Guinea Love

It took a year before I decided I love guinea fowl.  At first I was annoyed by their constant screaming under my bedroom window, but with time I have been able to tune out their sounds.  Why do I love guinea fowl?  They scare away snakes and eat nasty insects like ticks.  We have not seen a single rattlesnake or tick on any of the animals all summer.  The guinea are also so cute when they run around the yard like little footballs.  Two weeks ago tragedy struck.  The fox found almost all of our flock roosting on top of the chicken coop.  We now only have four remaining: two adults and two juveniles.  Unfortunately, the four remaining are locked up with the chickens.  Here is a picture of our two juveniles, "Blanca" and Violeta".

"Charley" made it only because he was new to the flock and had to spend time with the chickens to adjust to our property.  We think now he is a going to live out his days as a chicken.

If you are thinking about getting guinea fowl consider the noise factor.  The guinea would frequently hang out on the back deck and watch us eat our meals.  Here is an example of lunch at the farm.

I was planning on posting about the guineas a couple of days before the big massacre.  Oliver and Pearl were modeling guinea feathers in their hair and the guinea ran down to watch.  Pearl is fascinated by them and had to let me know they were watching.

I collected feathers for my sister because she makes fancy head pieces out of feathers.  Hopefully those poor guineas will make someone look very pretty.  Thanks guys for keeping this farm snake and tick free all summer!  Goodbye to our funny little footballs.  We all miss you!