Fox Attack

Last night there was yet another fox attack on the guineas.  Normally it's a red fox which attacks the birds, but this time it was a grey fox.

The below pictures are of a grey fox and a red fox.  They are not the same animals that attacked our guineas.  Grey fox are larger than red fox - we were surprised to see one.  We have so very many red fox - our guinea flock rarely survives a year with the red fox and hawks around here.

Just so you know, the fox in those photos look so much prettier than the fox around our house.  Most of our fox appear to be sickly and have mange and look terrible.  These photos actually make fox look cute.

Last night a sickly-looking, stinky grey fox came right up on our back porch, right where I sit on my chair out there.  He nosed around, then went around the front of the house and started hunting the guineas which were in the front yard.  We saw the fox on the back porch and watched as the fox picked out an unsuspecting guinea for his dinner.  The guineas never even saw the fox - such stupid birds.

The fox didn't survive the hunt.  We are allowed to kill a fox that is killing our livestock.  All guineas lived to see another day.   

Chick & Guinea update

The chicks are doing fine.  They are all running around their coop, they are as active and hyper as chicks can be.  The foster mama hen is a great mother and is showing them what to eat and how to scratch.  Soon they will be able to go outside with the other chickens.  We want to make sure the mama hen will protect them and the babies will stay with their mother before we let them loose.  Plus the babies have to be big enough to survive a peck or two from the other chickens before going outside.  The foster mama is getting anxious to get out of the coop.  I can tell she's tired of being inside cooped up when spring is starting outside.

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The guineas are all separating into pairs.  I guess over the winter they were dating one another and now they decided who is going to be mated.  I thought they were just surviving the winter, who knew they were actually flirting and dating one another!  During the day they separate all around the house.  Before they used to stay in one big flock.  Now there's groups of guineas everywhere you can see, and there's guinea calls coming from everywhere.  Every now and then a few of the pairs will join into a small group.  I cannot figure out how many males and females we have.  In the evening, they all join back into one big flock again in front of our house.

I'm assuming the female guineas will start laying eggs in their nests all around the house, if they're not already laying.  We'll have to start looking for their eggs again.  We are now ready for the guineas to become broody - Randy acquired some small cages to put over the female guinea at nighttime to protect her from fox and raccoon when she's sitting on her eggs.  The females become broody after they get about 20 eggs in a nest, and they constantly sit on the eggs to hatch them.  The wild animals are sure to kill her overnight if she's sitting blind on the ground in the woods.  There's a better possibility that she will not be killed when she's sitting during the day as the fox and raccoons are not that active during the day.  It's always very tough to separate a broody guinea hen from her eggs, I've gotten in fights with hens trying to separate them from the eggs, trying to encourage her to go fly up into a tree and roost at nighttime to protect herself.  The hens attacks me, hissing at me and biting me.  The fights get bad because the male guinea comes to protect his mate and fights me, too.  The male will fight me, but he still leaves his wife alone on the ground in the woods overnight to fend for herself.  But now we are ready to help her, protecting her with a cage.  We'll see if this tactic works if/when we get broody guinea hens.

We are already dealing with fox issues this spring.  A couple weeks ago I heard the guineas screaming and looked out back behind the house and saw all the guineas running as fast as they could run, and there was a fox galloping alongside them!  I flew out the back door and started running after the fox.  If anyone could have seen they'd have laughed - a flock of guineas running, followed by a galloping fox, followed by a running human!  The fox took off, there was too much commotion that day for a guinea dinner.

