The Unbearable Cuteness of Being

Although I adore all the animals on my farm, the least appealing HAVE to be the guinea fowl. In deciding what animals I wanted to get for the farm, guineas were on my list because they are great at eating lots of insects. Since Virginia = lots of bugs, any defense would be helpful. (I’m debating getting some rescue turkeys for the same reason - they are supposedly good for Japanese Beetle control.) Realistically, we don't see a reduction in ticks or other insects because of the guineas and chickens. It is rather like taking a teacupful of water out of the ocean. You've removed some water, but there's still an awful lot there.

I purchased 6 guineas from Sand Hill Preservation Center. One of the keets (guinea chicks) had an injured or deformed foot, and he died at about 4 days old. The other five grew up and ruled the farmyard. In the spring, the birds decided that foraging along the road was a great pastime. Unfortunately, two guineas got hit by cars this year. We live on a very rural road, but people like to pretend they are in Nascar, and they will run over anything in their way.The only way we can solve the "guineas on the road" problem is to completely contain them. A fence wouldn’t work. Guineas fly quite well for ground birds, and they would fly right over a fence. We could clip their wings, but then they’d be vulnerable to predators. We could build them a big aviary, but they would be unhappy. Enclosed guineas wouldn’t be able to eat nearly as many bugs.

About 3 weeks ago, we noticed that our guinea total was now down to two. Needless to say, we were saddened by this. However, we hadn’t found a body. We figured that it had been eaten by a predator, and we hadn’t found the remains. Two days ago, I went outside and noticed that we once again had two pearl guineas and one albino guinea. I was amazed. Apparently, one had just taken an extended vacation. I watched them for a bit, and pretty soon the bolt of cuteness hit me. They had a tiny guinea keet scrambling to keep up with them.

Guinea fowl are really homely birds. They have bald, speckled heads with strange wattles. Guinea fowl keets are a vortex of amazing cuteness. It is like they use up all their cute moments in the first three weeks of life. They are teeny tiny. They are about the size of a large marshmallow. They have striped heads and bodies. They cheep almost constantly to keep in contact with mom.

This little guy was doing his darndest to keep up with the adults. He would tumble down hills and get knocked over, and he’d still run right along. The adults were trying to look out for him. They would fight off any living thing that was close by. One was staring into the creek bed and shrieking. I went to see if there might be another keet. Instead, I found myself face to face with a black snake. They were trying very hard to do a good job. However, guinea fowl are not very smart at all. They are not very good at parenting, although their hearts are in the right place. Just leading this guy near the creek was endangering his life. Small keets are so delicate that walking through wet grass can kill them. They get wet, and they cannot maintain their body temperature. They will die of hypothermia. It has been in the fifties here at night recently, and I knew this keet’s hours were numbered. If the wet grass and cold weather didn’t get him, the snakes, dogs, other birds or cats would get him. It is quite likely that this guinea hen mom had many babies and this lone keet was the only survivor of the trek from their nesting area to the barnyard. The next day, I found a guinea keet corpse on a rock in the stream, so there were more chicks at one time.

Still, I did not want to take this little guy away from his mom. I even caught him up,
birdnapping him for his own good. I kept changing my mind. He was very frightened by being caught. The adults were very upset, so I let him go. Finally, I talked to my husband, who said “Do you want him to live? Then catch him!” That was the reality of the situation, so I caught him and put him in a makeshift brooder. The problem is that he is all by himself, and he is very lonely.

Today, I will be getting some day old chicks from a local farmer to put in the same brooder with him, which should solve the isolation issue. It has been breaking my heart to hear him calling and calling his mom. I keep telling myself that he’s getting a few weeks of loneliness, but he’s gaining a full life of hanging out with his parents. Once he gets his real feathers rather than his down, he should have no problem hanging out with the adults. Wish this little guy luck!!

If you are considering getting a guinea as a pet, check out Jeanette Ferguson’s Gardening with Guineas book and website. Think hard before you make the leap, however. Guineas are LOUD, and your neighbors may not appreciate it. Often people have to get rid of their guineas when they get constant complaints from the neighbors. Also, guineas tend to roam. We have 18 chickens. The guineas roam about ten times the diameter that the chickens do. Your guineas are likely to explore all of your neighbors’ yards. Guineas are amazingly unafraid of cars, which leads to their death. We cannot even purposely herd our guineas with the car. They just don’t move.

The guineas pick on the chickens terribly. We have had them gang up on chickens that were not feeling well. The guineas chase the chickens relentlessly until the chicken finds somewhere completely isolated to hide. The guineas latch onto the chickens’ tails and hang on. This ruins the chickens’ tails, and the chickens hate the constant harassment. There have been incidents where the guineas would have killed the chicken if I had not intervened. The only good part of this behavior is that the guineas tend to act as referees if the chickens start to fight amongst themselves. The chickens start to fight, the guineas step in and beat both of the arguing chickens up.

We insist that our guineas roost in the chicken house at night. If we didn’t, they certainly would have been coyote food by now. We enclosed all of the young birds in the chicken house for a month when they were just out of the brooder, so the instinct to return there is very strong. Guinea hens will lay small but edible eggs. They will sometimes lay eggs in the chickens’ nest boxes, but we also find guinea eggs all over the place. Our beagle, Tzaddi, will run to us with guinea eggs held delicately in her mouth. We eat the eggs that have been laid in the nest boxes, but we don’t dare try to break open the eggs found outside.

Our birds are from Sand Hill Preservation Center. We got them there because we were also ordering a rare breed of chicken, and it was convenient to get all the chicks at the same age. While the birds from Sand Hill did fine, I would highly recommend getting your birds from a local source. You can eliminate the whole chick shipping process. Hatcheries swear up and down that there is no problem shipping day old chicks, but it is not uncommon for chicks to get delayed in transit and die. If you are patient, you can get guineas from people who have to get rid of them for one reason or another. Keep your eye on Craigslist. Eventually, you'll find just such a situation. Just remember, no matter which age bird you get, you've got to keep them enclosed for at least a month so they can learn where their home is. Otherwise, you'll have guineas trying to make their way back to their old territory.

We weren’t planning on breeding our guinea fowl. We weren’t intending to get any more guineas, because of the hit by car problem. Since the guineas are from the same hatchery, they are probably related to each other. This little chick is an unplanned bonus. Hopefully, he’ll survive and thrive, and stay out of the road.

Addendum: I just got home with a box full of 10 day old silky chicks. I put them in with the little baby guinea. For the first five seconds he was scared, and then he happily joined them in the pile of chick fluff, happy and relaxed at last.

PS: I'm sorry about the grainy quality of these photos - I only have a digital camera on the weekends, otherwise I have to use a Flip video recorder and cut and paste from there.