Whew, it are hot! I broke down and shut up the house and turned on the AC. I really hate to do that, but I was miserable. I'd much rather have fresh air and the sounds of outside inside. Oh yeah, and there's the electric bill. I like my minimal summer electric bill.
Spent some time in the Summer House this morning. It was time to turn out the guinea keets that have been living in a cage out there. First I had to muck it out. Haven't done that since I moved rabbits out in March. It needed doing and didn't want to worry about keets slipping out the gate while I was hauling manure out. It wasn't too bad in there as far as working in the heat. There was a bit of a breeze coming through.
My poor working does in the shed. There were just 11, and only 2 have litters at their side. I realized they don't have to stay in there all the time. I can give them a break from the heat by putting them in the Summer House until their due date. So I moved the 2 does with 5 week old litters out, and 2 open does. One kindled a DOA litter last night, and the other was a miss (again from Sterling). The rest are due today, later this week, and next week. I'll move them out if they fail. This also helps with the heat in the shed, I'm sure. Less body heat.
It will also be easier when I'm breeding them. Instead of hauling them out to their buck and then back to their hole in the shed, I can just leave them out there. Oh yeah, and less cleaning for me in the shed.
One of the does due today has pulled a pile of fur so I'm expecting them anytime. The other is still messing with her hay nest.
We had our Rendevous at the Smith's Saturday. That's always a nice time. Gary loaned me a real nice black buck for my broken does. I begged. He kinda owed me, although I didn't mention that. I loaned him brokens to get him started in the variety 2 years ago. This buck isn't out of my line but in a way it is. Some of my original brokens came from my good friend in MI, and this black is out of a broken chestnut Gary bought from him at convention. He might not have had a shot at the buck if not for me being a friend of the breeder. I'll be using him as much as possible before I hook up with Smiths again to return him.
In guinea news:
Oh cool! I just now looked in the incubator (it's here in the living room) and one of the guinea eggs pipped. I knew it should be any time now.
When I turned the older keets out into the Summer House, they immediately had a dust bath orgy. That was fun to watch. The cage they were in has a wire bottom so they can't do that in there. I just put the cage on the ground so they can pick at the feed that drops in the dirt, but they can't wallow. They also began finding the bugs crawing on the ground and in the manure. Should go through less feed now.
I'm getting serious about the poultry pen. I ordered something to serve as a coop. I looked all over online and pre-fab chicken coop kits are expensive! I found lots of ideas online and in Backyard Poultry magazine, but I'm not really motivated to build one from scratch.
One guy used dog houses. Hmmm, there's an idea. So I looked into that. Still pretty spendy and they weren't big enough. Would need more than one. A forum friend turned us onto a Petsmart coupon that was only good for a few days. So I went to Petsmart.com and found the perfect thing. It's a simple wood flat-roof style with a hinged top. Price was right (and saved $15 with the coupon) and maybe even less than I could have built from scratch. It will go together very easily and just require a little customizing for birds. The dimensions (biggest model) given are almost as big as my kitchen island! That's pretty darn good sized. I think this will work.
Now to make up my mind where the pen will go. My original plan was to pen in the back corner of the fence. A lot of work that will be. It's hard to dig post holes in this rocky ground. Then I thought I could put it on the east side of the rabbit shed. The fence is about 12' from the shed. I could connect shed and fence and would just need to finish the ends.
My other option is to use the rest of the carport where the rabbits are. That would be super easy. I can just run wire around the carport's poles. The hardest part would be building the gate. They'd have a roof over their heads, and be more protected from predators. Whipper keeps bad guys out of the yard, but beside the shed, he couldn't help much, and I'd have to put some kind of netting over the entire thing. The only problem with this option is that I do store things there. Like the lawn tractor, garden wagons, and wheelbarrow. Lately I've been lazy and just park the tractor beside the porch. It's handy to electricity if I need to jump it or pump the tires. I guess I could just get a cover tarp for it. Should anyways if I'm just leaving it there. Yeah, I'm really leaning towards this option.
It's my plan that the chickens be allowed to range in the fenced yard most of the time. It will be fun to have more pretty birds in the garden. Guineas aren't all that pretty, ya know. And Cogburn really really needs some hens. He's rather annoying and needs something else to occupy him.
In other news:
Finally got to see the neighbors. There are 3 of them! 2 horses and a donkey. I thought at first it was a mule, but then got a better look at it.
Like the new look of the blog? I didn't care for any of the ones that were originally offered when I started it, so I just tweaked a plain template. When I logged in to post today, a pop up offered some new ones. This one's soft colors match my logo and hummingbirds are special to me.
Keep cool.
tnt
