Tell me your funny Guinea stories

[ladychicken&Ducklover]

I don't have any guineas yet, but I'm always on this thread and enjoying reading stories and looking at pics .
I then imagine the stories .

I would love to read your favorite funny stories about things like , them terrorizing neighbors , delivery drivers , other animals , and any other silly antics of guineas.
Oh , and pics too !

I look forward to it.

 

[Frostymug]

Let me preface this story by saying that Guinea fowl are possibly the most ridiculous birds in existence.

My wife, our baby girl, and I are starting our first family farm. Clara's Acres, named after our kind Newfoundland dog, Clara. We decided to start with about 30 baby chicks from a hatchery which we received in February. Now that spring was on it's way and ticks are a pretty big problem out here in sw Virginia, (especially with a 110 pound super furry Newf laying about the premises) we wanted to get some Guinea fowl. Unfortunately there wouldn't be keets available for another 2 to 3 months from the hatcheries, so began the search for a private seller willing to part with a few young adult birds.

In March, there was a Tractor Supply store that was holding a livestock swap meet. I went out there on the day of the meet after work and found a woman who was indeed selling some 1 year old Guineas. At $10 a bird I bought 3 of them, and was impressed at how easily her and her daughter handled the birds. I noted how they grabbed them pinning the wings down keeping the birds calm as they went from cage to my cardboard box.

They stayed calm inside their box which I had strapped to the front seat with the passenger side seatbelt for the 60 mile ride home to Clara's Acres.

No problem I thought. What well behaved and docile creatures.

Upon arrival my wife Jenny, our little Lillian Apollonia, and Clara where all outside waiting to greet me and our new birds. It was one of the first warm and sunny days of spring. I felt at ease and confident that I could open the box outside the coop, scoop out each bird as I had seen their former mistress do, and easily put them into the large pet carrier that would serve as their temporary quarters. I had yet to partition off what was to be there portion of the coop and had planned to do so that afternoon.

I opened the box, the three helmeted guineas were still...I slowly reached toward the nearest bird...all was calm, all was quiet and before I could get my hands on the first one...FLAPFLAPFLAPFLAP all 3 took off into the air each going a separate direction. It happened so fast and was so startling that I ended up on my duff. The three guineas rejoined and ran down the length of our yard, side by side by side. We cornered them at the edge of the fence which made them panic and fly straight up into our gigantic maple trees.

We hadn't realised they could fly so well.

After 20 minutes in the trees, the birds flew across the road into a big field, running 3 across at full speed what is probably close to the length of a football field in like a minute flat, across the river, up the mountain and into the forest...they never looked back. We never had a chance at catching them. When I look back on this scene in my mind, I hear banjo music and Guinea laughter.

Anyhow, I was able to contact the woman I had bought them from and she sold me 3 more. Needless to say we were much wiser in our handling of them. Almost three months later now and Herb, Les, and Mr. Carlson have made our home their home. We were even able to train them to come to our chicken call and have no problem getting them in the coop at night. They have mixed with our flock nicely and do their duty as protectors and sirens of Clara's Acres. (We've found no ticks in the last 2 months!)

 

[daylily]

What a great story!

Yup they are fast and they can fly!

Our three are one year old this month. Two hens and a male. Respectively, Etta, Pavi, and Sal. They are always doing something as they can rarely stay still except on the roost at night.

Last fall my Mother in law became gravely ill and wanted to die at home. This meant that we had nurses from hospice and flower deliveries, social workers, you name it we had them. Prior to this I had been in the yard with them daily and they loved following me around and cooing.If I was digging they were digging, they are so tame that they would come all around the windows and doors looking for me if I went inside. They would call and call until I came back out and they would act so nonchalant afterwards. We were most surprised that most of the people didn't mind them or think the new greeting committee was adorable. They got used to all the people pretty quick and would get upset if they wanted to leave.

They would get behind their cars and not move or they would chase them down the drive way trying to outrun their cars! Geez! But this one day we had them all on the roof running around wherever they heard our voices in the house. It sounded like thunder up there! Well this flower delivery guy came by and as he was handing me the flowers , one of them decided to do a fly by near his head!

Seeing his fear, I stepped outside and yelled at them to quit messing around and finish cleaning the gutters! He looked at me like I was crazy and then looked back at the line of birds on the edge of the roof, and sure enough they all bent their heads and started to pull and drop leaves out of the gutters! LOL The guys was amazed! "What kind of birds are those?" I replied African chickens. " Really? How do you get them to clean the gutters like that?' I told " I threaten to take away their visas, it works every time." I never smiled and looked at the birds who were walking along the edge of the roof and Yelled "Hey what are you doing ! Get back to work you lazy bums!" and of course they drop their heads and pull out leaves and drop them out. The guy is dumbfounded and wanted to know where he could find some like that. I told him to check with the state department down at the capitol as they were looking for foster families for these kind of birds, it was all about being "green". He said he would and drove off.

I couldn't hold my laughter any longer and the guineas flew down and laughed with me!

Now if you own guineas you will know that if you look right at them they will naturally drop their heads and pretend they are just hanging around and will pull at grass or even leaves in the gutters!

It made everyones day for weeks from hearing about this and eased a hard situation for all of us! I love my birds and everyday is a funny story!