Very bad day

[EdistoChicks]

My guineas got scared when they saw a neighborhood cat coming into our yard. They alerted and started to fly back to the coop. One of our girls, the only white one, and my daughter's favorite, flew straight into my husbands trailer. It broke its neck and died. My daughter is heartbroken. The guineas name was snow white. Is it normal for guineas to fly straight into non moving objects. I am scared to death now that it happened. I just don't want to lose any more guineas!

 

[sfw2]

I'm guessing that, in her panic, Snow White couldn't tell the difference between your husband's trailer and the surrounding empty space. So sorry this happened!

 

[cgmccary]

I have 14 keets hatched by chicken hens last week of August. Starngely, I have one white one out of the bunch and [it] seems smaller than the others. Fortunately for it, my little bantam OEG is its mother & she is about 6 years old, has raised many a brood and is an excellent mother. On these cold mornings, the OEG has been very good at keeping the white one close and warm (and already, she has her five up roosting with her in the rafter tops of the barn - and too high for the other (LF) chickens)-- the 5 keets she hatched seem very loyal to the little Bantam mother hen despite the fact the rest of them are now larger than the OEG. I noticed the white one sleeps under the hen's wing on the roost.

Two other large fowl Buckeye hens are dually caring and raising the other 9 keets but all together & all have free ranged since their first week. I close them up in the coop/barn at night. The keets follow the hens in each night without any problem. The hens are also slow moving and won't leave the keets behind.

 

[EdistoChicks]

My little white guinea was also smaller than the others. Maybe it was a genetic thing? I was hoping to get some eggs from her. She was only 5 months old and hadn't begin laying yet. She was sweet and will be missed.

 

[silkiechicken]

Sorry about your loss. Young birds often don't really know how to use their wings so to say. Had a young parakeet fly straight into a white wall once. The adults even know what a window is now, but I am certain in a panic they would try and go through it.

 

[cgmccary]

Somewhere I read the white ones were always genetically weaker. I wanted to say that I am sorry for your loss. I don't guess there is anything I can do to "protect" my white one, nothing preventive. It sad to think I have a ways to go in their age before they may wise up (if at all) or be hardier. I count them every day when I go home.

When I see the white one out with the others, I think, "with any predator that comes along, the white one is going to stand out like a sore thumb." My keets have done some crazy things like fly up on the roof of the barn at 3 weeks old and be too scared to come down for an hour -- just scream-- not the white one-- it would have been a big target up there. I couldn't believe they could fly so high up at that age!

 

[EdistoChicks]

That is strange. The white one I had was the only one that would roost up in the trees. It had the best flight ability. None of my guineas seem to be "bright", they seem to have one brain between them all. You can see the chickens I have think. The guineas react first and think later. I hope that your white guinea lives a long happy life! They really are beautiful birds.