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Friday, November 21, 2014

There's One in Every Flock

The boys of summer leave in the fall

Night before last what was probably a weasel killed the last white guinea keet. Well, really they aren't keets anymore, but not quite full grown either.


Now, how did I get up here...and how do I get down?

Thus Liz moved the rest of them to the big chicken coop and Laura and her rooster to the peacock coop.

Except for this one. If turkeys have the reputation for not being likely candidates for Mensa, it is guinea fowl which come right from the factory devoid of anybody home upstairs but a rapidly whirling hamster on crack.

Programmed to panic, so to speak.


This one shot out of the top of the little coop when Liz lifted the roof panel, like a bean out of a pea shooter shot by a tornado.


Oh, no, here comes the person who raised me from the egg and fed me every day
Flee, flee I tell you, flee!!!!

I was upstairs picking up laundry when it hit the window of the room I was in. And clung, frantic, to the crossbar before falling to the porch roof. Then it went up on the big roof.

They chased it, lured it, tried to trap it, all afternoon.

No soap. This is one of the same birds that came running in their little yard, whenever I went out, in case I might stop to feed them drop apples or fallen grapes....the little ingrate....or maybe ingrape. 

And this morning, having somehow evaded foxes and other varmints all night, it is still, not unlike the new mercury light bulbs, not quite bright enough to do its job. Such as roosting in a tree, for Pete's sake.

We have lots of trees.

Oh, well. 

Alas, the turkeys go today and I will miss them, but Thanksgiving dinner was always their fate. More next year I truly hope.

And incidentally, one of my very first blog friends has written a whole bunch of good ones lately. Rather than link to just one post, you could just go check out her whole blog.

  
Why, yes, that lump out in the snow on the back lawn is the stupidest of domestic fowl
Why do you ask?

7 comments:

Bill Harshaw said...

Loved the post, particularly the hamster bit.

Cathy said...

You sure spin smile-making stories.
" . . ingrape .." " . . not unlike the new Mercury light bulb . ."
:)

joated said...

LOL! Dumb cluck!

Guineas may be the dumbest of domestic fowl, but ruffed grouse take the cake for wild birds.

Terry and Linda said...

You gave me lovely smiles...thank you!

And I adore Jan's post. I had to share that cute lab on my FB page.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/?s=The+Adventures+of+Fuzzy+and+Boomer&submit=Search
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

threecollie said...

Bill, thanks, she is safe now, having gone back into the coop, conveniently left open for her. lol

Cathy, thanks

Joated, they are incredibly unbrilliant indeed. Used to love to see, or try to see, the grouse chicks though when I lived in the woods. The hens would bring huge clutches of them right up to the house, but you could only see them if they were moving. Such camouflage!

Linda, thank you...and Jan has the best stories....



jan said...

Your descriptions of bird brains is priceless. You took me back to the wonderful days when Charlie the guinea hen was part of our pack. I always hoped we would get another bird that thought she was a dog...

threecollie said...

Jan, I envied you Charlie and got a big kick out of her. I wish we could let these guys run loose. They are so entertaining and really good watch dogs, in that they announce arrivals very loudly. Sadly they don't last more than a day or two before the foxes get them.