Giving up guineas...hard lessons learned

Today I sold my four lavender guineas to a lady who answered an ad I posted on craigslist yesterday.

The last few days have been crazy with the birds.

For a couple of days, we tried putting injured guinea in the chicken run with his uninjured guinea buddy. We would kennel the hurt one at night, but the other one would fly out of the chicken netted run and perch on the roof. Okay. We were keeping them separate from the chickens and other guineas, but then, somehow the chickens ended up in with the two guineas, but everything appeared to be okay. Until it wasn't.

I went down to catch injured guinea and put him in his kennel for the night, and noticed he had blood on his back. I took him into the house and yelled for Richard, who happened to be on his work break from his telecommuter job. With his help, we examined the bird and were horrified to discover he had been pecked so extremely that he had a bloody hole in his back. Richard immediately thought we should kill the bird, put it out of its misery. But there was no time...he had to go back to work and I had no idea where my camp hatchet was, and we didn't own an ax. Plus I still had two little kids to take care of and get ready for bed.

We bandaged up the bird with makeshift items, took off his splint (the poor thing was probably going to die anyway, one way or another) and stuck him in his kennel in my office. I gave him food and water as usual.

In addition to injured guinea, I had another hen who was acting "funny." We had brought her in the house earlier in the day and cleaned her dirty rump to find she had an egg stuck. Great. What do you do with that? Well, give the chicken a warm water bath, which Richard did, holding her hind end under the bathtub faucet. After she dried a bit, we put her back in the coop with the other hens. I noticed she had some plucked feathers too.

I suspected the lavender guineas, especially the two males, who ruthlessly attacked our poor rooster Charlie, on more than one occasion. I had seen the mean birds attacking some of the hens and even one of their own females. But the injury to the already hurt guinea was more than I could take.

That night, I grabbed my broom when I went to put the chickens to bed. When I closed up the coop for the night, I chased every one of those guineas out,  leaving them to fend for themselves until I could figure out what to do the next day. I knew they'd find a roost in one of the trees and be back in the morning. They were.

The next day, we bathed the egg stuck hen and I added her to the bird infirmary that was formally my office. And, that morning, the injured guinea looked at me with perky eyes, seemingly oblivious to his horrible injury.

This was when we decided to get rid of the guineas, for the safety of our chickens, who also had signs of being  plucked and pecked. Now that the game birds had the taste for blood, would they continue to terrorize the hens and rooster until they killed them? Not a chance we wanted to take. With a heavy heart, I put an ad on craigslist, knowing my dream of having wandering guineas to amuse me was all but over.

I found an old tank top I could turn into a bird sling and stitched the bottom closed and we went to find bandages. We talked to the guy at the feed store who said to put ointment on the wound and the bird would probably be alright. I was more interested in buying first aid than in buying an ax, and decided to give the poor bird a chance.

We bandaged the guinea (this guy needs a name), cut holes for his legs in my "chicken sling" and stuck him in, hanging the sling from a two by four balanced across the old baby corral. The idea is to keep him off of his injured foot, which I think is a broken foot and leg, by the swelling, and keep him from pecking at his wound.I put some food and water on a box in front of him, and he started to drink the electrolyte boosted water like crazy. Then he knocked it over.

 

When I went to put the chickens to bed, the other guinea was hiding in a corner. One of the hens went over and started  pecking at his back, where the feathers look like they have been worked on for a while. Crazy. I caught that guinea and took him inside too. The two female lavender guineas managed to work their way back into the chicken run by flying onto the bird netting until they fell through. I let them stay. The males were wandering back and forth outside the fence.

Later when I was reading the kids stories before bed, I heard the unmistakable sounds of unhappy guineas, and it sounded like it was coming from right outside the living room windows. I flipped on the porch light, and sure enough, one male guinea was standing there, looking so forlorn, squawking at me. "Mama, let me go in the house, " he said. The other guinea was "roosting" on the front step. They were so cute. Maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I should keep them. Someone was coming to get the four of them in the morning.

