BUCK-WHEAT BYTES The Psycho Chicken

December 2009
Volume 3, Issue 3
B U C K -W H E A T B Y T E S
Happy Holidays from the Blue Ridge Mtns.
I NSIDE T HIS I SSUE
By David Burton Flint
Happy Holidays
1
Psycho Chicken
1
Guinea Fowl 2010 Conference
4
Here are a few paragraphs about my little piece of
paradise here in the mountains of North Carolina, and
about this past year of raising these amazing Guinea
Birds.
Some of you have read about, and even seen, my
web site showing my 1860’s log barn where it is home
to thirty-three well trained Guineas, from Big Daddy,
who is now three and who was from my original eight
that were given to me about three years ago when I
started this crazy new adventure. I must say that I
love watching and raising them and selling the keets
when they are two-three weeks old.
Now the fall leaves with all their colors have fallen,
and the nights are getting cold. Having a late hatch, I
was going to have Thelma and Louise raise them; that
started out fine, and they did hatch five. Having two
coops full with teenagers and adults, I became
somewhat concerned where to put my five babies! We
had a cold spell here, and I knew the five would die
from the cold even though they stayed under their
mom’s wings, so I grabbed them and put them in my
nursery with heat, food, and water. I lost two, and
The
author's
home in
the Blue
Ridge
Mountain
s of
North
Carolina
The Psycho Chicken
Last year, blogger Jan Williams gave us permission to print
portions of her story of the "psycho chicken" who came to live
in her yard for a while in Feb. 2007. In an earlier newsletter,
we printed the story of the bird's first few days at the Williams
residence. We pick up the story on Day Five:
Membership Renewal Time
Membership Directory
6
insert
was upset with myself that I should have grabbed them
one day after they hatched. I knew the 30 were now
hanging out all day together, so I combined them all
into the big log coop in the barn, and to my relief, it
worked! Now the three little guys have a coop for
themselves and are doing fine.
Like many of you who had some heavy rains, I did as
well, but living high on a hill, the water perked into the
rocky hillside and flowed into the small stream in front
of my homestead, and into the Big Ivy which was
roaring below the rocky cliffs. The ‘gang’ never left
their coop or run. They like the light rain, but in the
heavy rains they will hunker down and chill out for the
day.
I have to think here for a moment and count how
many I have hatched, sold, and kept this year. I guess it
is close to 50. So I guess that comes to about 83
Guineas, with ten lost during the hatch or shortly
afterwards. I have had great success with sitting the
eggs into the holes of egg cartons as soon as I see the
first pipping happening, and have four to a section, and
place them in the incubator. I think I am going through
withdrawal from not hatching; it is a special time for
me, and I know for many of you.
cont. on page 2
Living with Psycho Chicken
Detente. Sort of.
Earlier in the week when I realized we were under a
Chicken Siege I put the dogs in sit-stay to check out the
yard before releasing them in the morning. And there
was Psycho all strutting around.
Armed with my human reasoning skills, my commanding
voice, and a broom, I convinced him to leave. But he
keeps coming back.
cont. on page 2
Page 2
Buck-Wheat Bytes
Happy Holidays, cont.
Now I am planning on spring and buying a Brinsea
Octagon 20 Advance brooder, and along with my Giant
incubator, I’ll be hatching many Guinea chicks to sell.
I already have a good list of buyers and contacts to
advertise selling two-week-old keets and eggs. I’m
looking forward to the winter, so I can continue
writing my books and planning for the spring.
One more thing I must say to each of you, each of
you have given all of us great ideas, and I respect all
comments, and such information is very helpful to the
old timers who have been raising Guineas for years,
and to the newcomers. We all have our ways of doing
things, and all that matters is we love our Guinea
Fowl; and with the Guinea Forum, it will only grow
larger and will become well known, and I am very
proud to be a member, and to be helpful when I can.
Author David Burton Flint, at home in Mars
Hills, NC, USA
The Psycho Chicken, cont.
swans, and seagulls that sometimes will stroll
through surrounding neighborhoods.
Now we have a routine that seems to be working. I bang
the door before I let the dogs out. That lets Psycho
know to fly over the fence to avoid the Hounds from Hell
and crazy broom lady.
