Guinea fowl?

[mackem 23,807]

1 hour ago, Ken's Deputy said:

@mole trapper I  fukking hate you!!! You've 'got it', see?! Exactly what I want around me!

Now; Incubators. Scare me to death! I've seen all this shit about turning them. Moisture contents. Scary shit like that. I'm happy with a brooder, because I've worked with them. But, I never had anything to do with the incubators. And they were massive, self regulating monsters anyway.

 What If I could get my hands on some eggs? (Again, this mental block, ye see? I have in mind this woman who does all sorts. If she can sell me keets, I'm damn sure she can get me eggs! I just don't Think like that)

Could ye perhaps guide me here, please? What's an incubator that'd not be a let me down piece of shit. Without getting into the realms of a Bristol?

Price doesn't really scare me. I'll pay what they cost. I just don't want to go for a de luxe, all singing, all dancing model. To use it Once! But, nor do I want some plastic bowl, simply Made to show children how shit dies

Tell me; Is there a time scale on this thing? Winter's out, obviously. But, what's the given season for this shit, please? I might have to start putting feelers out

24 x  Guinea fowl hatching eggs

WWW.EBAY.CO.UK

---

Hi we have 24 x Guinea fowl hatching eggs for sale.

 

[mackem 23,807]

6x Silver laced wyandotte Bantam Chicken Hatching Eggs

WWW.EBAY.CO.UK

---

6x Hatching from these beautiful birds. I have 4 hens with an unrelated cockrel fertility has...

 

[Ken's Deputy 4,456]

Fukkin Love the fact that ye have it in the fukking living room! Brilliant! (But, then, why the hell not?)

In fact, having glanced at ye PM, I've already been eyeballing these Brinsea's. I actually had my eye on the Advance? Not sure why. Haven't studied the others yet.

What's just stopped me dead in my tracks though Was the very fact that I've literally, just ten minutes ago said to the Dogs:

" Fukk this, Dogs! It's getting Too cold in here now! 50F, look! I'll have to get the stove on shortly. "

Then, I sat here and read what they say about cold rooms! Fukk! So; Sod building a brooder for the incubator. It looks like I should wait till it warms up a bit. Yeah?

[Ken's Deputy 4,456]

@mackem That's the ones! Lovely things, aren't they? I can only ever see bantams either though

Bit moot now, anyway. As above.

[Neal 1,787]

Based on what you've said above, I guess this would also be a "no!" but I can add in another chicken option: Welsumers (with or without a double 'm').

My first one was when I started keeping bantams and wasn't sure which breed to go with. I'd got some wyandottes as that's what my grandparents used to keep. I always thought my nan was calling them wine dots. She said the newborn chicks were like bumble bees. Anyway, as is often the case, a local fox took the first lot of bantams...apart from the welsumer. She was a wiley thing and managed to outwit them for much longer. As a result of being the only one left she became extremely friendly. She'd regularly avoid being cooped at night though and would often be found waiting at the doorstep for me first thing in the morning. 

Unfortunately, she too was snaffled one day and I was put off getting any more for about a year. When I did get some more I returned to the lovely welsumers again. Unbeknown to me, they're not all friendly like my Elsey and the average one is quite aloof and independent. Needless to say, I ended up with a flock of bantams which refused to be cooped at night and instead roosted in my crab apple tree...even in the snow. Daft buggers. I also spent a lot of time reclaiming them from various neighbours. I was initially a tad embarrassed but it turned out they loved seeing them and some would often feed them too. Wonder why they wandered.

Obviously mine were the pint sized variety but I've heard a story of a full sized welsumer seeing off a fox. Mine killed a young rat in their run once. Happy days. I've not kept them for several years as a new housing estate was built behind my house and my last lot fell prey to somebodies expensive pedigree cats...when we move I'd definitely get some more welsumers though. 

[low plains drifter 9,466]

14 hours ago, dytkos said:

Sid Gs your man for peacocks  

Cheers, D.

 

Has he an eye for Moorcroft aswell?

[Ken's Deputy 4,456]

Well, muvvafukkas! I'm just back in here because my head's exploding and I want to clear it, before going horizontal. I'm so wired because I've been busily working out the planks 'n shit I'll need for my Night Box!

Mole Trapper has been helping me out, in PM. And, having wracked my brain ~ and google 'n the chube! ~ for days and nights now; I think I've now just about cracked it, or at least come up with the best plan my given circumstances will allow.

Basically; I have an 8' x 4' aviary available. I'm gonna make an elevated night box, for in there. Then, I'm gonna grab a couple of chickens. Pretty much what ever comes to hand will do. They go in there.

Meanwhile, I buy an incubator and sort a brooder situation out. Get, and hatch, GF eggs. Then, put the poults in with the hens. The idea is ~ and, it can work, apparently: The GF imprint on the chickens. They even start to behave like them.

Upshot is, ye hope to end up with GF that are more chilled, because chickens, with their heads on, are like that. They also get the flock attachment thing, with 'their' chickens.

And, as a result, they'll hang around more ~ with the chickens. And my even agree to going in the night box with them.

This (Potentially) could give me the best of all worlds! GF that'll 'be about the place'. Who won't be given to fukking off over the horizon the moment their feet his grass. And who may even agree to being locked inside a secure place at night.

