We are happy to be participating in this monthly photo challenge hosted by Dog Mom Days and the Everyday Dog Mom. The theme for March is “Lucky”.
It sometimes seems when I’m searching for an idea, that with a farm and home with multiple pets, something always manages to present itself just when I need it. It’s not always a good thing….sometimes there are challenges, but as long as they have a happy ending, all is well.
Meet our guinea hen, Harry. Harry had an unfortunate encounter with our Lab mix Luke recently. I will tell the full story soon, I’m not quite ready yet since it was a stressful incident for all of us (probably especially me). The important thing is that Harry now seems to be fine, and we hope that the worst that happened was he lost a lot of feathers. If you look at his tail you can see how it is straggling a little bit there.
Guinea hens are very skittish, so we can’t quite get a very good look at Harry (his wings cover the area most of the time), but it has been several days and he is acting fine (knock wood). As long as nothing gets infected (and we feel pretty sure Luke did not bite him, but only pulled feathers out), his feathers should grow back in time. Therefore, it seems the nickname “Lucky” would suit him well. Here is another photo of Harry. I wanted you to see the soft feathers around his neck. It’s one of my favorite features on these crazy birds!
Our six guinea hens have mostly always traveled in a tight pack together; but lately two of them have been breaking off on their own quite a bit. Harry is quite often seen with our girl Violet, and we think they are a couple! Perhaps Harry is lucky in more ways than one? 🙂
We’ll keep you posted on whether Violet lays any eggs. We just may have more little guineas around here soon!
Fingers crossed that you get some chicks!!
We had a similar incident a couple of days ago at our house. My daughter’s dog came over for the day and caught our cockatoo as he flew overhead. I was nearby and broke it up. When my husband came home, he bravely held the parrot while I searched for any breaks in the skin– and thankfully found none. My husband received a nasty bite for his concern and the cocatoo is back at teasing the dogs. Whew!
I’m so glad that turned out OK for you (other than your husband’s wound)!
We’ll keep our fingers crossed that Harry fully recovers and brings about a few baby Harry’s 🤞🏻
He is still doing quite well, so it looks promising for those babies! 🙂
Oh dear, the furs and feathers had a skirmish. Hope they are both alright and learned from the event. Mom’s kitty growing up tried to get a pheasant and ended up with a hug hole pecked into her side. It’s nature I guess.
If Harry had maybe pecked Luke at least once just to get a message across, Luke might have learned. But I don’t think he really did anything. I also don’t think either one of them learned anything from the experience!
But you are right, it is nature, and if anything bad ever does happen, we have to remember that, even though it will make us sad.
Harry is gorgeous! I hope that you get some “little Harry’s” this spring!
All fingers, claws, and paws crossed here! 🙂
Oh, oh. It’s lucky that Harry has (had) a lot of feathers on his rump.
You are very right about that!
Violet certainly looks “with eggs.” MOL! OMC, you raise chick-HEN! Do they taste like regular chick-hen? Now that would be lucky. Luke was almost lucky. Heh heh.
LOL. We don’t plan to find out about the taste, and hopefully Luke never does either!!
Oh nose I hope Harry keeps doing well. I had an encounter wif a duck kinda like dat one time but Mama had to take him to da ducky vet and her was not too happy wif me. Can’t wait to find out if Harry and Violet will be parents 😉
xoxo,
Matt (& Matilda)
I thought we might be at the guinea vet at first too (though I’m not sure we even have one!). Harry has continued to do well, thank you! (only he learned absolutely nothing from the experience, and continues to come inside the dog yard!)
So beautiful!!! I just love the spotted feathers!
They are very pretty birds, in spite of their rather odd-looking heads! 🙂
I am glad Lucky survived. All of your hens are beautiful.
Thank you!!
Harry, it’s probably best to steer clear of Luke. Glad you’re okay.
Harry still doesn’t seem to understand this….but we will keep doing our best to manage the situation.
If Luke was as tough on Harry as he is on his toys …
I never imagined I’d need to say, “Your brother is NOT a toy!” But I do and I have.
Someone had to say it!!!
Oh boy. I hope Luke didn’t get into too much trouble.
I’m curious to see if you get little baby GH’s.
No, I couldn’t be mad at Luke. Harry was being very spazzy and I imagine a lot of dogs couldn’t have resisted that temptation (if only Luke could be more like Cricket in that way). (full story coming soon)
I’m glad Harry is okay and all is well! Maybe – hopefully – he has learned his lesson about getting into the dogs’ yard while they (especially Luke) are in it.
And I agree with Brian and JoAnn – these are great pix of the Guineas!
Thank you! Unfortunately I don’t think Harry learned at all. He’s been back in the yard many times. At least with all the snow now he’ll stay away for a while.
Those were fabulous and fun photos!!!
Glad harry is ok. He is handsome and you take beautiful pictures of them
I love this guys… and they are zthe only fowl I know with a real personality… and they are beautiful, no matter what a lot of peeps say ,O)))… or beauty-fowl ;O)
We think they are beautiful too!!