Don't tread on my poultry ...

First some good news, then bad news, then rather worrisome news ...

This morning, when Tabby went out to milk the goats, she was just in time to see Christa give birth to a cute little female kid!  She said Christa handled the birth like a pro. 

 
Christa cleaned up her baby, I cut the hanging umbilical cord and treated the area with iodine, the Christa posed with Tabby for a photo.

In Christa's family, kids are given flower names.  So we carried on the tradition and named the little one "Sundrop" after the many sundrop wildflowers we had in our yard this spring.

Here are two pictures I took this evening of Sundrop.  Don't believe the second photo - she has normal eyes, I promise!

In bad/sad news, Tribulation, our last little guinea keet, has died.  A rather horrific death too.  Frank was leaving for work and found the keet's headless body.  Tabby, who has learned about poultry death in her chicken magazines, examined Tribulation's body and declared that a bird of prey had gotten it.  (The way the head was snipped off.)  Since it seemed to have happened overnight, we assume an owl got it.  I know it was just a guinea keet, but I was soooooo disappointed.

Then Leah Rose, Tribulation's mama, disappeared.  We haven't seen her in about a week.  We assume she was killed, though are hoping that she is hiding somewhere on a nest, and will show up in a few weeks.  Sigh.

Here's the last picture of I have Leah Rose (the white guinea) and Tribulation:

Finally, in worrisome news, North Carolina's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services  "is requiring all poultry owners, regardless of the number of birds, to register with NCFarmID."  (see link here: http://www.ncagr.gov/avianflu/  )  Why?  They say it is so they can alert poultry owners of an avian flu outbreak on a farm near them.

Tabby tells me that from her reading, she learned avian flu is a terrible, devastating disease to chickens.  And we do love our feathered friends and want them to be healthy.  So this new requirement is for our good - and our chickens good - right?

Well I don't know.  I am not a big government person.  I'm not sure how the Department of Agriculture was able to implement this without going through the official legislative process.  Of course because they didn't, then I assume they can't enforce it. 

And I don't understand why we "need" this - there has not even been one case of avian flu among poultry in North Carolina.  Will registering our chickens keep this disease out of the state?  Of course not.  Yes I understand the officials are saying it's all being done to protect our birds.  But ... do I really want my freedom/privacy/rights infringed upon even if it can "save the life of just one chicken?"

Hopefully my wild imagination is over reacting.  But I just don't like the idea of registering anything.  I don't like being on government officials lists.  I don't like the idea of someone in power deciding one day that "the common person" may not own poultry anymore.  Then they consult that handy list and make the rounds confiscating chickens.

Think things like that don't happen?  Maybe not in the U.S. with chickens ... yet.  But history sure shows us it has happened with plenty of other things.  (If you want to read about how Hitler used gun registration lists - in the countries he invaded - to disarm the people, just read my dad's book (which I helped him research) entitled Gun Control in the Third Reich by Stephen P. Halbrook.)

I know guns and chickens are not the same thing.  But I'm suspicious all the same. 

The book list - May & The declining Keet population

Though bringing foreign things to our country might seem interesting, I don't know that it is necessarily a good thing.  At least if left uncontained.  Living in North Carolina, one example that comes to mind is Kudzu.  This highly invasive climbing Asian vine was introduced to the U.S. in 1876.  I have seen areas completely taken over by it.  Kudzu has been dubbed "The vine that ate the south."

I've thought a lot about Keets (baby Guinea fowl) this week since our Sunday surprise.   This bird hails from Africa and thrives in a hot, dry climate.  Though once they are big enough, they are hardy and do fine here.  The trick is protecting the babies to get big enough!  They are so water sensitive they can even drown in the dew.

Sunday we had at least 15 Keets.  The next day we had 8.  Then the next two days we had 7.  The weather has been perfect Keet weather overall - HOT and humid.  We're talking 99 degrees in the shade.  (Whew!)  Last night though, we had a storm.  The earth needed it desperately - I haven't seen plants look so sadly wilted in a long time - but I couldn't help worrying about the Keets.  Sadly this morning, there were only 3 left. 

In the future, if we are able to find one of our guinea hens sitting on a nest in time, we have a plan on how to catch her and relocate her and the eggs to a safe place.

I was able to get some not very good pictures the other day of these cute little Keets:

I was able to finish three books in May, two of which I've been reading a bit at a time for months.  Most of my reading time was consumed with the 464 page utterly gripping novel Redeeming Love. 

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers - I don't read a lot of fiction (except historical fiction with Tabby for school) but I am so glad I read this amazing, haunting, and thought provoking book.  It is a modern retelling of the book of Hosea from the Old Testament of the Bible.  (Hosea was one of the prophets - one who I always felt really sorry for!  God told him to take a prostitute as a wife.  She, unsurprisingly, did not remain faithful yet he went and got her and brought her home again.  Their marriage was to show the parallel of how horribly Israel was treating God and how He was still loving and forgiving.)  Redeeming Love is set in 1850, in California's gold country.  Angel was a prostitute that had been sold into the business as a little girl.  She hated men and hated her life.  An upright Christian man, Michael Hosea sees her one day and feels God calling him to marry her and to love her unconditionally.  Though shocked, he obeys.  He rescues Angel from the brothel in a very dramatic way - after she had been beaten almost to the point of death - and marries her.  It takes years for Angel to heal and trust Michael, and to become a child of God herself.  Many turbulent years, including times of her running away and Michael bringing her back.

