The Adventures of the Guinea Fowl

As you know, Monday we had a big snowstorm. I let the guinea hens out of the shed, and if you remember, they flew to the truck. From there they went to the roof.

PLAN A: We tried throwing snowballs at them, to get them off the porch roof. The snow wasn't wet enough for snowballs, so we tried throwing cups of water at them (PLAN B). Here's Noah, leaning out the office window tossing water at them. They weren't bothered by it.

PLAN C: was to shoo them away with a broom. Here I am holding Noah by the ankle (so not to lose him) while he leans out on the porch roof to shoo them away. They didn't care.

We now had 4 guineas on the porch roof during the snowstorm.

PLAN D: SQUIRT GUN! Noah had great aim, but they didn't care. Now we had wet, freezing guineas up on the porch roof.

PLAN E: I grabbed a long board from up above the garage, and Noah proceeded to force them off the roof. This would surely work.

We got excited when they started to flutter, they would surely fly somewhere else!

Uh oh - this guinea didn't care, and the others took cover further up on the porch roof, tucked into a corner where they would be sheltered from the wind. I tried to lure them to me with guinea feed, but they wouldn't budge.

It was getting dark now, and it was still storming. We just couldn't get the guineas down from the roof. They are use to sleeping inside the shed, in a custom made, secure area, with a heatlamp, food and water. It was going to be a cold night (15 degrees), and I was worried they wouldn't make it. We really tried.

The next morning, I peeked on them, and they were still there; well, three of them were. My brothers-in-law came by to plow snow, and knew of my guinea dilemma. (DH was out of town). One of them came upstairs and scooped them towards himself, and grabbed them and carried them downstairs, and put them safely in the shed. One flew away, into the trees. Another brother-in-law took a big net, and caught that one. At the end of the adventure, we had three safe in the shed, and two still at large.

Later that day we saw where the other two were (they survived the cold night too), but they were so high in the trees, we couldn't get them.

Two more days and cold nights passed. Single digit cold nights. Well, good news! TODAY (Thursday) the two last guineas flew back to safety and warmth. This morning I let the pups out to potty and play, and I stepped down off the porch to go give fresh water to the 3 guineas, and to be sure they had food. One of the guineas flew right down to me, and followed me into the shed. Phew! I could hear the other one somewhere in the trees, but he wouldn't come. Later in the afternoon when I got back from picking up Noah from the bus, the last guinea was in the shed, waiting to be let into the secure area, for warmth and food.

YES! They were all chattering, happy to be back together at last. I don't dare let them out now! I will wait till DH comes home, and let him deal with it I guess. Those guineas kept me busy this week!