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| Flying Feathers... |
Let me explain.
Tuesday of this week I arrived home from work and Tricia met me by the
door, telling me that one of the Guinea Fowl males that we just set free was
dead! “What happened?” I said. “Well, I was feeding all of the chickens and
two of the four male guineas got into a heated argument that escalated into a
fight.” The fight resulted in one of the
birds being severely injured. She laid
it in the barn and later pronounced the guinea dead.
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| And then there were three... |
Guineas are great watchdogs. They alert you if a stranger or predator
comes around. They alert you if a snake
comes around. They eat ticks, fleas,
mosquitoes, flies, etc. and provide great bug control. They can fly, so they aren’t as susceptible
to predation from hawks or owls as the hapless chickens.
But, every rose, they say, has its thorns. The guinea is also extremely (and I don’t use
the word extremely lightly) – they are extremely loud. LOUD!
Then, the males are extremely aggressive to one another and fight. Their fights result in death. That’s a lot of drama out in the pasture that
quickly turns pastoral peace in the pasture to brutal bloodshed in the
barnyard.
But all is not lost.
In these cases, there’s an important question to ask and so I asked
it: “Tricia, how long has the guinea
been dead?” “Oh, about 30 minutes,” she answered. Perfect!
I put a pot of water to begin scalding and I began sharpening the
knives. I retrieved male guinea that had
assumed room temperature and Benjamin and I scalded him, gutted him, and packed
him in the freezer!
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| Guinea on ice... That's nice! |
This young guinea fowl will become guinea gumbo. Some people claim that they are better
tasting than chicken. We aim to find
out!
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| Male Guinea Fowl RIP |
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