A Sunday surprise

Yesterday when we got home from church, we were surprised - and delighted! - to see Leah Rose, one of our guinea hens, parading across the side yard with at least a dozen tiny baby keets following her.

Look close to see all the little brown fuzzy balls following Leah Rose as Rayford, the black male guinea leads the way

Roger Williams (the chicken) jumps in to photobomb

Frank recently found a nest of guinea fowl eggs but we didn't know anything would come of it.  So what an exciting surprise.  From what I can tell from online baby guinea photos, the keets are about a day old.

Because we really don't know much about guineas (we only got ours last summer), I got online to learn more about the babies.  That information only served to worry me.  Guineas are native to the dry areas of Africa.  During their first two weeks, dampness is very dangerous for them.  They can die just by going through dewy grass!  (I'm suddenly thankful for the terribly hot and dry weather we are having.)  If they make it past about two weeks of age, they should be fine, as they are probably one of the hardiest domestic land fowls.

All of the blogs/websites I came across said the mama and babies needed to be kept in a coop or brooder for those first two weeks.  Ummmmm - how do we catch wild birds?  These guineas completely rejected the coop we worked so hard to train them to go into and don't stand around waiting for us to pick them up.

So I guess we'll have to just pray these adorable keets survive.  I don't know that we have to worry too much about predators.  Rayford, a male Guinea, has been standing constant guard over Leah Rose and the little ones.  It was fascinating to see every time I went out to look at them yesterday.  At one point, Leah Rose was resting with all the keets under her, and Rayford was standing on guard a couple feet away.  Sherlotta (our black puppy) got too close and Rayford attacked her!  Sherlotta shrieked and ran as he beat her.  (Honestly she deserved it.  She's crazy!) 

In other news, Tabby made me so proud on Saturday when she killed a copperhead!  It was in the stall where we keep the goats hay.  She grabbed a shovel and cut off its ugly head.

the decapitated copperhead

We had to go back into the goat pen to find the snake's head.  I was worried one of the goats might step on it and get poisoned.

"Thank you for ridding the ground of those poisonous fangs!"

Our baby chicks are getting so big. They will be moving out with "the big girls" before too long.  As their personalities continue to emerge, I've named two more.

This is Ameila Earhart.  She is a Buff Orpington and loves to fly up on things.  Whenever I bring in food for the chicks, she always flies up onto the feed container or my hand.

Amelia Earhart

One of our Black Austrolorp chicks is about half the size of all the other chicks.  She has been struggling with "pasty butt."  (Yes that's a real chicken problem!)  Of course my heart went out to her since she was a sort of "special needs" chick and had to have some treatments.  I think she's better now though.  But because of her problem, she ended up with the name "Icky".  It's short for "Ichabod."  Like "Ichabod Crane."  (Ichabod fit her black feathers somehow.)

Icky (Ichabod)

When we first moved here, I planted bee balm in the spring.  I never got to see it bloom though, because chickens bit off the buds.  Same thing happened last year.  This year we have success, thanks to wire around the garden.  First bloom opened last week:

Finally, here is a boy and a dog.  So sweet how they love each other:

Solomon and Exhaust Pipe at a funny camera angle

“Joy is the serious business of Heaven.” ~ C. S. Lewis