We had started allowing our guineas to free range without any problems in our open back-yard field next to our house. They have been great about returning to the coop all on their own in the early evenings. Our field is surrounded by other paddocks. And our farm is surrounded by farmland on all sides. Some of those paddocks were overgrown with grass 2-3 feet tall due to a temporarily broken tractor (which is now fixed). Unfortunately the other day 3 guineas (purple, brown, grey) jumped the fence into one of those paddocks and began walking down the open mowed path in the partially mowed paddock. All of a sudden I heard the flock chirping, saw the purple guinea fly out of the paddock back into our back-yard field. This happened around 11am. I went to investigate and saw a pile of brown feathers and a few feet away there were just 2-3 grey feathers. We figured the brown guinea had been attacked. We searched for the 2 guineas. To our surprise we found the brown one, terrified and hiding in a tree. But we couldn't find the grey one. Since there was almost no evidence of a struggle for the grey one, I hoped she was just hiding and would return home.
But there has been no sign of her....
I did note a fox den about 3 paddocks away. There are also occasional hawks. I've heard there are coyotes in the area but I've never seen one. Just wondering what kind of predator it could have been? I just would expect to see more evidence of a struggle.... maybe something immediately broke her neck in the attack? Needless to say, we did not let our birds free range anymore until the paddocks were all mowed.
But there has been no sign of her....
I did note a fox den about 3 paddocks away. There are also occasional hawks. I've heard there are coyotes in the area but I've never seen one. Just wondering what kind of predator it could have been? I just would expect to see more evidence of a struggle.... maybe something immediately broke her neck in the attack? Needless to say, we did not let our birds free range anymore until the paddocks were all mowed.