The dogs swarm out and sniff chicken invader smells;
they run around looking all fierce and having a great
time. Fortunately, there is no need for them to bark at
just chicken odor. So silence reigns for the most part.
There are poultry processing plants on the other end
of town. Occasionally a chicken that escapes the
delivery process can be seen walking down the
streets, too stupid to run for its life. But those are
chickens bred for the skillet—soft bodied, big
breasted, docile, white feathered ones.
Psycho is brown, sleek, definitely a Chicken with
Attitude if he is actually a chicken. And if I might
brag a little, he’s quite smart for a bird.
Posted February 24, 2007
Through the windows I can see him returning at various
times during the day. We do the door-banging thing
whenever the dogs go out, and Psycho leaves the yard.
He always seems to fly back to the fence at sunset,
trading squawks and barks a few times with the dogs if
they’re out and then he flies to the tree.
What I don’t understand is why with all the quiet yards in
the neighborhood would he choose the yard with four
dogs?
We have one more dog than the city ordinance …uh…
suggests…without having a kennel license. Unless
there are problems, it isn’t enforced and I live in a
different city from my ISP, so I think I’m covered writing
about all this. Besides, the combined weight of my little
wimp pack is only around 60 pounds. Still. It isn’t wise
to have the noisiest yard in the entire city.
The bigger mystery is where he came from. Poultry
walking around neighborhoods in town is not totally
unknown. Several man-made lakes attract ducks,
The chicken formerly known as Psycho Chicken
…is probably not a chicken
…is probably not psycho
…is probably not a he
Denny, a blogging and email friend from Indiana,
wrote:
“It came to me last night as I lay in bed! Your
chicken is a guinea! They are very much like
chickens but they fly quite well. Guineas are kept
pretty much the same as chickens but they are not
quite as domesticated and if you try to catch them
they fly up into trees or telephone wires.
“I remember them from my old Indiana farm days.
Guineas eggs were very hard to find since they
would rather lay them anywhere other than a
chicken house. Sometimes one or two would just
wander off, never to be seen again.”
I’ve never heard of them, but I’m sure Denny is right.
Buck-Wheat Bytes
Page 3
The Psycho Chicken, cont.
It all fits, doesn’t it? Guineas, I found out from the Internet
and the man at the feed store, are semi-wild birds that
have been known to take up residence in city yards. They
don’t like being kept in coops or cages. While they don’t
exactly soar with the eagles, they refuse to grovel with the
chickens.
Guineas are very loud. People who try to contain a flock of
them for eggs don’t get much sleep. Psycho may have
escaped captivity, or someone was just tired of hearing her
squawking “Born Free.”
One website had a sound file of male and female Guinea
squawks. Psycho is a female. She doesn’t look full-grown.
I think she is probably a teenager.
And I really shouldn’t call her “Psycho.” She is behaving
normally for a guinea (and a teenager).
Nothing too feminine, I’m thinking “Charlie”…kinda young,
kinda now…
Posted on February 28, 2007
The Epiphany
With all the quiet yards in the neighborhood, why has the
Guinea hen formerly known as Psycho Chicken chosen
our yard?
Yesterday it all became clear.
The clouds have moved on. It was a warm sunshiny day to
walk around the yard with the dogs and a glass of ice tea
to plan spring trimming and planting.
The good part about this climate is that we can do
gardening and yard work in March. The bad part is that we
have to do gardening and yard work in March. Without a
heavy frost, evil stuff grows all winter and if we don’t start
now, by April it takes a machete to get through it.
Suddenly anything resembling serenity came to a
squawking halt. From behind the fence came the highdecibel squawks that have become so familiar for the past
three weeks. Then a blur of feathers came hurtling onto
the fence and flew into the tree. And just as suddenly an
orange blur plunged over the fence and landed at our feet.
Freeze frame. It’s me and the dogs surrounding a very
startled large orange cat, with Charlie cheering from the
tree.
Charlie, the "psycho chicken,"
observing from the fence of Jan's
yard. You can read Jan's blog at
http://thepoodleanddogblog.type
pad.com/
Epiphany.
That’s why she chose this yard. It has a large tree and
here she is safe from cats. Cats hunt with solitude,
stealth, and silence. When dogs hunt, you can hear it in
the next county. The end game in the cat hunt is death.
