Unrequited Love

Once upon a time, we had two guinea fowl.  Due to difficulties in determining if either of them was a hen, we were never sure what we had.  They never really liked any of our chickens despite being raised with them.  They were a noisy pair...

Then one day, disaster struck, and one guinea met an untimely end at the teeth of an unknown predator.  The remains were summarily buried atop Mt. Weather in back of the shop.

This left us with one lone guinea.  We gradually came to the conclusion that the survivor at least, was a male.  This meant Deanna was now known as Dino.  Eh, gender fluidity and all, right?

Deanna  Dino

Being a lone guinea amidst a bunch of hens meant things were somewhat quieter here.  Dino now only screams at the blueberries, the grass, and the sky intermittently, rather than the constant noise of old.  He still chased the hens around the yard though, driving them away.

Sometimes Monkey1 would coo at him, imitating a guinea song, and he would run all around, looking for the other guinea...poor guy was lonely!

Then one day, he saw HER.  She was big, like he was.  She was black and white, sort of like he was.  She had red on her head, like him, so what if it wasn't in the same place?  She MUST be guinea!

Dino began following Salty.  He would guard her.  He would drive the other chickens out of the dust bath so Salty could bathe in peace.  She, was perfect in his eyes!

Salty on the other hand, ignored his advances.  In fact she pretty much ignores him totally, unless he has something tasty to steal eat.  She doesn't seem to mind him running the other hens off, when she dust bathes though.

And though Salty has been unresponsive to Dino's advances and displays of affection, she does allow him to hang out around her.  However, I did see Dino following our largest hen, Amber, around today...could he be two-timing our Salty?  Or has he given up on  his lady love, and begun to seek affection elsewhere?  Tune in next week, for more of Hens of Our Lives!