To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] japanese beetles and avian predators/now slightly offtopic
Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007 12:40:13 -0500
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