Dogs just enjoy the hunt.
Our cat, Taki, has stayed in the house as far away as she
can from this whole Psycho Chicken episode. It seems to
give her a headache. (I might mention that Taki came to
us off the streets one day when she was a juvenile and
never left. She did clear out a couple of mice that the
dogs seem to have befriended.)
In her tiny Guinea brain, Charlie must realize this yard is
her sanctuary. As long as her big tree is here and the
noisy dogs and crazy broom lady stand sentry, she is safe
from any predators who have a chance of actually
catching or harming her. She wasn’t looking for a quiet
yard; she was looking for a noisy one.
I don’t know much about birds, but they seem to be social
animals like dogs. Without a flock, little teenage Charlie
seems to have made herself a member of our human-dog
pack for her own protection and companionship. Can a
bird really be this smart? Charlie is the Mensa of birds,
but still.
I have put up a makeshift feeder for her, but Guineas
seem to prefer live insects. Since I don’t use pesticides, I
have a smorgasbord of assorted bugs in the yard, which I
have no plans to use.
We have a weird symbiotic relationship going on here.
Posted March 08, 2007
Orange cat?!?
The cat recovered first, back flipping over the fence, barely
escaping the jaws of Chamois the generic dog who always
forgets that she can’t climb. From her perch in the tree,
Charlie cheered us on.
As true spring comes to the Valley
…Charlie isn’t winning any popularity contests in the
neighborhood.
cont. on Page 5
Page 4
Buck-Wheat Bytes
GFIA Guinea Fowl Conference Planned for March 2010
Plans are coming together for the GFIA's 5th
annual Guinea Fowl Conference.
Dates: March 26-28 (Friday - Sunday)
Location: Lexington, TX, USA
(50 min. east of Austin, TX)
Topics:
• History of Incubation & Brooding
• Rodent Control
• Coops
• Shipping eggs
• Orthopedic Fixes (splints, etc.)
• Guinea Fowl Anatomy
• and more to be announced!
At least one tour is planned (possibly two), and
excellent speakers are lined up to share their expertise
with us.
Cost will be $35 for GFIA members ($45 for nonmembers) and includes two lunches and one dinner.
Special hotel room rates are being arranged at a nearby
hotel.
For more information, mail us at the address on the
back of this newsletter; call us at 979-773-9100; or
email us through the "contact us" link on the website,
www.guineafowlinternational.org
Left, a photo from Birds & Blooms magazine.
Above, a photo taken by a message board poster
whose screen name was Wilf. Wilf, who has since
passed away, gave us permission to use his photo. We
think it is one of the most charming guinea fowl
photos we have seen.
Buck-Wheat Bytes
Page 5
Psycho Chicken from page 3
My neighbors who are planting gardens are beginning to
ask pointed questions about “my chicken” that is getting
into their yards. It seems she has a talent for going up
and down rows in new vegetable gardens, eating all the
seeds. I’ve tried to explain that she's a Guinea hen, not a
chicken. It is the insects she is after, not the seeds.
She has more than enough food in our yard, but she
seems to need the “thrill of the hunt.” The time between
first light and human stirrings pretty much belongs to
Charlie, but she seems to like to make the rounds all
day. She enjoys flying all over the neighborhood.
Also, she is not backing down from cats anymore. There
were some pretty ugly scenes, I heard, involving cats
and peck marks. Being in a dog pack seems to have
made her lose her guinea roots and identity.
And have I mentioned lately that she is really loud?
Think “fire truck going through a busy intersection, only
higher pitched” loud.
I’ve explored the idea of a trap, but Charlie is mostly a
carnivore. She prefers bugs. Why would she walk into a
cage to get a house salad, when her world is full of filet
mignon?
I’ve tried to explain that Charlie is a free spirit. I can’t pen
her up even if we could catch her. I’ve tried to keep her
in my yard by keeping food available for her, but she
needs to roam. I can understand my neighbors’
frustration. They think she is destroying gardens and
terrorizing pet cats. They have the right to control their
yards.
It’s a story as old as civilization. When people move to
new frontiers, build homes, plant crops, and tame the
wilderness, non-domestic animals have no place there.