After I got the kids settled into bed, it was back to the hen with the hang up. I took the chicken into the bathroom, filled the tub with warm water and held her, making sure the water was covering her abdomen and egg vent. This was some advice I had found online. Keep her there for an hour, they said. Really? Who has that kind of time? I tried, massaging her vent and splashing water on her rear. She'd push so hard, letting out wails...just like a woman in birth, and I knew Richard and maybe his clients on the phone could her her in the room next door. It turns out she had a broken egg stuck in her and I had to help her get it out. After that, she went right to sleep back in the bird infirmary.

The next morning, we redressed the injured guinea, cleaned his bed and moved the healthy guinea into his own outdoor bird run, until we can figure out what to do with him. After much hullabaloo, we caught the four lavenders and put them in a kennel, where they waited until their new mama came to pick them up. I hope they can find happiness in their new home. There aren't any chickens on that farm, but they do have goats. I will miss the idea of them more than I will miss them.

I learned that you can't keep guineas with llamas (uncastrated males) or chickens, and that injured creatures must always be separated from the rest of the flock or herd or whatever.

These have been hard lessons this week and I'm not happy with any of the outcomes of this mess. I hope injured guinea gets better (he's eating seed today), but I'm not sure what his life will be like if he's crippled. Will his buddy pick on him too because he's the weak one? Do I now have a guinea as a house pet? I wonder if he'd get along with Luna, my Amazon parrot. They could live in the same room--in separate cages-- and yell at each other. Guineas kind of sound like parrots screaming.

I have to address my fear of killing the animals if they are suffering. If I'm going to be a real farmer with livestock, I'm going to have to face these situations, and be prepared for them. I have to find my ax. A responsible farmer would take care of the matter in the best way to ease the suffering. But I can't really tell if the guinea is suffering. You'd think he would be. But he's perky, alert, eating and just hanging out. Is it possible that his little pea brain has somehow disengaged from the pain? I know animals live purely in the present moment, regardless of what has occurred before. I can only hope the little guy is not in too much pain and that in a short time he will be back out raising trouble with his buddy.

Taco Salad

Taco salad

taco salad with sauce

Who says that organic, vegetarian food has to be boring? Tonight we had a taco salad for dinner. The onions and tomatoes came from our garden. The leaf lettuce, scarlet mustard greens, kale, icicle and globe radishes, and the sweet red pepper came from a friend's organic farm. The tortilla chips were made in the store at the Latino market. I made the enchilada/taco sauce from peppers from our garden. Pretty local food.

Taco Salad

Put 1/2 cup TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) in bowl and add 1 cup water. Let it hydrate. Put olive oil in a skillet, add hydrated TVP and taco seasoning powder. You may need more water to make a sauce like consistency. OR you can use a ground meat of your choice for your taco meat. Brown meat, add taco seasoning, according to directions. Simmer 10 minutes or so.

Fill two large meal size bowls with lettuce, and or greens (leaf lettuce, iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, kale, spinach, mustard greens).

Sprinkle taco "meat" onto salads.
Add a handful of beans (black beans, pinto beans) to each bowl.
Slice radishes and add to bowls.
Chop onions and add some to each bowl.
Line edge of bowls with tortilla chips.
Add grated cheddar or pepper jack cheese to salads.
Slice and add tomatoes and olives to salads.
Top with a salsa.
Enjoy your healthy meal (minus the red meat of course).

I use a variety of vegetables that I have on hand to fill my salads. Carrots, corn...whatever.

Pumpkin Bread

 Pumpkin Bread

Oven 350 degrees

Combine wet ingredients in very large bowl.

3 cups pumpkin (heirloom, organic varieties are the best, but one large can of pumpkin is 3 cups)

3 and 3/4 cups sugar (cane sugar is less pesticide laden than beet sugar)

5 eggs (organic, free range)

1 and 1/8 cups oil (extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil is the best for you) without nuts, 1 and 1/3 cups oil with nuts

Mix dry ingredients in separate large bowl

 3and 3/4 cups flour (unbleached wheat flour makes batter thicker)

1 and 1/4 teaspoons nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 and 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 and 1/4 teaspoons powdered cloves

1 and 1/2 teaspoons powdered cinnamon

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Add 2 cups of nuts now if desired. Mix well.

