This Thanksgiving I awoke to a new flock of hens here in Big Sandy Mush... Guinea Hens!!! My friend Gretta found this tight group of chirpers running around her Knoxville,TN neighborhood and captured them in a dog crate in her back yard. Gretta's brother Bort picked up the flock late last night and brought them to the old chicken coop & free range area here! YAY!
They were safely shut in the coop when I first saw them and did not seem all that scared of humans. They stayed together, very close - a behavior that is much more extreme then I have seen with domesticated chickens. Their faces look alot like vultures and they tend to put their neck in while resting, in the same position vultures assume while napping on a tree branch. Their feathers though are so vibrant and patterned so beautiful - striped like the back end of a male turkey, but all over their body!
They filed out together into the field to peck around in the grass...
I gave them food scraps but they showed no interest in them (unlike chickens) - if anyone knows about these birds I am open to suggestions on how to care for them.In the meantime, check out how the flow of their back feathers are so dramatic and gothy. :)
XoXo
