guinea medicine

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

The guineas are getting pretty big and still as wild as ever.  Every evening, we go through the routine of herding them under some brush where we can catch them and put them back in the house.  They want to go back in their house, but seem confused as to how to get in, and so they wander around it and screech and squawk until we round them up.  Well, last night, when I caught the first one, I noticed that one of her claws had somehow been torn off.  I took her inside and put some neosporin on it after washing it off (she really didn't like that!)  It looked like it had to hurt (think getting a toenail ripped out!)  She is getting around just fine (after all, it took nearly an hour to catch her last night) and it looks like it is healing up well today.  Any idea how it could have happened?  You don't think they would peck one another given they have a lot of room, do you? Anyway I figure the neosporin on an open wound couldn't hurt too much. 

[NM_Shooter]

My chickens were pecking at another one's toenails.  They peck at where the nail goes into the toe, and had eaten the poor thing's toe to the point that the bone was showing and the nail fell off.  We attempted to get her fixed up, but she was in such bad shape that we butchered the poor thing.

My problem chickens now have nose-ring "bits" installed.  It helps keep the bloodshed pecking to a minimum.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I've seen chickens do that sort of thing, though it usually seems they go for the head, but these guineas don't have a lot of reason to pick on one of their own.  Their house right now is a spacious 8 by 10' shed (we haven't finished it all out and the chickens aren't here yet or it would be more crowded.)  They get to free range and eat all the bugs they want during the day (the tick population has already noticeably declined, and that's with only three guineas!)  Anyway, she seems to be getting better, but I'm not sure the claw will ever grow back....  Incidentally, those claws are sharp as razors and hurt like the dickens if you get caught by one.  I have scratches all up and down the insides of both arms from one of them freaking out on me the other day.  I do like the fact that the guineas are eating a lot of bugs, but I really think I like chickens a lot better.  After all, you can tame chickens a lot easier, and they have personalities.  Guineas are like some sort of space alien.  They'll all be walking along clucking softly and eating grasshoppers and then they simultaneously receive some sort of signal from outer space and start screeching in their alien tongue, and then they all take flight and relocate to repeat the same process over and over.  They're kind of funny, but definitely weird. The cat wants to kill them really badly, but she isn't as fast and she can't fly, so it kind of hurts her odds, and all the time they are getting bigger and weirder.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I don't think they're all that bright, either.... yesterday, we propped open the door for them and left it open all day, but they were too dumb to figure out how to get out without our help.  At four in the afternoon, they were still sitting around inside the house, clucking and screeching  from time to time.  I think the mother ship must have told them to wait there.