I Lost One of My Guinea Fowl

OP, sorry for your loss. They look like beautiful birds.

I love them. They have a hive mind. Even sick, my boy tried to keep up with the other 2 birds. But yesterday afternoon he just couldn’t anymore.

There were 4 of them 2 years ago & one disappeared. For 2 years I’ve dreamed that he came back. I opened the door & realized there were 4 there and said, “OMG, I thought he was gone. I guess I just didn’t see him.”

I guess now I’m going to dream there are 3 of them again.

Beautiful birds, OP. Do you have a picture of a guinea fowl flashing? I would like to see what they look like with wings spread.

The boy in your OP pictures is beautiful.

Sad; birds are sweet creatures. I had a cockatiel and carried him around on my shoulder, but one day a family member had the garage door open when I went to grab something out of there with my cockatiel in my shoulder and he flew away and I never saw him again. Sorry for your loss! It’s hard to lose an animal companion and people don’t always understand how painful it can be.

I'm adopting (never buy) quail as animal companions, and I'm keeping them indoors. I'm sorry for your loss, and for his having suffered, OP. Take care.

They are gorgeous birds, odd and interesting, a favorite "watch dog" of sort among some very old country people where I grew up, otherwise not much seen until many years later when they regained some popularity.

Sorry for you, OP.

How on earth did you keep a guinea fowl for 8 years? They are the stupidest birds. We started the Fall with nine. We are down to four. We will probably lose one or two during nesting. There is a reason mother nature gave them 25-30 offspring at a time.

Still, I understand how you feel. We had one chick that was clearly the odd one out. Ended up being pecked to death. Our other favorite seems to have drowned in a rain. Not sure if the other birds were involved.

R7 If what you say is true, it is to OP's credit that he is able to nurture his guinea birds as well as he has. Your final thoughts are sweet but - wow - did you have to open your post so cruelly? Ugh.

R8, if you had guineas, you would understand.

R7 I think we're trying to relate to OP and his loss, not your negative experience with guinea fowl.

[quote]It’s hard to lose an animal companion and people don’t always understand how painful it can be.

R4 How true. Thanks for sharing.

[quote] We started the Fall with nine. We are down to four.

Are they sheltered or in trees? My sleep in trees. One day 16 of them showed up from somewhere. By the end of the first year we were down to 5. All males. You can’t keep the females for long because of their nesting habits. We had 5 for about 4 years, then one disappeared. We had 4 for 6 years, now we've had 3 for 8 years. I dread it when there will be only one left, They are not solitary birds & hate being alone.

You can tell female from male birds because females make a buck-QUACK sound the males can’t make. That’s how I knew mine were all males after the first year. None of them made the buck QUACK sound.

The one who died looks like the photo in the OP. The other 2x look like the ones here that have white on them. Not as pretty as the lost one.

Ours are all in a coop at night. Sometime it is a real pain to get them in at night, but we have fisher cats and other tree climbing predators (southern NH.) We also have a run for them, attached to the coop. On rainy days, the stay in the run. Fearing nesting season. Worried about the loss, but also stresses about keeping 25-30 keets safe.

There is less & less land for them. When the 16 came here 8 years ago everyone in my neighborhood was local & did not put up fences. We had privet or arborvitae boundaries. Little by little people retired or got divorced and moved away. They had 8 houses with about 10 acres altogether forforaging. I supplemented with seeds, peanuts, dried worms (I don’t think they ever ate them, but other birds did), calcium, suet. City people moved in & immediately put up fences and put poison on their lawns because OMG THE CHILDREN! They’ll catch Lyme disease! Then their kids chase my birds & I have to tell them, “No yiu can’t chase the birds, you’re frightening them. They don’t let people get near them. They won’t go in your yard because you have a fence they won’t fly over & you don’t have any ticks for them to eat because your parents put insect poison in the ground and killed all their food.”

They’re down to 2 houses now, about an acre & a half. I feed them 2x a day.

I...condole you, [OP].

I’m very, very sorry. Animals are so innocent and so fragile. Thank you for taking care of him.

Yum!

So sorry to hear, OP!

I'm sorry for your loss, OP. I don't know the point of this thread turning into the Guinea Fowl Information thread.

21 shillings is a lot for a bird

Op I’m sorry. They’re such beautiful birds

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. You are obviously a sweet and caring soul and it is so hard to see an animal you love sick and in pain. You feel so helpless. You gave him a good home and it sounds like he had a good life.

Went out to do some weeding & found a bunch of his feathers in a pile :(

Something got him

Awww, they’re very cool-looking. I’m sorry, OP.

R23, I was just about to say that you should probably check in with your neighborhood foxes and coyotes.

It’s spring and they’re all hungry. Sad, but true.

So sorry to hear that, OP.

OP may be too fat as he couldn't catch the sick bird? But any loss of a pet companion is always heartbreaking. RiP Sweet Bird of Youth.

And get well soon, OP, and probably you should lose some weight.

I'm very sorry, OP. I've always wanted to keep some: they're so comical and enjoyable to watch. A family a few blocks from me keeps a gaggle of them, and its a highlight of my day when I have a chance to see them, When I retire, I hope to keep my own fowl. I grew up around them and enjoy their distinctive personalities

r23 Oh no! So sorry to hear it. Maybe a funeral ritual would be helpful for grieving now that you know the poor bird has passed away--I think the bird would've appreciated that.

So sorry for your loss, OP. Soon, I hope you will be the proud Papua of a New Guinea.

Well, I don't don't know if I'm introducing something nasty. I grew up watching the guinea fowl at the Cincinnati Zoo. One day,I watched a trio of Guinea Hens going after a Lazarus Lizard. They were so determined!, and didn't give up until they managed to eat that little reptile. Those three little heads bopping and pecking kept me watching for a good half hour.

My partner had a bunch of these when he lived out in Western Sonoma County.

Life brought him to our SF urban surroundings and I know he misses them.

They're with his neighbor now so I'm sure he drives past from time to time to check on them.

This is why i only raise condors.

But was he tasty?

I see an image of Phyllis Diller embedded in its right wing. Was she your guinea fowl's Spirit Person?

I lost my other 2 guinea fowl. I heard screaming the other night & thought maybe an owl caught a rabbit. But I haven’t seen my birds since then & they always come for seeds every day. Eight years I had those birds. Now they’re all gone. I really miss them. Every day for 8 years I’ve woken up & seen them out my window or my front door or woke up to hearing them squawking.

Now I’m so lonely.

I can’t get new ones.

Miraculously, there just happens to be a large population of people who owned Guinea Fowl and all just happened to be on DL May 1st as well as other specific dates.

This OP is nuts. He hosts a number of threads where he has conversations with himself.

I dated a guy that called himself "the hottest guiney fuck in town."

He was.

Tangent, my apologies.

R37 I'm not sure about that, but I do think this a unique and intriguing thread. I've never given much thought to guinea fowl before, but it appears there's a whole community of guinea fowl people out there. Where do they live? It sounds lovely, wherever they are. Now I'm starting to have living-on-a-farm fantasies again. So thanks, OP.

Please, thats “Italian-American Fowl” OP. One more such problematic post and you are canceled.