Meet The Flock – The Looneybins
The five guineafowl in our flock are, more often that not, collectively known as “The Looneybins”.
It’s not that we can’t tell them apart- there are two pearl, three pied, a female of both, and they all have unique markings- it’s more being able to keep sane in their presence long enough to come up with five rational trains of thought to name them. If we had to, I guess that Nutcase, Looneytoon, Crazy, Bonkers, and Wackadoodle would probably work.
The Looneybins are very set in their routine, and each morning spend a half hour circling a stainless drum while honking and pecking at their reflections in the shiny sides. Once they tire of those antics, they’ll wander out front to perch on the split rail and voice their displeasure at cars that happen to drive by. The rest of the day will be spent wandering around looking for anything that is out of the ordinary, supervising any outside work that’s being done, and following the chickens around while squawking incessantly. Of course, if something odd were to happen during this time, such as a leaf falling, a bird or plane flying overhead, the sun slipping behind the clouds, or the cat sneaking out, they will immediately notify us of this unusual occurrence, and fly over the house or up into the trees.
Somehow, the Looneybins are smart enough to come back into the coop for food, and head inside each night for roosting, though they have zero concept of personal space, and in their younger days would roost on top of the chickens. Every so often though, they’ll lose track of time, suddenly realize that it’s too dark to find their way in (regardless of the spotlights lighting the way), end up roosting directly above the coop door and keeping everyone up all night with their cries. This domestication hasn’t affected their egg laying habits though- although they’ve grown up with chickens, and will follow their lead any other time, when it comes to egg laying they prefer to shun the nice, safe nest boxes in favor of creating a nice unsecure predator buffet in the woods. So, each night we collect their eggs for safekeeping, return them to the nest in the morning, and the Looneybins have been none the wiser.
