Guineafowl grief

[Kmorrissey]

Anyone who really knows animals knows that animals grieve. Guineas and turkeys both can suffer depression severe enough to cause their deaths.

Any studies done that claim otherwise can only have been done by people that were trying to prove their preconceived theories and either failed to use a valid method (how do you measure grief or depression?) or ignored the results that were disproving their theories.

Agreed!

 

[Sydney65]

Thank you for this. I am so sorry to hear of your flock losses. It makes you wonder about scientific studies when you hear statements about animals not grieving their losses. Pretty sure they must have been studying pet rocks.
Last summer we acquired the parent pair or they acquired us. Ironically they wandered into our backyard a week after I found a tick on the back of my leg. I thought to myself when I found the tick, "Darn it's too bad the neighbor's free-range chickens are gone. They really used to keep the ticks in check." A week later these 2 white guineafowls show up out of nowhere. We posted signs, Facebook posted on the local lost and found animal page, no one claimed them. So Doug & Clover became ours living in neighbor A's empty coop. They taught me a lot. The first was figuring out if they were male or female. It took me a while but they were a mated pair. So after a month, we thought why not hatch their eggs. She was never great about staying on the nest long enough to incubate the eggs even though Doug would sit or stand by her. He started to get aggressive with her as she was very demanding when sitting. (She would be all pecked up and bleeding at times) So I collected some and incubated them. 5 successfully hatched.
Our brooder was a large box in the spare room, when they were old enough we built a cage inside the coop. You can sort of see it in the pic above. The birds on the step are Doug and Clover. The keets were separated from them probably longer than necessary but by the time we took the barrier down they were all well acquainted and had no nasty fights. They were all happy to finally be able to roam in the coop freely. Doug and Clover taught them how to behave, how to walk with me, (and if they got crazy I put them back in the pen only walking Doug and Clover for a couple of days. So they had to watch with their little beaks pressed against the fence LOL) I only had to do that once. Daddy, Doug, kept everyone in line and I am certain he died defending them from neighbor B's dog. Mama Clover was the flock matriarch. At the moment we are all taking a deep breath trying to figure out what to do is next. I am truly considering buying the keets from the eggs my hens laid.
I will have her record a video of them and then I will take it in the coop to see how the boys react. It may be what they need.

And see, I was reading @mixed writing abt separating hers; Rosie (aka "Mama") made her nest in a flowerbed. I was confused bc she'd stay out all night for one night, then return to the coop. A week later same. Mb she thought she had enough & wanted to get started only to find she'd laid another egg. I have no idea. But once she decided she was all in,she stayed on it.
When I realized they hatched, I didn't think about anything except getting them out of wet conditions, so we scooped up her and the keets & put them in the coop that day, w/o barriers except an open tote on its side. Fortunately it went well.