New Animals!

Back in June I hinted about some new animals. It's taken an while, but I'm finally getting around to photographing the newest additions.

"Uncle" John brought this coop out last month and set it up by his garden. As you can see, "Uncle" John is quite a handy wood-worker. He had been busy builidng the coop and raising some keets since May. 

Keets are baby guineas, also called guinea fowl or guinea hens. The keets are almost fully grown, but they still hang out in the their coop. Eventually "Uncle" John will let them free-range during the day, and then they'll roost at night. 

The reason we are so excited to have guineas around here is they love to eat garden pests. We've been told that farms with guineas don't have ticks, potato beetles, Asian Lady beetles, or squash bugs. They are an organic way to deal with all those pests, and that sounds great to us. 

They are also good guard animals. They will sound the alarm when anything unusual happens - such as cars coming onto the property, predators in the area, or other animals around them. They also will kill snakes which makes them the ideal addition to the farm in my opinion!