We have 8 guineas which we decided was a few too many, so we responded to a posting on a list I'm on from someone looking for guineas. They decided to get three from us, one male and two females, and are coming tomorrow to pick them up. Hence we decided to catch them tonight after everyone was in the coop, and put the three in a separate cage overnight.
(Cue Psycho theme here...)
So I went into the coop to catch the birds, and my husband waited outside with the cage to transfer them into. We have a small coop with three roosts which are all within easy reach. I slowly approached and picked out the first guinea to grab. I hadn't even gotten a hand near them, when the guinea to the right of the one I was going to grab decided to fly straight at my face, with feet extended. She raked me right down my face from forehead to chin. I covered my face with my hands, shouted "Ow!" and my husband came into the coop and said "yeah, you're bleeding". Well, I decided to just get the job done with and deal with the blood later. I caught the trio after much flapping and carrying on and we went back into the house.
I have a long scratch that starts on the left side of the bridge of my nose, crosses over and proceeds down the side of my nose and out onto my cheek, skips a bit and continues down below the corner of my mouth. I have another scratch that starts just below my right eyebrow, crosses the eyelid, and continues down my cheek. This one is not deep and only bled on the eyelid, but left a welt everywhere else. The one across my nose bled quite a bit, and I'm sure will be quite attractive to look at for the next few days.
The next time I need to catch guineas, I think I'm going to use a .22 (only kidding, I think)
Karen
Guineas not on my favorites list right now....
My sweet dog came up when I was sleeping one day an raked his paw across my mouth tearing open my lip--I still have the scar. He was just saying, "Hi! I love you!" And I considered euthanasia--for myself.
Hope you heal quickly!
That was a pretty painful way to wake up!
I'm fairly sure the guinea wasn't saying she loved me. :-) I just looked in the mirror again and it's worse than I thought, now that the inflammatory response has had a little time to develop. Or at least it looks worse than it did before. But it's not stinging like the dickens anymore at this point. I washed well with soap and water and put antibiotic ointment on, so hopefully there won't be any infection.
Oh no! That is awful.. I hope it heals fast!
Don't forget Vitamin E when it dries... I hope your okay.. that was terrible.
Thanks, I'm sure I'll be all right. Explaining why my face looks like I lost a fight with a cat will be interesting though. These guineas we have are just absolutely bonkers and have been since we got them when they were two weeks old. Our neighbor calls them "brain dead". They go off noisily for no reason at all, and freak out constantly. That's one reason we decided to reduce the numbers. But also the guinea males are going after our chickens, and not just the roosters, they are picking on the hens too - chasing them around and pulling out feathers. I don't need my hens harassed like that, so the guinea males we have left will be going in the freezer. I think we'll end up with about three guinea hens, and hopefully that will be enough to make a dent in the tick population around here. I'm sure the chickens will help with that too.
Yeouch! It'd have wanted to strangle the one that did that. So sorry about the scratch. Vitamin E is great; there's also something out there called Mederma. I'd recommend it to minimize the scar since its your face. My son had a run in with a wooden box back in April. Split open the bridge of his nose. We've been using it and it has worked wonders on healing the scar.
I'd've raised an unholy ruckus. If a big fish story would make you feel better...
My parents used to play coed softball. Once Mom, about 2 days before a cross-country drive, got hit in the sunglasses and developed a huge and gruesome black eye. She and my dad realized about halfway through their trip that all of the evil glares they had mysteriously been getting were because people thought HE was a wife-beater!! She was mortified, he laughed.
Oh dear! And you just know that no one would have believed the true explanation if they tried to give it! :)
I would have strangled the one that did it if I could tell the females apart, but I can't, or at least not when they are all freaking out and flying around a 4 x 8 foot coop at one time.
evil guinea
I feel the same way about the guineas. A love hate relationship. Love that they are really good look outs for the flock, hate that they are not so nice to my juvinile babies. They make me want to punt them sometimes when it is pouring rain (hurricane) and they keep running my babies out from under the hen house overhang into the rain.
gallesfarm, I once had a nest full of 2-3 day-old keets that I had made the decision to rescue from under their broody mother. It was mid-September and I was fairly certain they would all perish if I allowed her to try to raise them. My task was to get the keets out from the nest under a guinea hen. She looked and behaved quite ominous the few times I had gone near the nest. This was my 1st experience with a guinea hen and keets. I put on cotton gardening gloves with rubber spots on the bottom for gripping trowel handles. I had a container for the keets. I started to reach and at that point the guinea hen decided her best defense was a better offense. She pecked my hand hard a few times but came right at my face with beak and claws. I backed off as quick as I could but she changed course and went for my bare legs (I was wearing long denim shorts). She got me fairly well on the legs with her claws but I figured I had her away from the nest and grabbed a rake and kept her at bay while I picked up the 7 keets. She got her ounce of flesh and I was scratched up on my arms legs a lot more than I anticipated. Guinea fowl are several times more aggressive and dangerous when protecting their keets than any chicken with her brood that you'll ever tangle with. Kelly
This message was edited Jan 19, 2009 1:00 PM
wow kelly u DO have an evil guinea
Kelly, that sounds pretty scary. Mine of course wasn't defending keets, just freaking out, but now I wonder if the claws down the face was as accidental as I first thought. Well, we don't plan on raising keets, so I'll leave nest-robbing up to the experts. ;-)
Don't you two (Kelly and Galles) need to report to the Chicken crew thread for an official title?
i believe they do also
go on scoot u to over to the name forum
Here's my big fish story and not about chickens.
I had a mole on my lower eye lid and had to have it removed the plastic surgeon who did it sudjested i remove several more on my face due to moles can become cancerous.
It was painful and when he was done i had numerous little stitched places on my face.
I completely forgot about my face and was shopping and the lady behind the counter said I'am so sorry this took me aback for a moment and then she said oh i'm sorry i did'nt mean to upset you and i was still puzzled and she continued with it must have been a very bad accident was anybody else injured.
Then i realized to my horror she thought i had been in and auto accident.
I told her i said no i had some moles removed and her face turned red and she was still apoligizing as i was leaveing.
funny u should of milked for all it was worth lol get free stuff
One of my 5 remaining juvenile guineas was killed - eaten yesterday by a feral cat ... hunting in my yard. Anyone with a fence understands how dumb guineas are when it comes to not trying to fly over them but rather trying to squeeze through the fence. They prefer to try to run through the holes that are twice a small as they are ... resulting ... they get stuck in the fence and are easy for a cat to pounce on ... then eat. I found the remnant feathers all over the back lawn by the poultry fence line. Damn feral cats. Kelly
This message was edited Jan 19, 2009 1:08 PM
kelly, i call mine fence runners. they run up and down the fence trying to figure out how to get back on the other side. it takes all day fr them to figure it out
The stupid thing is, they have no trouble flying over the fence to get out, but they can't figure out that they can fly back over the fence to get in again. We have to go out and open the gate.