[NAFEX] japanese beetles and avian predators/now slightly offtopic

Donna &/or Kieran holycow at cookeville.com
Sat Jun 16 13:40:13 EDT 2007


Michelle,    I think we butchered them at about a pound and a half, maybe 
closer to two pounds.  They have no down at all so they are REALLY easy to 
pluck.  In fact, because they are so hard to catch and so nutty when you do 
catch them, they tend to be self plucking.  I learned to grab them by solid 
body parts after the first two left me with leg feathers and a complete set 
of tailfeathers.  If you can convince them to nest somewhere the varmints 
won't eat them, and lock them up out of the rain for 2 solid weeks after the 
babies hatch, they seem to do very well.  Our problem was the varmints.  I 
have read they will only lay and set in a pen if it has nice brush piles to 
make them feel safe and private.  They don't start laying till late, late 
March or even April, so they could probably be left loose all but 2-3 months 
of the year.  With the banties, once we convince them to lay in the cage 
rather than in the brush, (either by making it attractive or by locking them 
in it when they don't take the hint) the cage door can be left open.  We 
have a snake proof cage 4 ft off the ground very close by for the banties, 
they can come and go while laying and setting, are locked in for a couple of 
weeks with new babies, and then are turned out to pick and scratch after 
that.  Since the new neighbors have arrived with big chicken killing dogs, 
the littlest ones are locked up in a cage on the ground with their mamas 
except when we are home for about a month.  There are lots of trees 
overhead, so they can usually escape.  I don't know how young guineas would 
do under these circumstances, I guess they can fly even better than banties. 
All it takes is a hawk going for them, they vanish and don't come out for an 
hour or two.     Donna 




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