Growing Mandelas

Mandelas is growing up and the ugly is keeping pace proportionately. I call this her dishevelled stage. Her feathers are sticking up all over the place and not two seem to be the same length. It looks like she had a major fight with a hair dryer and lost big time. I only realize how ugly she is when I look at pictures of her. In real life, her personality shines so bright it just burns the ugly away. She's a bright, inquisitive, cheery little thing. Never nasty and loves to be petted and held. She's about two months old now.

I'm calling her Mandalas now because from all accounts it looks like she is a female. When she goes out to the coop, I will have two pairs of Guineas, a pair of light uglies and a pair of dark uglies. If it was Spring, I probably could put her out now but I think it's just too cold for her now.

She really enjoys being out of her cage and trying her wings out. I let her out when I am doing the rabbit chores. I still have my bucks downstairs. She's constantly underfoot, watching everything I do, and giving her opinion. Good thing I don't understand Guinea because I don't think she's always complementary in her comments. She very curious about the rabbits but they don't seem to be really impressed with her. Probably because she's always trying to peek inside their ears. I think it's either envy or she's sure there is some hidden treasure in them.

Baby Keet

So this is the little keet I am brooding downstairs. Except now he’s upstairs quite a bit as his feathers grow in and he doesn’t need to be under the brooder light constantly. Keeping with the ‘Out of Africa’ theme, his name is Mandela. If he’s a girl, I can change it to Mandelas or Mandy. Or may-be I just keep with Mandela, I’m sure the keet doesn’t care.

Guineas are real cute for a few weeks then they start hinting at ugly and it just progresses from there. Mandela is just leaving his good looks behind. His new feathers coming in are straggling and wet looking. As they grow in, the cute grows out. I took a lot of pictures hoping to get a couple that were flattering. These pics are the best I could do. He’s not buzzard looking yet, but with those big eyes and that narrow little head, he looks like he should be flying around in a spaceship; he’s got that space alien look.

Physical appearance notwithstanding, Mandela is sure a sweetie pie. I started bringing him up stairs because I figured it wasn’t good for him to be alone all the time. In a normal situation, he’d have siblings and a mama to socialize with. All he has is four rubber blue walls; I’m not thinking that’s all that stimulating for him…unless, of course, he’s crazy then rubber walls are in order. At first, he’d sit in my lap, talking to me in his two-note whistle. After a while, he liked sitting on my shoulder as I watched TV. I was very impressed with his interest in M*A*S*H, it is a great show but I’d think the humour would be lost on a bird. Then I realized he was looking out the window. Which made sense, so now I’m the birdbrain for giving him too much credit. After a while, I put out a towel so he could walk around for a bit. Now he pretty much thinks he has the run of the house.

When I leave the room, he scurries after me, his two note whistle sounding just a little frantic, it translates easily to “Hey, YOU! Hey, YOU!” or may-be “Wait UP! Wait UP! Or even “HEY YOU, WAIT UP!” He enjoys the dogs and the cat doesn’t intimidate him at all. I’m thinking he’s in for quite a culture shock when I put him out in the coop. It might be a good idea to have him in a cage for the first little while out there. I’m hoping he’ll feel a little more secure and the others won’t have a chance to pick on him because he might come off as a bit of a oddball what with not much practice in social bird skills. And then when everyone is used to each other, I’ll start opening the door. That won’t be happening for a few more weeks yet. So for now, I’ll just enjoy the ugly little bird with the sweet disposition.

Guinea Fowls

In addition to the little guinea in the brooder downstairs. I now have three more. I was told they were very interesting and great bug eaters and would be such an asset in the garden. What I wasn't told was Guineas are walking contradictions. If you look at their heads, they strongly resemble buzzards, very ugly right down to their ugly ruffled necks. If you just look at their bodies, they're quite pretty with light dots sprinkled liberally through the base colors. You can see some of the white dots on the middle bird. The light bird's colour is lavender, the two others are blues, which while not all that accurate, does sound better than light ugly and dark ugly.

Guineas have the prettiest voices, all soft whistles. They talk to each other constantly, sounding like the worlds smallest woodwinds. That is, of course, until they "sound the alarm" as Guinea aficionados quaintly call it. That's what they do if the see a predator or something they just don't like, like long grass blowing the wrong way. The first time I heard them sound off, I thought something big and heavy must have fallen on them. What a racket, imagine a duck with a sore throat and turn up the volume to ear-bleed level.

While they can fly and fly high, like 25 feet up into the trees high, they prefer to stay on the ground. They will only fly if threatened. On the ground, guineas are very fast, in fact when they scoot, you can't even see their feet. I think they curl the feet up and make little roller skates out of them.

Since they are originally from Africa, I have decided to call them after my favorite African American actor. Their names are James, Earl and Jones. James is the light one, Earl and Jones are pretty much interchangeable right now. If they turn out to be girls, I'll call them Jamie, Pearl and Janes. I have no idea if they are male or female. Apparently you can tell by listening to them; males have a one-note call, females have a two-note call. I can't tell the difference it's all Greek to me.

After a week long transitional phase, they seemed to have settled in quite nicely. That first week was quite the experience but that's another story.