3 Guinea Fowl--- Our Great-Great-Great Grandkids???

Eight or so years ago, we were visiting a fellow homeschooler's home, when we heard a strange noise.  "Oh, those are just our guineas", Terri commented.  "We got them years ago to keep ticks and bugs out of our yard. Haven't had to treat the dogs for ticks ever since".  Then from around the back of the house appeared a group of the strangest looking "birds?" we'd ever seen.  Cute?  Not sure.  Ugly?  Definitely. 

Intrigued by the unique look of the animal, as well as by the fact that the tick-control stuff we always get for our doggies at the vet is quite expensive, we began to question our homeschooling friends (who else would have guineas running around their yard???), and a few months later, they proudly delivered to our home a brand new set of about eight freshly hatched guineas.  After staring a few moments at the sweet litttle things, we thanked our buddies, and they left us.  We were now the proud owners of a litter of little guineas.

         For weeks, we tended to the strange little animals' needs, as we kept them inside our house in a cage, which we worked hard to keep clean.  We fed them the feed our local co-op store recommended for growing fine guinea specimens, kept them well watered, and yes, we talked and cooed to them every day.  The kids loved em'! As they grew, they slowly turned from the cute little "keets" to the things we had seen running madly around our friends' yard. Our home became filled with strange sounds that came from the cage in our homeschool classroom.  Visitors were either thrilled or disgusted by our "pets".  Truly, we weren't sure ourselves what to make of them.  but as the saying goes, they were "so ugly they were cute", with their little speckled feathers, and we'd never have to worry about bugs and ticks in our yard again.

       

            In time, we decided the birds were old enough to be let into our yard, and none too soon, for we were, frankly, getting tired of them in the house. "Do you think we should move their cage out to the porch for a week, to let them adjust to the great outdoors?" our children worried. So, after the week of porch-living, again we allowed them an adjustment period by putting their little cage out under some shady trees in the lawn. Finally, a couple of months after we began raising the fowl, one night we left the cage door ajar.

The next morning they were gone, never to be seen again.

I called another homeschooling friend whom I had recently learned, had raised guinneas most of her life.  "Well, Sandra, they are the dumbest animals God ever created.  Lots of ours used to run away.  Often neighbors would call saying our guineas were in their yard again, and several times a flock would just wander off and not come back for a very long time, or not at all.  They're just dumb, but I always enjoyed raising them".

A couple years after loosing our guineas, we began seeing a few around here and there in the neighborhood, but nowhere in particualr.  We often wondered if those were the very birds we'd poured our time, money, and effort into, but no way to really know.  Then a couple weeks ago, about the time our daughter had her tonsils taken out, we awoke to strange noises in our yard.  From around the back of the house appeared five of the strangest looking animals we had ever seen.  They clucked and warbled and gurgled and purred.  They ate our ticks and bugs and drank our dogs' and cats' water.  They hung out under the birdfeeders.  We wondered if maybe they were our great-great or maybe even greater grandchildren.  And we were thrilled!  Yes, they were indeed so ugly they were cute with their pretty little speckles and tiny vulture-like heads.  

Then two of them ran away.

But the other three have been here for over a week.  We call them the three stooges; Moe, the dark-feathered one; Larry, because he's more "harry" (fuller feathered); and Curly, because he's the other one.  And we count them as blessings.  The sad part is they may or may not be here tomorrow, but we kinda like them here now.  Have you ever seen a guinea fowl? 

 To save you some "google-time", I have included here some pre-googled photos.  They would  have been our own photos, but my daughter, the photographer, (and the one who uploads, downloads, adds to-whatever it's called... anyway,  I don't know how to put pictures onto my computer, and I don't take really good photos anyway) is still recovering.  But, just to clarify, they actually do look just like this.  I'm serious!!!  In fact,  how "cute" one thinks guinea fowl to be all depends on how close-up they have seen one.  But judge for yourself.  Feel free to leave a comment! lol

This looks quite similar to "Moe, Larry, and Curly"

See, here are the pretty white speckles!

And here is the tiny, vulture-like head!

Side profile.  "Ain't I just so cute?"

"Look, things could be worse.  I could be a blue-header!"

(smile)