That goes for snow leopards, condors, eagles, tigers,
elephants, wolves, deer, raccoons, possums and
gophers.
Wild, free spirit animals on whatever continent, in
whatever time, seldom win these battles.
Posted on April 09, 2007
A new beginning
Charlie didn’t fly back to her tree last evening for the first
time since February. I know I’ll never see her again. But I
know she is going to be all right.
She’s been acting strangely and now I realize why.
Since she became ”Guinea non grata” in the
neighborhood, you’d think she would stay close to home
instead of flying all over and doing whatever she does
when she leaves the safety of our fenced yard and her
big tree.
But for the past week we’ve seen her only during the late
evenings when she came back to spend the night in her
tree. Gray skies, rainy days, and high winds have sent
humans and furry pets scurrying inside. On those days
Charlie rules the world.
Then yesterday as I was raking away some dead grass,
my rake hit something hard, which turned out to be not so
hard. It was an egg that broke under the rake. A chicken
egg. A Guinea hen egg. There is only one possible way
an egg could have gotten into the yard.
And then I knew. Charlie has become a woman.
I think she must have some instinct telling her that it was
time to stop being a dog and to find her own flock and
raise little Charlies. Birds must have some kind of instinct
to find other birds of a feather to flock together with.
Wayward ducks and swans always find their way to the
lakes in town.
We think we have figured out where she came from and
where she has gone.
We used to live on the northeast corner of town, but to the
north, developments of half million dollar houses have
started springing up like toadstools, all looking alike, all
crammed together, huge overblown houses with tiny
manicured yards and no trees. We don’t know who lives
there; they’re mostly commuters who are not part of the
town unless they need a service (like trying to get the
police to bust a curry barbecue in a garage). The ugly
houses have replaced old farms where Guinea hens and
roosters lived.
But to the east the planners have committed to
maintaining a wide green zone: family farms, row crops,
vineyards, open fields, horse pastures, orchards, and
trees, lots of big trees. There’s a place for Charlie there. I
know she’ll find her way.
I sat outside for a long time last night. I cried for Charlie. I
cried for all the free spirits that civilization has displaced
even though it has to happen. I cried for everything we’ve
lost by advancing our frontiers, even though that has to
happen.
Charlie is a smart bird with the instincts to survive. She
needs to be a Guinea hen though, not a dog.
I’m sure life won’t be as much fun for her though.
Our lives won’t be as much fun either.
Posted on April 16, 2007
Whither Charlie?
Some of you have asked about Charlie (formerly known
as Psycho Chicken), the guinea hen with attitude who
spent part of her adolescence in our yard last spring.
Every chance I get I drive through the Greenbelt outside
the city limits where there are a lot of guinea fowl strutting
around freely, sitting on fences and in trees. I don’t know
which one is Charlie, but I can feel her presence there.
It is good that these fascinating creatures have a place to
be free to live and raise their little guinea families without
developers ever intruding on their world.
Posted on August 09, 2007
GFIA memberships expire at the end of this year; please renew today! (If you’re
not currently a member, please join.) Benefits include a Welcome Packet, thriceyearly newsletters, educational materials, plus you’ll be supporting our work:
Supporting the responsible keeping and breeding of guinea fowl;
Educating on the care and habits of guinea fowl;
Assisting those interested in incubating, hatching, and keeping guinea fowl.
Write us at the address below; visit our website www.guineafowlinternational.org,
or call 979-773-9100 for membership information.
2010 Membership Rates:
(all prices in U.S. dollars)
Check One:
 Single Membership .... $20.00
 Family Membership .... $28.00
 Junior Membership
(Age 15 & under) ..... $5.00
Make checks payable to GFIA
and mail with this form to:
Guinea Fowl International Association
2812 FM 987
Kaufman, TX 75142 USA
(if you joined after 9/1/09, your membership is valid through 2010)
Please include your name, address, phone number(s), email address. Also, we’d like to
know whether and how you want to be listed in our membership directory, how many and
what color guinea fowl you have, and whether you’d be interested in serving on a
committee or contributing to our thrice yearly newsletter.
GFIA
2812 FM 987
Kaufman, TX 75142
Customer Name
Street Address
City, ST ZIP Code