Craigslist is a nifty online toy that is available to anyone with a computer and a little curiosity. It consists of want ads, items for sale, personals, and a lot of other stuff for the truly bored to play with. I discovered that they have a local section just for central Virginia thanks to a friend. Since then I have been making use of the sales listings and even posted my own help wanted ad.
Because we prefer free range happy-chicken eggs to those pale factory eggs from the supermarket, we keep a small flock of hens. Thanks to an uninvited guest in the form of a hungry raccoon, our small flock was reduced to a single guinea. Not only is this guinea not cooperative, but she is hiding her eggs somewhere so no joy there at all.
While perusing the livestock and agricultural section of the central Virginia section of Craigslist, I happened on an ad for guineas. One guinea is not up for controlling our tick and fly population, so we really did want to acquire more of them. I called on the ad and spoke to Jay Gregory, breeder and raiser of assorted fowl in Stuart, Virginia. I have heard of and visited Stuarts Draft and was hoping he was in that general vicinity. Alas, this was not to be, but what the heck, it was Saturday, nothing much doing at home, and I really needed to empty the gas tank on the trusty Trail Blazer. I loaded up with a few cat crates and headed towards the general direction of Martinsville, VA.
I think that Martinsville is famous for something to do with NASCAR, but you could not prove it by me. All I knew was that beyond Martinsville was Stuart and that was my destination, approximately 120 miles from home.
As usual the Google map proved to be accurate enough that I only made a single wrong turn, easily remedied, and found my way to Jay’s Poultry Emporium just about on time. It turned out that Jay used to be sheriff of Patrick County Virginia and had once traveled to App,omattox to work with our beloved sheriff, Wilson Staples on something to do with bad guys a few years ago. Instant bonding, we had more than one thing in common, and as Bill is fond of saying, “All roads lead to Appomattox.”
Jay started showing off his beautiful birds of which he is justly proud. Ever single one was clean and healthy with good feathering and hearty appetites. It was hard to choose, all of them were equally nice, but I did narrow it down to 20 Buff Orpington pullets, 20 mostly lavender guinea keets, a handsome buff Orpington roo to rule the roost, and three beautiful bourbon red turkey poults to add to the ones at home.
It is always a pleasure to meet someone who shares my love of animals and featherheads and I was delighted to discover that Jay also had acquired a Great Pyrenees guardian dog to protect his flocks. Since he got his dog he has not lost a single bird and this gives us a lot of hope for Brunhilda’s ability to keep our own flock safe.
Of course Hilda is still a fun-loving puppy and was more interested in rolling in the straw and playing with the new birds than keeping them safe, but she will learn quickly and one of these days a thieving raccoon is going to get a huge surprise. Her bark is already very deep and menacing.
So far all the new birds are doing great and I haven’t lost a single one. The guinea keets are in the guest bathroom under my computer lamp, staying comfy and swiftly growing feathers. As soon as they are of age some of them can go to work here while others will be distributed to friends who wish to be tick-free all summer.
Guineas are an acquired taste I guess. A friend once told me that she would have to drink a whole lot more before she could find the antics of a flock of noisy guinea fowl amusing. We, on the other hand, love that they announce visitors and frequently just go on frantic tears around the yard, squawking at the top of their lungs.
In the meantime, I am eagerly looking forward to my next trip to visit my new friend Jay because his Daddy is raising peafowl and we haven’t had them for a few years now. No Arabian farm is complete without a few strutting peacocks!
I saw your article by following a link from your post in the guinea yahoogroups list. We are working on a solid perimeter fence so we can have our Maremma lgd’s loose to do their job here. We raised most of them ourselves, and offer them to those in the middle of predator problems. Experienced mature dependable guardians are a rare find…those that are reliable with freerange poultry even rarer. Coyote are not the only predator that ranges throughout the US, but they are known to scale a 6 foot horse fence easily…one on another list I’m on posted that she was attacked by two of them,…repelled before they could actually harm her by her lgd.
This winter we plan on finishing up the solid wall perimeter fence as well as a couple of free range/tractor type poultry palaces. One is designed to be a brooder house for the first four weeks then moved to pasture after they are weaned off the brooder light. We will offer breedingstock as well as laying stock, and chickens ready to process, in addition to our grass fed meat from our dairy cattle and goats, and wool products from our fiberstock. We will be posting them as available to our website.
Greetings from Martinsville, Virginia. I subscribe to a Google alert that pulls in from the internet references that are made to Martinsville in press releases, websites and blogs, and this is how I discovered your site.
Your article on guinea fowl was very interesting. I was just reading a classified ad in the Martinsville Bulletin on Sunday about poultry:
Young, Chickens, Turkey, Peacocks, Pheasant Ducks, Geese, guinea, Cockatiels, Diamond Doves, Quail, LoveBirds and Pigmy Goats Gorden’s Ark 276-673-1283
This seems to be a Spencer phone number, which would be between Martinsville and Stuart, if you are interested in meandering round to find another bird lover. (I myself do not have any relationship with this breeder…yet!)
Because I live in the city limites, local laws do not permit residents to own poultry. Otherwise, I’d have my own organically raised featherheads to gift me with breakfast.
My husband and I are Virginia Master Naturalists, and we have been informed through one of our presentations that we have some clever coyotes in the area. In his presentation, Danny Martin told us that a coyote can jump a fence that is over ten feet high! OMG!
One of my friends right outside of city limits told me that she used to have a fenced area for her flock of guineas, and she also thoroughly enjoyed them. She found them friendly and amusing, and was quite distressed when she found that a coyote was leaping her fence and plucking them out one by one until she had none left. She didn’t bother to get more…
In one of our other presentations with the Save Our Streams program, we visited the farm of Wayne Kirkpatrick in Stuart. He had some kittens that were hidden up under his house by the mother cat. He told us that he had most of the local population of barn cats disappear after coyotes came into the territory, and this mother cat was smart enough to know to bring the kittens close to the house.
I am pleased to see that you have found a way to keep the varmits away from your flock with the presence of a dog. Is yours also a Great Pyrenees guardian dog? I will tell others about this. It’s so sensible…
Obviously, others are learning about the guardianship qualities of the Great Pyrenees…there’s a local petting farm that has acquired a puppy, and you should see all the critters they have! Infinity Acres in Ridgeway has a summer camp program for children…I’d just love to have had the chance to do something like that when I was a kid! Here’s a link to their photoshow http://www.photoshow.com/members/momsteere.
It features the owners, her daughter, baby birds, puppies, draft horses, dogs, cats and kittens and so on…nice family.
And, if you are so inclined, pick up a real estate magazine when you are in the area. The owners of the petting farm moved down here from the north because the affordable price of fertile well-watered land. There’s plenty to do if you’d like to come and stay awhile. http://www.visitmartinsville.com