A Knock-down, Drag-out on Our Maker’s Acres Family Farm

Some days are harmonious and joyful, and I feel like Uncle Remus smiling and whistling Zippetty Doo Dah while happy blue birds land on my shoulder and butterflies flutter by under a cartoonish blue sky.  And other days… well, other days are filled with antagonism, fighting, discord, and a cacophony of threats and violence.

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.

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!

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!

Male Guinea Fowl RIP