Last week I looked out back and saw the guineas way behind the house, about 250 yards out.  And there was the beautiful red fox crouching low, getting ready to ambush the guinea fowl.  It was drizzling and freezing cold outside that day.  Before I could even open the door, the fox started it's crouching dash at the birds, mouth open ready to bite a grey guinea on the outside edge of the flock.  I just knew that bird was a goner.  I flew outside, barefoot, into the freezing rain, screaming at the top of my lungs, my arms swinging overhead trying to make myself bigger.  The fox was running at the birds, the guineas all stood looking at me like I was insane, all their heads were up and their necks were long with surprise.  I screamed "Nooooooooooo!  Stoppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!" and ran as fast as my bare feet would take me.  The fox looked right at me and then back at the guineas, still running for the grey bird, mouth open, ready to bite.  The fox must have been hungry.  I screamed again, getting close to the fox and guineas.  The guineas were all frozen in place, terrified of me, thinking I was nuts, not even realizing that there was certain death so close for one of them.  At the very last second the fox swerved to the left and took off bounding away, jumping in high leaps, leaving the guineas after all.  I was still screaming at the top of my lungs.  I had acted on reflex, I didn't take the time to get a weapon, or even shoes or a coat.  I quickly ran back inside, got a gun, shoes, a coat and hat, and dashed back out.  I herded all the guineas up to the chicken coop and hunted for hours until the sun set for that fox, but he was long gone.  I don't think I could have killed him, but I would have shot near him, scaring him for sure.  I think that if he actually had a screaming guinea in his mouth that I could shoot him to save the bird.  I have never actually killed a fox, I'm not a hunter, or even a real farm girl, for that matter.  My husband is the farmer, I'm just getting by here on the farm figuring it out as I go.  But I don't want my farm animals, the livestock, to suffer and die, and I know that fox will kill every single guinea and chicken in my flock if they have the opportunity.

Since then, for the rest of the week, there have been no fox sightings. 

Fox attack!

Guineas in the field

Saturday night we slept with the windows open, as we usually do since the weather is so nice right now.  At exactly 3am we heard a bird screaming bloody murder. 

I asked, "What in the world...?"
Randy replied hurriedly "A female guinea was sitting on the guinea nest!"

I knew what was going on.  There's a guinea nest out in the back yard where the female guineas have been laying their eggs.  Friday night one of them decided to sit overnight on the eggs.  Randy chased her off the nest and she roosted in the tree, unhappily, with the other guineas.  Saturday night he let her sit on her nest.  The nest only has a few eggs, every day we remove the newly laid eggs.  Normally a guinea hen will wait till there's about 40 eggs to start sitting.  But I guess one of the guinea girls wanted to be a mother, even if it's just to a couple babies.  Randy thought that since the nest and eggs had not been disturbed by wild animals in the past month, that maybe it was safe.  Maybe the night creatures didn't know about it, or for sure they would have eaten the eggs by now.

Well, a fox found the nest and the guinea hen.  Guineas are totally blind at night in the dark.  The guinea was easy dinner. 

Randy looked out of an upstairs window and saw the fox trotting off across the backyard, guinea in mouth.  The fox stopped and readjusted his bite on the poor bird, then went through the fence and into the woods, bird in mouth.

Randy quickly ran outside and fired off a couple shots in the night air.  More than a couple.  Luckily we don't have neighbors, as we are out in the woods by ourselves.  Well, we live with the animals, obviously, in their territory.  Anyway, the fox was already into the deep woods, gone from sight.

We quickly ran to the wooded area on the other side of the fence where the fox headed.  We attempted to look for feathers hoping to follow a trail.  We only found 3 feathers, no trail.  It was so very dark.  The woods are so very thick, brush is abundant.  The forest is not just dense trees, it's trees and bushes and grapevines and rosebushes and grass that's waist-high.  I can imagine the ticks.  Spiders had made webs throughout the woods and got on my face and all over me.  The grass and brush was damp with heavy dew.  I quickly was soaked. 

We searched and searched, up close where the bird was last sighted, way deep into the woods.  I attempted to go to every woodchuck hole I could remember in that section of the woods, thinking maybe the fox was now living down there.  No signs of the fox anywhere.  No guinea anywhere.  Way far away I heard dogs barking, yapping.  Maybe they were foxes?  Fox pups getting dinner?  We ran and hunted for an hour through the thick woods, scanning everything with bright spotlights.  The dogs I could hear were so very far away, at least another mile away.  It could have been a neighbor's house, his farm dogs were awoken by our noise miles away.  Dogs are keen, aware of their surroundings, even miles away.  I can't imagine a fox would travel that far for dinner.  But maybe, who knows? 

We woke a flock of wild turkeys.  They gobbled unhappily.  They, too, roost in trees.  A songbird started a solitary song in the thick darkness, awoken by our search.   I wish the bird would be still, so maybe I could hear if the guinea was quietly crying somewhere.  I heard crunching in the leaves in the woods, but discovered it was one of the stray cats, TommyCat, following us through the woods.  TommyCat followed us everywhere, watching from a distance.

The woods are so very thick with underbrush and leaves.  It was so easy to misjudge our location in the dark.  If I didn't know the woods so well it would have been easy to get lost, turned around.  It was SOOO dark.

