turkeys grew and as they grew, they began jumping and pushing against the lid of their cage. It had no lock, and no mechanism for keeping it shut. Men don't think
precautions are necessary I guess. I had to put a heavy brick on the top to stop them from getting out.

The geese continued to misbehave, and tried to jump over the partition separating them from the baby chicks.

....to be continued in Part 2

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