Why Did the Guinea Cross the Road?

Last time, I shared about the time I brought Guineas home.  Of course there is more to the story!  Thelma and Louise settled into life on Green Eggs & Goats Farm within about a week.  They had never had total freedom before, so it was quite an adjustment for them.

The Guineas DO NOT Like to be Separated!

Many people raise them in covered runs, due to the fact that they can fly well and tend to wander off.  We wanted them for a variety of reasons, but they really needed the free range to accomplish most of their purposes on our farm.

They did spend much of the first few weeks next door taunting the neighbor’s dogs, but once the fun of that wore off, they started to spend more time at home.  They still wandered a bit, but not as much as before.

Guinea in a Bread Pan Pickin’ Out Dough

One day I was pulling weeds in a backyard flower bed.  I began to hear a sound that could best be described as a demented bullfrog.  Some of you may know this, but I don’t do frogs.  At all.  Ever.  Not even a little bit.  So it is a bit of a surprise that I put on my big girl panties and kept working in my flower bed (of course I wanted to plant onions there because you can’t eat flowers, but that’s another story…) Anyway, I made it to the end of the bed, with the noise growing progressively louder, when I finally spotted the source of the racket!  One of the guineas was sitting under a nearby bush on a clutch of eggs!

Sometimes we found clutches of eggs in the weeds. The smaller ones are guinea eggs with some duck eggs thrown in for good measure.

Now this was March.  Every single piece of literature I had read stated that they are seasonal layers and that they don’t start until May.  I hadn’t even thought to be looking for eggs yet, but Thelma and Louise had both started laying!

Did you know that Guineas lay eggs?  Well they are birds, so obviously they lay eggs, but did you know they lay delicious eggs??  They are smaller than a chicken egg, with a shell so hard it is tough to crack, and a dark orange yolk.  The flavor is richer and creamier than a chicken egg too!  They are my favorite barnyard egg by far for eating fried or poached.

Guinea Egg (left) and Duck Egg (right)