One more try

Since the chickens are doing a less than great job of keeping the bugs down, I decided to try Guinea hens one more time.  Glenn picked up 20 meat chicks and 16 guinea keets from the feed store today and is getting them settled in the side room as I type.  This time, we got some very high protein food for them and they won’t go out into the great wide world until they’re ready.  We’re going to “remodel” the outhouse, run some electricity out there for a heat lamp, then move all the munchkins out there.  While they’re growing we’ll get a new covered pen built around the outhouse for guineas until they are big enough to go forth and eat bugs.

The meat birds should be big enough for butchering at 10 weeks, which will be around the same time where I start filling the chest freezer with veggies from the garden, too.   I’m thinking a bigger chest freezer might be necessary in the very near future!

 

The people at the feed store told us that the meat birds have to be encouraged to stand up or else as they grow they’ll become very weak in the knees and unable to stand!  To encourage them to get off their lazy butts we need to keep moving up the feeder as they grow so they have to stand in order to reach the food.

The sad part about this is that I’m pretty darned sure nature did not make a bird this way.  Natural selection would have eliminated that that specific bird a long time ago.  So although I know I’ll be eating some fairly healthy birds that have never rec’d steroids or chemicals, I’m not sure I’m happy about eating a man-made “hybrid”.  How do you guys feel about that?  Would you stick with a more natural breed, or do you think it’s ok as long as we’re keeping them as healthy as possible and not shoving them full of steroids?