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[paxamicus AT earthlink.net]

I'm not keen on guineas because of that horrible rusty ratchet noise  
they make. And I have no idea if they flock like ducks. I've never  
tried. Frankly, if they started making noise all I'd want is for the  
dogs to eat them anyway. : )

My plan was to let them run with the sheep free range.  I'm hoping an  
Anatolian (once properly introduced) would guard them, too. My old one  
did the banties on the old farm.

Both sheep and horses waste grain enough to feed chickens amply if  
they are free ranging. I'd supplement if I got no eggs, fragile eggs,  
or when there's no forage. But really, with all these grain eating  
herbivores around, when is there ever not enough forage? There's  
always something lying around waiting to get eaten up....even if it's  
been um, previously consumed.

I use eggs a lot as a protein, but I hate the idea of caged anything,  
so I always buy the organic cage-free blah blah blah. I KNOW cage-free  
isn't really any good, they need to be FREE, but it's the best I can  
do at the moment. When you figure bug patrol+eggs I don't have to pay  
an oil well for+clear conscience..my eggs might be $13 a dozen but  
that's ok with me.

At a certain point you stop balancing just the actual cost in money,  
you know, and count the real one. The real one to me is not supporting  
a chicken industry that's incredibly horrible. If I lose money on  
eggs, that's ok, because so are they, the egg people.

I once had a tour of a chicken killing factory in Maryland. It made an  
impact. It's why I don't eat chicken.

I like RI Reds, they are so pretty. But my banties were scrappy  
tough. : )



On May 20, 2008, at 6:24 AM, Gene GeRue wrote:

> On May 19, 2008, at 10:43 PM, Marie McHarry wrote:
>
> > It's only necessary to feed chickens in winter in my
> > experience. The rest of the year, they'll get fat on bugs, grubs,
> > weeds, and whatever else they can get their beaks around.
>
> Happy to hear that. I am currently experimenting. Now withholding
> grain and trying to train them to come into the Taj Mahen at night
> when I call and rattle a small container with egg pellets in it. Like
> all teens, they want to stay out after dark and I want them secured so
> I can stop thinking about them.
>
> With only three hens, this fenced yard might be enough to feed them.
> And I am scheming an overhead wire design to thwart the hawks, like
> the cheeky one that flew right up to and perched in the walnut tree
> directly above where the hens were lounging under their raised porch.
> And which flew away so fast when I went out that I was sent to the
> bird ID book and determined that it was a peregrine falcon, the first
> I have ever seen. Too small, certainly, to carry a hen away but big
> enough to kill. Beautiful bird.
>
> I bought these three RIReds about a month ago. They had apparently
> been raised in a building and for days would not even come outside. I
> finally forced the issue with the water pan. Now they are scratching
> and pecking away almost as if they know what they're doing. Ain't
> instinct wonderful.