We have one lavender guinea hen left from our original batch of 5. She roams the yard by day, mixing in with the chickens, ducks & geese, and roosts somewhere by herself at night. Since the recent losses of free-roosting chickens to a neighborhood bobcat we've been collecting the guinea hen, Blanche, each evening from her roost and putting her in a safe cage for the night. Some nights she goes into that cage by herself, other nights she roosts nearby. Then there are other nights where she roosts in a new location and we have to go searching for her in the trees by flashlight.
Last night was one of those nights. Blanche wasn't in the cage, nor in the roost by the cage, nor in any of the other places she sometimes chooses. We walked all over our yard looking and listening for her. Maddeningly, the sound of the feeder mice running in their squeaky exercise wheels in their tanks in the barn sounds a lot like a guinea hen call. We were about to give up for the night, praying one last time for Jesus to help us find where she was.
Then we encountered the big spider. It was beautiful, about 2" across, and had spun a fantastic web across the path through the edge of the butterfly garden. My young son doesn't like spiders, and I admire their work, so neither of us wanted to break through that web. I shone the flashlight along the delicate pattern of the web from the center where the big spider rested out to its edge, looking for a way to get around the web when...
...we found Blanche! She was in the bushes on the other side of our boundary fence, roosting only 1' off the ground. A very vulnerable place for a guinea to sleep, and a place we never would have looked if it hadn't been for the big spider having spun its web at that exact location. Thanks to the spider, we were able to collect Blanche and put her safely into her cage for another night.
Last night was one of those nights. Blanche wasn't in the cage, nor in the roost by the cage, nor in any of the other places she sometimes chooses. We walked all over our yard looking and listening for her. Maddeningly, the sound of the feeder mice running in their squeaky exercise wheels in their tanks in the barn sounds a lot like a guinea hen call. We were about to give up for the night, praying one last time for Jesus to help us find where she was.
Then we encountered the big spider. It was beautiful, about 2" across, and had spun a fantastic web across the path through the edge of the butterfly garden. My young son doesn't like spiders, and I admire their work, so neither of us wanted to break through that web. I shone the flashlight along the delicate pattern of the web from the center where the big spider rested out to its edge, looking for a way to get around the web when...
...we found Blanche! She was in the bushes on the other side of our boundary fence, roosting only 1' off the ground. A very vulnerable place for a guinea to sleep, and a place we never would have looked if it hadn't been for the big spider having spun its web at that exact location. Thanks to the spider, we were able to collect Blanche and put her safely into her cage for another night.
