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| Guinea Fowl |
OK, that was really bad. Really. You know what is great though? Guineas! I bought 2 guineas on a whim around Christmas of last year. I’ll admit that I had buyers remorse almost immediately. I have never in my life heard such a racket as what they made when I first released them from the box that I had them in. Our coop wasn’t finished, so I had the bright idea to release them in the enclosed area under one of our back decks. Within 5 minutes they had found the one weak spot in their makeshift home and had taken off. They proceeded to run up and down my pasture making a honking racket that an entire flock of geese would be hard-pressed to create. After that they proceeded to take off into a wooded area across the street. It was a mess.
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| Louise on the Loose! (Not a great picture, but I was chasing birds. Cut me some slack!) |
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| Why did the Guinea cross the road? To get the heck away from me! |
I finally managed to chase them back into our yard with the kind help of some neighbors, but I was forced to give up on them for the night. I had plans for the evening to meet my best girlfriends in town for dinner, which is a very rare occasion indeed! In my haste to get out of the house, I didn’t mention the Guineas to Eric. In fact, the kids were at their grandparents’ house, so I didn’t even see him before I left.
Apparently, they decided to roost in the pecan trees right outside our bedroom window. The sound of tires turning into the driveway alarmed them to the point of them starting back with the squawking and honking. It must have only lasted for about 30 seconds, I actually didn’t even hear it.
I came on up to the bedroom where Eric was trying rather unsuccessfully to sleep and admitted that I had bought Guineas that day. My sweet husband heaved a huge sigh of relief and said “well that explains why it sounded like someone was murdering 1000 puppies in the front yard!” I was so glad he had a sense of humor about it!
We were in for a very loud week, but after that they settled right down and have been one of the best additions to our farm ever since. We named them Thelma and Louise because they were constantly on the run.
There is more to our Guinea story, but that is a post for another day…
Hello! I’m stopping in to invite you to join us at the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week!
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/11/clever-chicks-blog-hop-7-country-craft.html
I hope to see you there!
Cheers!
Kathy
The Chicken Chick
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Am on my 2nd year in raising guinea fowl in Kenya and is so much fun.Raising of the keets is challenging though.
Raising guinea can be an adventure. Watching them interact and do their bird stuff is quite a riot. Their eggs are pretty good but I really enjoy their pest removal the most. I had an entire flock of guineas a couple years ago and they were doing really well until a pair of great horned owls found their roosting spot. Wiped them all out in less than a week… I couldn’t believe it. P.S. I found a really neat new website that helps local farmers and homesteaders sell their products to the community. Anyone heard of FIFY? (Farm It For You)