Tales from WannaBea Farm

Love Story

As my new little chicks, that were supposed to be female grew, I realized that one of them was going to be a rooster. I didn't really want another rooster, but there he was and we decided to let him grow up and then decide which one to keep. I liked the old rooster, "Red" and as the young one grew he began to look like Red, but not as handsome. So we began calling them, Big Red and Little Red, even though Little Red soon outgrew Big Red. It wasn't long before Little Red started stealing hens away from Big Red and chasing him away from the hen house. Then Big Red would steal some of the hens back. After a while it seemed like they had decided to share equally, but alas, it was not to be. Little Red was younger and bigger and he made up his mind that those were his hens, all of them and he was no longer willing to share. He wouldn’t even let him roost in the hen house! Poor Big Red, he seemed so lonesome and lost and he started roosting in the barn on the dividers between the stalls, but every once in a while he would sneak back into the henhouse. Sometimes Little Red would allow him to stay and other times he would run him out, depending on his mood I guess. Other times, some of the hens would roost in the barn with Big Red, and then Little Red would just about go crazy running back and forth between the barn and the hen house until it started to get too dark for him and then he would go on into the hen house. The next morning he would take revenge on Big Red by terrorizing and chasing him all day, pulling out his tail feathers, until finally Big Red would just disappear to some hiding place. Poor old thing looked so funny without them and I was thinking very seriously about putting Little Red in the crock pot!

Then one morning I woke up to find guinea feathers all over the place. Something had attacked one of my young guinea hens. She was so pitiful looking with big patches of feathers gone and bare skin showing in places, dragging one leg and limping around. I felt so sorry for her and didn't think she would live, especially as the other guineas now started to pick on her. Just like people that don’t want to be around people that are different, they didn’t want to be around an ugly, crippled guinea. But live she did, although she was no longer able to fly up into the tree where all the other guineas roosted at night. Now she could still fly some, and could eventually join the other guineas by flying to the lowest limb and working her way from limb to limb but it must have been painful and tiring as she started trying to sleep in the hen house. But Little Red would have none of that. The most he would allow was for her to come in and sleep on the floor, but he was adamant about sharing the roost with a half bald, crippled guinea hen. And now the other guineas were picking on her too.

One morning while throwing feed to them, I noticed that her and Big Red where eating side by side, a little away from the rest of the flock, which was unusual because the guineas and the chickens had never been buddies and didn't get along at all, usually with the guineas bullying the chickens and trying to run them away from the feed. Later that day, I saw they were still together so I started to pay a little more attention to them and for the next few days they stayed together with Big Red even calling to her when he found an especially tasty bug to feed her.

"Now isn't that sweet", I thought and decided that she needed a name so I named her "Gwen". That night when I went out to the barn I was startled to see Big Red and Gwen roosting side by side, cuddled up as close together as they could get, and cooing at each other like a couple of love birds. Now they are inseparable and Big Red seems happy enough with Gwen that I haven't even seen him trying to steal any of his old harem back. The two outcasts don't seem to need the others now as they are happy with just each other.