Fowl Business

I really enjoyed reading Charles Wall’s recent “I Remember” column in The Journal.
Charles talked about raising chicks, which is really a fun activity.
I’ve purchased little chicks to raise and also hatched them in a small incubator. It’s a little work, but well worth the effort.
It took me awhile to figure out the best way to keep the eggs at a constant temperature. You also have to watch the humidity in the incubator. You also have to be vigilant about the temperature after the birds hatch, and make sure their water is clean and ice-free.
There are few things more pleasant to hear than a bunch of baby chicks chirping contentedly. To get a sample of that, just watch the Atwood’s (a local farm supply store) insert this spring to see when they get their shipments of baby chicks, then drop by the store. It’s fun, and the kids will get a real kick out of it, too.
If you live in the country, you might even be motivated to purchase your own flock. Chickens really don’t need that much room, just a small chicken house with a yard that can be fenced in if you don’t want them to be easy prey for predators or running all over your yard.
Free-range chickens love to chase bugs, and besides, the fresh eggs are great.
My largest hatchery project involved guinea hens rather than chickens.
I have a small flock of guineas. I just love them. They are extremely easy to care for, since they mostly care for themselves. They’re not quite as domesticated as chickens, so they prefer roosting in trees at night to staying in the chicken house like chickens do. That “wildness” also makes them a little tougher for predators to catch.
Guineas also love to eat bugs and very small animals, like lizards and small snakes. I feed them cracked corn in the winter but in the summer, my guineas pretty much turn up their beaks at the corn. They prefer to catch bugs and roam around looking for seeds and such.
I’ve been very surprised at how long they live. The small flock I have now is about 13-14 years old.
Despite their toughness, guineas are really not very good parents. They will lead their chicks through areas that are tough walking, such as tall, dewy grass, or they will sometimes just walk off and leave them.
They are, however, very good at hiding their nests. Several years ago, I discovered a couple of nests in the midst of a patch of cockleburs. I imagine several of the hens used the nests because I collected more than 80 eggs.
We put them in the incubator and ended up hatching about 75 little guineas, or “keets” as I learned they’re called. They were the cutest little things. I thought they looked like quail.
I kept them penned up until they were about half grown, then let them loose on our property. They have been an endless source of amusement and they take their jobs as snake and bug hunters and visitor announcers very seriously.
Of course, over the next few years, the flock dwindled down to about 12, which have been doing fine. (I refer to them as the “Smart Dozen.”)
If you think you’d enjoy raising birds, have space for them to roam, and don’t mind their loud calls, I’d recommend trying guineas.