Byron the farm apprentice was walking through the barn twenty minutes ago when he heard chirping coming from the large coop in the barn.
We don’t use it for much these days, having moved the last of the hens out a few weeks ago and moving most of the remaining guinea fowl out last week. (No, don’t look for logic, it was just one of the things the farm did to tidy up for Open Farm Sunday).
There are still a few guinea fowl left, indeed two of them provided a great deal of entertainment last night by chasing each other round and flying in and out of the barn to the accompaniment of much noise and posturing.
The chirping was coming from the roof of the coop, where the escapee guinea fowl often roost. There are always escapee guinea fowl. There have been since two days after Farmer David initiated the big guinea fowl round-up. They are without doubt the escapingest birds I have ever met.
Anyway, to cut to the chase…
There were eight guinea fowl keets on the roof – one looking a bit shaky and one a bit wet. I’m pretty sure that the shaky one isn’t going to survive because it seems to have damage to the nervous system. The wet one is currently in the incubator as we rig up a heat lamp.
It’s probably best to avoid a discussion on Health and Safety here as I’m pretty sure that neither to rescuer nor the photographer were adhering to best practice.
There are also a couple of chirping eggs that we have put in the incubator.
Oh yes, there’s always a surprise if you work here!
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So cute!
Yes, even I think so. 😉
Escapingest birds! That sums them up! 😀 Are you sure they are keets..? They look more like chicken chicks to me… But how could a chicken get on the roof to brood! Keep us updates to see what they grow into! 🙂
We had twelve when we left for our day off on Tuesday and we still have twelve so they are doing well so far. If they turn out to be chickens my reputation as a poultry keeper will take a dive. 😉
We will see!! I suppose guineas can be all kinds of colours, I only know the pearl grey kind. Trying to find a picture of them…
We have black, grey, lavender, white and some with unattractive white blotches. Anything could happen!
Very curious now! Keep us posted! 😀
Will do. The two white ones flew in one day and were the first ones we had. The greys and lavender were from some we bought in. More greys and the blotchy white ones resulted from our own breeding and the black one just appeared one morning. I think he’s a male because he keeps fighting with the others.
What a pleasant surprise!
Yes, it was. I’m feeling quite parental now.