This morning my son comes up from doing chores and said there were two important things he needed to tell me. I asked if they were good or bad. He replied, " One of each". I asked for the bad news first.
He tells me that our ram Blue broke in and was with our ram Dodge. This is not good since Blue is horned and Dodge it not. The good part for Dodge is he is three years older and is BIGGER. When it comes to rams, this is important. Thankfully my two oldest sons were able to break the fight up and get Blue back into the big pasture where he belongs. Both rams are fine and the ewes are too.
So next I ask for the good news. Well, it was GOOD NEWS! We have these two guineas. They were part of our original guinea order purchase in 2007. We purchased 16 guineas. When we let them loose to free range the VERY first day, they flew on top of our house. One fell off...and forgot to fly! Broke it's neck and died RIGHT THERE! Can you imagine that?
The next guinea that we lost was on my husband's birthday. My oldest son threw a piece of PVC and according to my son, the guinea was not very smart as it did not move out of the way of the flying PVC. It ended up with a broken leg and then on our grill by the end of the day. YUM! Yep, we had grilled guinea for my husband's birthday dinner and it was VERY good!
Over the years, we have lost all but two guineas. Every morning I enjoy watching them walk across our fields to feed. Then, one morning there was just one guinea. This was very sad as there was one male and one female and one mate was now lost. My heart hurt for the one that was left. To be honest, I had hoped that maybe the mama was some where sitting on a nest. But we all know how dumb guineas are, don't we? But I can still hope, right?
Well, that was the good news! Yep, mama guineas had been sitting on a nest and we now have at least 12 Keats! We are so excited! I know that not all will survive, but I hope that many do! And I hope that next year, mama and daddy guinea will raise another batch of Keats to add to our homestead. And no, we won't be eating these little guys...I'm just too excited that we were blessed with these babies!
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