Guineas

Last night I went out to put up the chickens and the guineas into the hen castle. Usually right at Sunset, they find their way back home and perch up for the night. Some nights though the guineas decide they want to sleep under the stars and will perch up in the tree next to the hen house. Last night they decided to do just that, so I put up the chickens and said goodnight to my 7 remaining guineas nesting in the tree above me.

This morning I go outside, feed the Goats, and let the chickens out and look around for the guineas. Usually when they spend the night outside the coop they are at the coop door when I wake up wanting to get in and get a drink of water and eat some food. This morning they were no where to be found. I looked all around the yard, in the trees, looked for feathers scattered on the ground (a sign that one or a few got eaten), I listened... nothing. I couldnt hear them (and they are a noisy bunch of birds) and I couldnt find them.

I started having thoughts on that I just lost my entire flock of guineas to predators over night, and was having mixed emotions about it. Sad cause it wold be horrible, but kinda funny... cause at the end of the day, for all seven to get eaten in one night would have its own set of tragic comedic value in itself. I have in the past and will continue to say that guineas are like the doe-doe birds from the movie "Ice Age"... they act the same... I mean exactly the same. They run around acting like fools and don't react like they should when it comes to life and death situations. Case in point- a month ago, they were perched only about waist high on a branch at night. It was dark, so I walked right up to them and grabbed them one by one and put them in the coop manually... now they had no idea it was me, it was dark... so my thoughts are, when the guy to the left and right of you gets taken away... you might wanna fly off and take cover or something... nope.. not these guys, they just sat there, and waited patiently for their "demise" as I put them back in the coop. So I don't give a lot of credit to my guineas survival instincts to say the least.

So there I was this morning, all bummed out that I had lost my entire flock. I mean, I had 16 guineas once... none died naturally (unless you consider predators a natural death), so to lose all 16 in a matter of months would be a sign for me to maybe not raise guinea fowl. But then, something funny happened. As I am walking back to the house I hear the distinct sound of a guinea off in the distance. So I walked around the yard and went up the drive way a bit, and then there they were... all seven of them. They were walking casually back down the driveway like a bunch of drunk teenagers coming back after a night of partying, literally swaying to the left and to the right of the driveway like they were still a little tipsy. They just walked right up to me and was like... whats up dude?

Welcome to my morning! :)