Hardy Guinea Fowl

Tuesday 4th December 2012

Guinea fowl - perfectly evolved in Africa
to blend in with icy hummocks!!!?

 

The guinea fowl are probably not used to mornings like this and their native cousins throughout Africa have probably not needed to evolve to survive this. Yet they are coping pretty well with the English winter so far. They look terribly exposed perched in a row on top of the fence every night. I don't know what time they get up in the morning to begin their foraging, but they have got into the habit of all flying toward me, chacking and chuckling, as soon as they see me heading down toward the chicken enclosure. I feel slightly guilty that they have chosen to trust me, as one day I will betray that trust. The guinea fowl are, after all, primarily kept for their meat.

For the moment though, they form a formidable troupe. They always boss the food trays, seemingly fearless of even the biggest cockerels as they form a feeding huddle.

The young ones are beginning to get their distinctive bluish facial skin now and some have learned to do the guinea fowl cry, that incessant repetition of two screechy notes which carries far and wide over the flat fenland landscape on a still morning.