Makes 3 loaves, 10 mini loaves or 3 and 1/2 dozen muffins

Grease and flour bread pans.

Bake breads for 1 hour in 350 degree oven.

Bake muffins 20 minutes.

Bake mini loaves 20 or so minutes

Adjusted High Altitude (above 5000 feet) recipe

Oven 370 degrees

Mix wet ingredients

3 cups pumpkin

3 and 1/4 cups sugar

6 eggs

1 cup oil

Mix dry ingredients

3 and 3/4 cups flour

1 and 1/4 teaspoons nutmeg

1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 and 1/4 teaspoons cloves

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 and 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix in nuts (2 cups) now, if desired.

Mix well.

Makes 3 loaves, 10 mini loaves, 3 and 1/2 dozen muffins or one bundt cake

Grease and flour pans.

370 degree oven

Bake standard breads 50-60 minutes 

Bake cake 40 minutes

Muffins: check doneness at 15 minutes

 Check doneness with toothpick, which should come out clean when inserted into middle of bread.

Baby chicks and CSAs

Making pumpkin bread on a warm fall day. It's a wonderful thing. I appreciate the fresh, organic pumpkin, the free range eggs and the birds singing today.

A few days ago we drove up the the Springs to meet a lady to buy six Red Star chicks. I found her ad on Craigslist. I love Craigslist. Now the chicks are in my office with a heat lamp on them. They are about four weeks old. I didn't want to raise babies in the winter, but I want to be sure we have enough eggs in the spring and summer to add eggs to our CSA program when we start it.

Four week old Red Star chicks

When we were in the city, we ran our errands which included going by a couple of grocery stores we don't have in our little town, including a Mexican or Latino market, which had the greastest prices on produce and carried a few hard to find spices. But, in both of the food stores we went to, and the two we went to last week (all chain stores) I was disappointed by the unavailablity of organic foods, and the few items that one store carried were horribly expensive--four dollars plus change for an average sized zuchini. Crazy. And, me on my newest health kick to only buy organic, couldn't find any organic foods I could afford. I tried to go organic about twelve years ago and ran into the same problem. It seems time has not brought down the prices of organic produce.
 
Well. that realization really made me angry. I should be able to get organic food if that's what I want, right? I have the choice to not be poisoned by pesticide laden, hormone injected vegetables and meats, right? I should have access to these real, safe foods even if I don't have a large bank account, right? Food is a right, like air and water, right? Oh, that's right, not on this planet. We pay for water, while wasting access to millions of gallons of rainwater. We flush our drinking water down the toilet. Crazy. And food is only for those who can afford it, kind of like medical care. The more money you have, the better food or medical care you can get. I'm talking about organic food and natural healing hospitals here--I don't buy into and try not to support big agribusiness or big medical industry.

So how can I get food that is not going to give me cancer if it is not available? I can't afford mail order or even the organic food chains. How can I make a statement that I'm not going to support an agricultural industry that is more worried about profit than about peoples health, when the only places I can shop carry only the foods I wish to avoid. How can I feed my family? Where do we turn?

CSA memberships, that's where. And while I have been struggling with how expensive CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) are, and how we could make our farm CSA doable for more people, I realized that our membership at $325 per season (thirteen weeks) is pretty cheap for organic food, but even better, we are going beyond organic to naturally grown, here at our farm.  And one dozen free range eggs per week included. That breaks down to $25 per week or $3.25 per day for healthy, safe vegetables and eggs. Pretty cool really. And by growing our own food, we can say no to agribusiness and their poisons. We are taking back our food!

This is what tipped me into the home stretch of starting the CSA. We are going to do it. For the summer season of 2011 we will offer a very limited number of memberships into our farm. We are calling it the "One Little CSA" program and will sell five (5) farm shares to the first responders, taking a deposit to hold a spot. This will give us capital now to invest in more seeds, greenhouse and garden supplies. I'm excited. Richard is on board, and we look forward to the opportunity to grow real food for ourselves, sharing the bounty with others who want naturally and locally grown food.