Finally, at 4AM, we quit the search for the guinea, and Randy, TommyCat, and I turned back for the house.  TommyCat got an early breakfast for his work.  He's new here, but TommyCat fits in well already.

And then, at 7AM, who shows up but the guinea hen!  She is missing a patch of feathers and skin on her back, which is raw and bloodied, she's all wet still, and she's seriously hurting.  She can hardly walk.  But she is hanging in the front yard with the other guineas.  Every time we attempt to get close to her she painfully walks away.  She did eat some bread that we tossed to her, which is a good sign.  She's standing off by herself, but some of the other guineas are attempting to stay close to her.

I can't believe she lived!  Somehow the fox must have dropped her.  Maybe he was frightened by the gunshots and ran for his life, leaving his dinner behind.  I can't believe we didn't find the bird in our search.  I assume our loud and obnoxious presence in that section of woods for an hour kept the fox from coming back and finding the guinea hen, who must have been hidden somewhere in the dense brush. 

Injured guinea girl

Healthy guineas this morning - the one in the center is a female

Guinea boy sitting in driveway - possible mate to injured guinea

I don't know if the injured guinea hen is able to fly, if she'll be able to roost with the other guineas tonight.  If not, I'll go catch her after dark and lock her up in the infirmary coop.  I wish I could catch her before, but I know that's not possible, and I don't want to hurt her by making her run from me.  If I catch her I'll treat her wounds and assess her for broken bones and give her aspirin water for pain. Poor bird.  I hope she lives.  She's probably in shock now. 

Injured guinea girl on left - white guinea boy to the right

This last picture shows the injured guinea girl in the upper left.  She's a pearl gray color - darker with spots. To the right of her is the guinea waterer, then there's the white guinea boy to the right of the waterer.  The white boy has been near her all morning.  To the right more, in the middle of the driveway, is a lavender male guinea.  He's stayed nearby the injured female, too, but further away than the white boy.  I think the lavender male was her mate.  I think the white male may just want to take advantage of her.  Hopefully the lavender boy keeps the white boy from making any moves on his wife while she's in this condition.  And then there's some of the other guineas in the grass.

I bet that's the last time this guinea hen thinks about wanting babies.

I'll keep you informed if she survives.  She's lucky to be alive.

Fox Attack

This past week a male fox continually attacked the guinea fowl right around our house where the guineas live, right in our front and back yards.

The fox didn't survive.  It was killed with one of the gray guineas inches away from it's mouth.  Surprisingly, all the guineas survived the week.  They spent most of the week in the trees and on the roof of our house. 

We strongly believe this is the fox that killed three of our guineas last month.  I'm not too keen on a fox lurking and hunting a couple feet away from my front door.

We looked it up before considering killing the fox on our land.  According to the MD Department of Natural Resources, it is lawful for a landowner to hunt or trap a coyote, fox or skunk without a Furbearer Permit that is damaging or destroying the personal or real property of the landowner on their land.  http://www.eregulations.com/maryland/hunting/licenses-stamps-and-permits/

I wanted to ensure everything was done legally and properly.

On another note, none of our guinea eggs have hatched yet.  Today is day 25.  I expect them to hatch between now and Friday.  If they hatch at all.  Stay tuned for updates!

Happy 4th of July

We don't know how to take a break around here. 

A holiday from work means we have more time to work around the farm. Yeah!

This weekend we spent alot of time outside. 

Not at the beach, but in the fields.

 

Trees grow like weeds here - it's hard to keep them down. Many trees grow that really aren't that valuable trees, and they kill off more valuable trees. By pruning and cutting back trees we don't want to take over, we are able to make more room for growth of good trees.

Randy cut back trees and I mowed the fields with the riding mower.  I love to mow with the riding mower - it's relaxing to me.  And I get to listen to my iPod and have some "quiet time".  These photos were taken before I mowed.



  Recently 2 pregnant whitetail deer have been living in our backyard near the old barn.  They know it's a safe place, and have been waiting for their babies to be born.  There's plenty of grass and trees to to eat, and we don't disturb them there.

The other day last week I was baking carrot cake cupcakes for a co-worker, and I looked out the kitchen window and saw one of the deer had twin fawns with her!!!

