Guinea Fowl Enjoy Year’s First Free Ranging
As predicted in an earlier blog, the weather on Saturday was nice, and our flock of 30 pearl grey Guinea fowl was allowed out for their first free ranging of the year. The dogs were happy to finally get back to being with their Guinea fowl charges. We were glad for too many reasons to list here. The Guinea fowl were clearly thrilled at the opportunity to free range – despite the lingering snow and sticky mud. It was a real red letter day around the ranch.
We did have noticeably more moderate weather and temperatures last week, often above freezing and just as often with decent sunshine. Still, the winter’s snow did not completely melt. In fact, even to my surprise, there is still a pretty good bit of snow on the ground – especially on the north sides of hillsides, buildings, etc. I would say that on Saturday, which was the first day we let the Guinea fowl back out to free range, 60% of the ground was cleared of snow.
While our Guinea fowl did not have to cope with much snow on the ground, they did get their first introduction to Montana gumbo. I’ve been to several places in the US that have gumbo, but I’ve never been to anyplace that has gumbo like we do in some parts of Montana. To clarify, ‘gumbo’ is soil that is fully soaked with moisture and has become sticky and heavy. The spring snow melting creates our year’s worst gumbo. It’s so bad that a person cannot walk through it because a) it is very slippery b) it instantly clings to shoes/boots adding amazing weight and c) because if you sink too deep it will not release your foot. The Guinea fowl had their problems dealing with it – which really surprised us, since the Guinea fowl are so light.
When we let the Guinea fowl out to free range, they encountered the first gumbo just a few feet outside the coop yard. Their tiny feet instantly became caked with the sticky, heavy substance – immediately causing the Guinea fowl to have trouble walking and flying. It was both sad and entertaining. In fact, we were so entertained that we added a video to Guinea Fowl TV on YouTube. You can watch the short video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1i-eTD0evM.
We also allowed the Guinea fowl out to free range on Sunday and Monday, since the weather was so comparatively nice. I’ll be putting more in this blog about how our dogs and Guinea fowl acted during these first season free ranging opportunities over the next few days. I’ll also be trying to get some good Guinea fowl photographs of their free ranging in the gumbo.
If you haven’t watched any of our Guinea fowl videos, tune into Guinea Fowl TV at http://www.youtube.com/user/GuineaFowlTV.
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