The parallels of Michael and Angel, and like the prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer, are not unlike us in our sinful lives.  They are all reminders of the way that our God loves us unconditionally, redemptively, and all-consumingly.   This book just made me thank God over and over again for this.

Blurry picture - but you get the idea.  They enjoy duets!

The Joyful Child:  Montessori, Global Wisdom for Birth to Three by Susan Mayclin Stephenson - I continue to be fascinated with a lot of the Montessori methods, and Solomon continues to enjoy and learn from them.  He often asks for new "mont-ssori activities."  Though I found some little parts of this book a bit weird, overall much of it was very interesting and made so much sense.  It will really make you rethink giving all the plastic toys with the "bells whistles and lights" to your baby or toddler.  I love how the Montessori approach focuses on so many aspects of a little ones life, including practical life skills.  In America, kids (and many adults) just dread "chores."  But Montessori, work is given a high importance and children taught skills early.  In everything from dressing themselves to cleaning up after themselves to just doing more for themselves.  Guess what - our young kids are perfectly capable of all these things and actually LOVE it.  I think Solomon's very favorite kind of play is helping us with our chores!

On a funny note, I have to say that teaching them skills can sometimes backfire.  Last week, we met our field trip group at Jordan Lake.  We first heard a presentation on bald eagles.  Then we all stayed to have a picnic lunch and to swim in the lake.  When it was time to get ready to swim, I turned around to gather our things to take to the bath house to change.  When I turned back around, Solomon was standing there without any of his clothes on!  All ready for his bathing suit.  Ooops!  Not in public, buddy.

The author of this book has written another for older children:  Child of the World: Montessori, Global Education for Age 3-12+.  I look forward to reading this one, hopefully later this year.

Pepper - time for fresh cold water

What Mary & Joseph Knew About Parenting:  Surprising Insights from the Best (and Worst) Parents in the Bible by Rick Osborne - I admit - it was the title that intrigued me to buy this book.  I found this book a big help in picking apart and giving good insight into parents in the Bible.  The author did a great job at this.  I am not very good at really reflecting deeply and getting a lot of insights from what I read in the Bible, though I do try.  (I also often need help with practical application.)  I've often wondered why, for example, that King David had some really rotten children, since he was "a man after God's own heart."  Rick Osborne focused in on a particular verse in the Bible about David and after reading it I thought "Ohhhhh!"  I had never really thought about it.  This book has lots of short chapters.  First the Biblical story, then a discussion of it.  Then practical application on how to incorporate the lessons learned into your parenting.

The biddies are getting big!  And getting curious about that yard out there.

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

Saving a guinea hen and Solomon's new fish

It's always something with animals around here!  Last week, the day after Dixie was killed, Tabby came into the house with one of our gray colored guinea hens, that was dripping blood all over the place.  She said the guinea was just lying on the ground, bleeding and she was afraid it was freezing to death.  (The temperature outside was in the low teens.)

We wrapped the guinea in a towel, and after awhile, were able to determine that the bird was missing most of a toenail, on her crippled foot..  (If you've ever trimmed your pets nails, and cut too close to the quick, you know it will bleed like crazy.)

We decided to keep it inside.  Hunter offered to let us use his little dog cage.  (He actually bought a real dog cage, with his own money, for his stuffed dog Sam.)   We put the bird inside the cage with a towel, and put it near the warm fire.

Tabby said the guinea needed a name so she called her "Chloe."  (After a character named Chloe in some book.)

Chloe was pretty cramped in the little cage, but that was probably a good thing as it kept her still.  We had to put in fresh towels a few times and then her bleeding finally stopped.

Later that afternoon, when we were at the store, I decided to buy a bigger dog cage.  I figure we're going to have more incidents like this over the years if we keep animals, so we may as well be prepared with a good place to put them. 

 Chloe seemed happier when we moved her to her larger hospital room: 

We ended up keeping her inside until Saturday morning.  She got out twice, when I was changing the newspapers on the bottom of the cage, much to the delight of the boys.  She went running around the house and flying up to the ceiling to try and roost on something.

Saturday morning I took her back outside to join her other guinea friends.  It was interesting watching them.  Chloe started making her talking noise and all the 4 guineas came running to her and gathered around.  They rubbed their heads on her and answered back.  Ahhh ... a happy ending.  At least for now.

In other animal news, Solomon got his own pet.  A fish.  Named Nemo.  I read recently that fish care was suggested as a Montessori activity for 2 year olds.  Though Solomon helps with the other animals, I did think it was a good idea, for him to have his very own pet to take care of and be responsible for.  Of course we will help as needed.

When I talked to Solomon about this idea, he was excited.  He ran to my desk and climbed up into the chair and picked up a pen and said he needed to make a list.  (We are all list makers in this family so it was a thrilling moment for me when my 2-year old wanted to make his first list!  Ha ha - dorky I know.)  Solomon carefully "wrote" and said "Nemo" and then "fish bowl."

So, with Solomon's Christmas money and a gift card he received, we bought a little aquarium and some food for a Beta fish.  Tabby is walking Beta fish encyclopedia, having owned several in the past and reading every book she could find on them.  I assigned her the job of helping Solomon set up the tank.  He was SOOOOO excited.  Then yesterday afternoon, he picked out his Beta fish at the pet store.  He knew going into the store that he wanted a blue fish.  So that's what he got!

I just pray this fish lives for awhile.