If they insist on fukking off to the trees? That's up to them. It was really the original plan anyway. I'll, obviously, do my level best to ensure I intercept anything that may try to get them up there.

And that's the plan, as it now stands (Trust me; I've been through all the electric chicken fence shit. Even stood there, in the stables, peering at walls, joists and god knows what. I've studied and considered every fukking spare corner of this place. That aviary's the one )

 

[borderboy 80]

If you're getting a few hens anyway, why don't you see if one of those will go broody and sit on a clutch of guinea fowl eggs?

then they'd be well imprinted on the hen, and it would save you buying an incubator/brooder, she'll do it naturally for you.

[Ken's Deputy 4,456]

Borderboy; I've got to confess that this whole 'Broody Hen' thing has been a complete fukking mystery to me, my entire life! Never once grasped the concept. I have picked up though that silkie bantams are absolute fukkers for it. That right?

Are there normal sized Silkies? I imagine I'd need a small army of the fukking things, to manage a dozen Guinea eggs? Strap an egg to a bantam like a suicide bomber. Little scaffold to keep it from rolling off.

I read, just the other day, that leaving them with their eggs sets them off? I could do that. Do they need fertilising too? I draw the line at that! But, I could as easily buy a cock bird in.

 

@McVey I'm deaf, mate

[Daniel cain 42,890]

20 yrs ago I was given 12 hens and 2 cocks from an old lad in the allotments..some prick stole them ,can anyone get me any like these?

Google Image Result for https://previews.magnoliabox.com/corbis/mb_hero/42-61220855/MUS-FAPC1114_850.jpg

IMAGES.APP.GOO.GL

 

[Tyla 3,179]

On 08/04/2022 at 13:02, Ken's Deputy said:

Cheers, lads. So; One frog, in a pool in Canada. Someone who kept guinea pigs ~ presumably without the presence of small, homicidal Dogs. And several people who've seen guinea fowl running about. Brilliant.

Caging them's not really in the mix, @sid g The very point is to have them around the place. Just that I get the definite vibe they fukk off.

Narrowing it down then? I guess I'm wondering if my place has to be the first thing they see, as they hatch? Or, if I could smuggle them in at six / eight weeks and try to kid them this too is part of where they were born and belong.

Maybe, if I could find someone willing to utilise dark sheds and blind folds?

Weird fukking things, any way ye look at it.

I hatched some from eggs. Raised them to 6 weeks in a chick ring and they never got tame. I built them a nice pen with everything they needed. I moved them into their new palace and the little c**ts took one look around them and immediately flew away into the orchard. Found the odd puff of feathers where they'd met the fox over next few days and that was the end of that experiment. Shame as I love the noise of them.

[borderboy 80]

4 hours ago, Ken's Deputy said:

Borderboy; I've got to confess that this whole 'Broody Hen' thing has been a complete fukking mystery to me, my entire life! Never once grasped the concept. I have picked up though that silkie bantams are absolute fukkers for it. That right?

Are there normal sized Silkies? I imagine I'd need a small army of the fukking things, to manage a dozen Guinea eggs? Strap an egg to a bantam like a suicide bomber. Little scaffold to keep it from rolling off.

I read, just the other day, that leaving them with their eggs sets them off? I could do that. Do they need fertilising too? I draw the line at that! But, I could as easily buy a cock bird in.

 

@McVey I'm deaf, mate

Get your hen, don’t collect the eggs for a few days, and when she thinks she’s got a clutch she’ll sit tight to hatch them, no need to fertilise them. Once she’s sitting, swap her eggs out for the Guinea fowl and she will do the rest naturally.
Bantams will go broody very easily, but regular hens will still do a good job of it. 
Google reckons a bantam would manage a dozen to fifteen Guinea fowl eggs, and regular hen over 20.

[Ken's Deputy 4,456]

57 minutes ago, borderboy said:

Google reckons a bantam would manage a dozen to fifteen Guinea fowl eggs, and regular hen over 20.

Ye fukking shitting me!!! Faaaark!!! And I've just spent all day trying to find ~ insisting on ~ full sized silkies, as I never imagined a bantam could balance on even a Single GF egg!

Right! (Shit!) That puts things in a different light then! Bantams should be a fukk ton easier come by!

Thanks for that! It never even occurred to me to look!

[chartpolski 20,416]

This banty would hatch two Cayuga duck and four Bovan hens eggs without any worries;

Ive got a "standard" silkie that will sit a dozen mixed hen, duck and game bird eggs. Just now I've got an American game x Bovan sitting half a dozen duck and hen eggs, she could easily sit more.

Cheers.

 

 

[Ken's Deputy 4,456]

I think it's a bit of a catch 22, isn't it, Charts? Birds are laying now. So, every fukker wants to keep their laying stock / shift cockerels?

What ever. It should be much easier, finding bantams. Trouble is, we have to qualify that by the gauge that it'll be marginally easier than finding a free born leopard, in england. Or getting a straight answer out of Francie!

I was gonna ask if there's a better time to buy birds. But, common sense and filthy luck tells me that'll be the other end of the year. When everyone's trying to get shot of their surplus. And guinea's have long ceased laying

I'm up against it, aren't I?