One of the deer had her babies!  They were staying very close to their mama. They had long gangly legs and plenty of white spots all over them.   As I was appreciating them, before I got the camera, I heard a loud screaming noise. It sounded like a bird was being killed. I thought maybe that Bobby, the outside cat, caught a bird in the backyard. It was very close to the house. I looked out the window as close as I could to the house, but didn't see any cat or bird or anything.

Then suddenly, the oven timer went off. I rushed to get the cupcakes out of the oven and get them out of the muffin tins. I was really distracted by all the screaming outside, which was growing louder.  As soon as I could I rushed to the back door, threw it open, and started to run outside and around to the kitchen area where the noise was still coming from.

Then, to my absolute surprise, I looked down and saw a mama raccoon and one infant raccoon standing by my feet eating from the cat food bowl.  The baby coon was all head and feet.  It was beautiful.  I looked around and realized the screaming was coming from the edge of the woods where another infant raccoon couldn't climb over the fence and enter the backyard.  He was screaming because his mama and sister left him.  I stood there for a minute, just looking at the baby, realizing how amazing it was to see the deer and coon babies all in the same few minutes.  At that moment I loved where I live.

Then, suddenly, I remember how just the day before I chased a large red fox out of the backyard right near where the baby coon was stuck outside the fence.  An infant coon would be a great snack for that fox.  The coon was making such noise, I would have been surprised if any wild animals in the woods didn't come to investigate.  And it had been alone for a while now, for at least 10 minutes.  I worried for the little baby, and so I chased the mama coon off to her lost child.  She quickly scampered away and disappeared over the fence and into the woods, and she left her other baby with me on the back porch!!! 

The coon baby stood up on her hind legs, looked at me in terror, looked around to where mama used to be, and then she started screaming!  Her screams where just as loud as her brother's screams used to be.  Coons make such a unique noise.  I could have reached down and picked up the baby, she was so close.  I pointed to where mama coon went.  The baby coon looked, and timidly started off.  She got confused a few times, but finally heard her mama in the woods.  She climbed over the fence with a little trouble, falling on her butt a few times, but eventually made it, and disappeared into the woods.  That is the last time the mama coon brought her babies to my door.

Jack the cat made the most of the holiday.  He got lots of sleep.  Oh, wait, he always gets lots of sleep...
I love to see his pink toes and nose and ears in the photo below.  He's so cute I just want to hug him.  Jack loves hugs and snuggles - I've never known a cat who loved to be held like Jack.  And to think, he was once a wild stray.  Now he's spoiled.

Jack has the biggest smile that I've ever seen on a cat.

It wouldn't be a holiday without something from the oven, so I made blueberry muffins to celebrate. Yeah!

Happy 4th of July!!

Ramblings at Razzberry Corner

Time has been flying, and I haven't been posting much here at Razzberry Corner!  I've been real busy with my day job, and it seems blogging has taken a backseat.  Today it's almost 90 degrees outside, and who wants to be in on the computer on a clear and sunny day like this?!  So this will be fast!!!  Not alot of formatting or pictures with this post...

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Lots has been going on...  Let's see, where do I even begin??

Ah ha, Muffin, the attack roo. I've learned to carry a broom.  He's afraid of an old straw broom.   I've asserted my dominance over the flock with the broom - I wasn't mean, but a few roosters got pushed to the side with the broom.  One of them was getting busy with a hen right in front of me - that's a no-no.  I read no rooster should never be allowed to do that in front of a dominant human like me.  So the hen action was stopped by a light tap with the broom to the rooster's back.  I think the hen was grateful.  Another rooster didn't like the shoes I was wearing, and he wanted to peck at them.  I just showed him the broom and how it swings quickly, I didn't hit him, but he took off running, honking, warning the others of my new friend, the broom monster.

Muffin and the other boys saw me being dominant, and they saw the broom monster.  Now Muffin watches me from afar, no attacks in the past week.  I've even been able to wear bright pink and red around him.  Without jackets covering my colors.  And no attacks.  I'm going to keep working with the chickens.  I just needed some guidance on how to raise roosters - it's not as easy as raising hens.  I've been picking up Muffin and the other roosters as often as I can, especially in the evenings in the coop.  I hug them and rub their necks and wattles, which they seem to enjoy.  I hold them for as much time as I can spend out in the coop, they stretch out their necks and try to sleep in my arms like them they used to do were little peepers.