I think everyone should join a local CSA program. Become part of the solution to the craziness of poisoned, unclean agribusiness food. If you can't afford to join a CSA, (like me) then grow your own food. Anyone can do it. I'd like to include some learning experiences here at our farm for those who want to learn how to start a backyard garden. Or a container garden. As Richard likes to say "If you only grow one tomato off of one plant, that's one tomato that's clean and healthy, one tomato you didn't have to buy from big agribusiness."

But if gardening is not for you, let the farmer down the road have a chance to grow your local food. Make sure it's organic. Some CSAs have working shares where you can buy a share at a reduced cost and work so many hours at the farm to make up the difference. I'm thinking about doing that too. I never seem to have enough time to water and weed the gardens...a little help would be nice. And with a CSA, it's kind of like your farm too. It feels good to participate in growing your own food.

"Be the change...."

Digging potatoes, picking tomatoes

Busy days. Today we dug potatoes out of the lower garden, but decided to leave the carrots and onions. the forecast doesn't quite call for freezing temps, but I don't want to lose everything, if it does freeze. We have been preparing all day for the low night time temperatures of the next few days. I'm afraid Fall is here to stay now, sneaking in when we weren't watching.

I pulled all of the tomatoes, even the green ones, and cut all of the pumpkins from their dying vines.

Last night we canned tomatoes to get ready for the tomatoes we brought in today. Richard is thinking of making a green tomato relish, and we will most certainly have enough for another batch of fried green tomatoes.

The squashes and pumpkins have to come in or find a home, so Rrichard built a makeshift root cellar (got the idea out of Mother Earth News---some guy stores carrots in a bucket underground--so we thought we could try that on a bigger scale). Eventually we'd like to build an Earthbag root cellar into the berm behind our house, but for now , a trashcan it is, in a big hole. We will put the squashes in the can, surrounded by straw (recycling the scarecrow). This way the squashes never touch and they are insulated by the straw. After the can is full, the lid goes on and it is covered with a couple of bales of straw layed across the top. Sounds like it might work. We'll give it a try.

We went to pick up Hank the billy goat and his little friend Lily today in our old Lucky horse trailer. Now we have seven goats in a teeny tiny pen that Richard is trying desperately to enlarge, but between trips to town and Co-op meetings and hurt guineas, it is impossible to finish anything, it seems. Now the ladies have a man and hopefully will get the deed done quickly, before anyone notices the billy in our covenanted land.

And the guinea...one of the Pearls from up the hill, in the goat and llama pen, apparently got stepped on by a llama while the two rambunctious young llama boys were in the midst of one of their wrestling matches. So, I had to catch said injured bird (ever try to catch a guinea? It's worse than trying to catch a llama.), without the llamas stepping on him again. I did it with a clothes basket, a large plastic container lid, a long stick and a few cuss words. I got the limping fowl into a small pet carrier and took him into the house for examination, upon which I decided that his foot was either broken or very badly injured. So, with Richard's ingenuity at making a splint out of rolled up cardboard, we taped the leg to the makeshift splint, caught his buddy guinea to keep him company, and settled the two of them into my office in their individual kennels for the night.

While I picked tomatoes this morning, Richard put bird netting over the new chicken pen off the chicken coop. We put the two pearl guineas  together in that yard, hoping the injured guy will heal. Now the guineas, the four lavenders and the one standing pearl, run back and forth along the chicken wire between the two yards, yelling at each other.

Guineas are hilarious. I'm going to miss watching the two guineas with the llamas and goats, but I can't have them getting hurt. They were raised with the goats, and for a while they practiced being goats, the two birds following the goats and eating hay when they did, right out of the big feed dish. Then, the two guinea fowl discovered they could get over the fence into the llama yard and they pretended they were llamas for a while, even charging each other, slamming chests, when the llamas wrestled. They stood on the llama hay and rode on the backs of the goats. Fun days...I'm going to miss.