Our ongoing saga of our nesting guinea hen, Henrietta, took a sad and unexpected twist last week; when she got taken by a predator (most likely the fox). I’m not going into that whole story today, I’ll share that in our guinea story series. I’ll just say that while we don’t know exactly what happened, she is gone and Luke and I found her feathers on our walk that day. We were heartbroken once again, but the worst part for me was that she was so close to hatching those eggs. We were down to what we thought would be the last week.
We quickly made the decision to move her eggs into the incubator and see what happened. Just hours after doing that, I saw some eggs moving! It still took several agonizing days of waiting for anything more to happen. I needed some of those eggs to hatch, so we could know that all of Henrietta’s hard work sitting on that nest wasn’t for naught. It was almost a week later when those eggs finally started to hatch, and we had nine new little lives to carry on for their mother.
While we don’t plan to keep these, it still felt so important. (We have found a home for four of them so far.) I am so thankful that these new keets assure us that life truly does go on.
One other thing we are thankful for is that we know we have at least one female in the group of 6 we are keeping who are now out in the coop. Everything I read said that we wouldn’t know until they were at least 8 weeks old, but this little girl started doing her two-tone call that only female guineas do at just over 5 weeks of age. It seems we have a little over-achiever in the group! Hopefully she will carry on the tradition of her mother (Henrietta) and our other female, Violet, and try to keep those guinea boys in line when she gets old enough!
While the newest ones wait to move on to their new lives and homes, our cat Samantha is back on duty! She said it was too quiet with no birds to watch anyway, so she’s willing to put off her retirement just a little bit longer.
Thank you to our friends at Brian’s Home for hosting the Thankful Thursday blog hop! Please visit other blogs through the links below.
So sorry to hear about Henrietta but happy at the good news of at least one new girl in the brood. The little guys are just so gosh darn adorable!
Thank you.
I know, those little ones just make me smile every time I look at them!
Poor girl, I’m sorry. I’m glad you saved the eggs .
I am so glad that we had the incubator so we could save them.
I’m so sorry to hear about Henrietta. I’m glad you were able to save her eggs, though–Sam’s retirement sure didn’t last long! Hope all of these little cuties find homes so they can spread all of that guinea fun around!
Poor Sam – we did promise her more of a vacation. 🙂
Oh, sorry to hear about Henrietta. It’s wonderful that you were able to incubate her eggs and get some of the chicks to hatch. Sam looks amused by the chicks.
Since Sam doesn’t see well, I think she really enjoys listening to all that chattering and chirping. 🙂
I am glad Henrietta’s babies survived. And how sweet of Sam to keep an eye on them.I am very sorry about Henrietta, that must have been so heartbreaking.
Thank you so much, Ellen. It really was. I guess it’s the part of farm life I may never get used to. 🙁
Gosh, that’s so sad about Henrietta, but so nice that she left a legacy!
It really does give us some comfort to have her little ones to carry on for her.
Oh No! Not Henrietta, too!! I’m sooooo sorry!! 💔 What a bummer! How’s Harry Who taking the loss? I seem to remember you saying that he was keeping company with Henrietta for a little while. I’m glad at least fhe newest keets are safe and sound under Mamacat Sam’s watchful eyes! ❤️
We are relieved that Harry seems to be taking it just fine. He’s enjoying being “one of the boys” now! 🙂
Sorry you lost one, but those babies sure are cute!!!
They really are!!
So sorry about Henrietta. I’m happy that her eggs lived on for her.
Thank you, Cheryl. ♥
Oh we so hate that about dear Henrietta but we’re proud of Sam doing a great job. Y’all need a nice shotgun and some serious hunting time. Thanks for joining the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
We could not agree more!!
poor Henrietta… sigh… but I’m glad Samantha is there and she helps to raise the little ones. normally that should be in the news Cat is the nanny of guiney chicklets :O)
Oh, you’re right! We could be famous! 🙂
So sad Henrietta is gone. Those nasty wild creatures! We love them, but wish they would leave you alone because you certainly leave them alone.
We try to live peaceably with the wildlife, but they do not make it easy!!