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A few weeks ago I mentioned the death of a woodchuck in my backyard.  I decided it had to be a fox.  Well, I have not seen any foxes since then, and I've been keeping an eye out, especially in the mornings and evenings.  No sight of any fox.  I've looked for tracks around the woodchuck hole which I thought had been taken over by a fox.  No fox tracks or any tracks, actually.  But I have seen Mr. Who II.  He's a beautiful and large great horned owl.  I usually see him in the evenings or early mornings by our driveway/dirt road.  A couple days ago I saw him sitting in a tree right near the chicken coop.  When he saw me he flew away and was attacked by a few black crows on his way into the deep woods.  I have no idea why crows don't like owls, but they always seem to attack them.  I didn't think great horned owls would kill a woodchuck, but I just found a few sites online where it did say that could happen.  I never found the entire body of the dead woodchuck, just pieces, so maybe it was Mr. Who II. 

And what was Mr. Who II doing near my chickens?  

As a side note, Mr. Who II was named after Mr Who, who is a barred owl who lived by our previous house, which is now a rental property.  Mr. Who was always near our house, he wasn't afraid of us in the least bit.  I was able to take plenty of pictures of Mr. Who; he would always smile for the camera.  Mr. Who II, the great horned owl, on the other hand, is very camera shy.

   The original owl, Mr. Who

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We still have 2 very Broody hens - Bella and Charlotte.  Will they ever get out of the nest boxes.  The last broody girl, Zoner, got over it after a month.  Bella and Charlotte have been at it over a month now.  Soon it will be other hens, I guess they all need to go thru it.  Maybe we will start preparing for babies, and will let one of them sit on some eggs - that would be exciting.  Chicks are SO very cute! 

We'll have to think about it, determine if we're ready for chicks again... 

On the chicken front, we have so, so, so many eggs.  I've been selling them to friends, co-workers, neighbors.  I just sold 4 dozen yesterday, and I counted the eggs in my fridge this afternoon, and look - there's another 4 dozen in there!  And I haven't collected from the nest boxes yet today, they'll be at least 10 out there...  I'm going to start bringing them to church on Sundays, to friends houses on the weekends.  People will call me the crazy egg lady...

 

Did I just say in the previous paragraph I was considering more chickens??? 

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Here's a closing picture of Jack, the cat, lounging on this warm, lazy spring afternoon.

Death of a Woodchuck

We have a lot of woodchucks/groundhogs who live in our backyard in the summer months.  We have quite a few woodchuck holes here and there, but the holes in the ground really don't bother us much.  We know where the holes are, and can avoid them so as not to twist or break our ankles.  

We only have male woodchucks, we don't know why.  They entertain us with their little territory "fights", which consist of two woodchucks facing each other, puffing up their tails, and then wagging their tails.  Eventually they walk or run away from each other.  Woodchucks are not mean animals, we have never seen any aggression from them whatsoever.  They seem to only eat grass, weeds, and clover.  They never disturb our garden, which is close to their homes.  When we disturb them by walking into our backyard they run to their homes and hide.  We have no females, hence no baby woodchucks  The females must live deeper in the woods, I don't know.

As far as we've seen other animals don't bother the woodchucks.  Jerry, the outside cat, used to "pretend hunt"  the woodchucks ~ he would squat down and try to hide behind some tall grass and watch them for hours before falling asleep.  The woodchucks are larger than Jerry, I do not think he could kill a woodchuck.  Jerry would take a mouse or a bird without thinking, but not a woodchuck.

This past week, as I was walking in my backyard, I realized a woodchuck had been killed by it's hole.  It was awful, body parts scattered around the ground.  Hair everywhere.  Then I found it's tail.  So sad. 

It appears the woodchuck hole has been enlarged, dug out by a bigger animal.  And the former tenant was killed and his remains scattered about by the doorway into the underground home.

I assume a fox is the culprit.  I have recently seen a beautiful red fox in our backyard.  I figured he lived deeper in the woods.  And I figured he want to be far away from humans, especially since there are so many other woodchuck homes which he could have chosen in the woods.  But it appears he chose this home, right in our backyard.

This raises a big concern for my chickens, if foxes are now living right in the backyard.  My husband planned on totally free-ranging the chickens eventually, letting them out of their fenced-in area.  Maybe not.  We will have to keep an eye on the new neighbor for a while to see if he stays and continues to kill the other neighbors.