Birds of a Feather...Well Kind of a Feather

One of these things is not like the other...and one of them doesn't quite get that fact.

When our two guineas were acquired late last fall, they were supposedly a "pair"...as in a mated pair, not just two of them.  And indeed, they have been inseparable since arriving here--eating together, sleeping together, harassing all the other animals together.  They have rarely been seen apart and when separated, they call wildly until they locate each other.  We have spent the summer hoping they would mate and give us a hatch of guinea chicks.  They seemed like the perfect "lovebirds".

Until one of them fell in love...with a chicken.

It started a few weeks ago when I realized the guineas weren't together and weren't calling each other.  I immediately thought that one had gotten itself killed and went in search of the body.  Lo and behold, he wasn't dead but was, in fact, showing all his manly guinea skills to a hen over in the shed.  She was obliviously enjoying a dust bath but he was putting on a strutting show and chasing all other poultry off in his attempts to woo her.

And so it has gone on.  We apparently have two boys and one has fallen wildly in love with a hen. To be fair, the chicken he is smitten with is a Barred Rock hen and of all our chickens, she looks the most like him...but she is most definitely not reciprocating his advances.

Despite his constant presence and all his efforts, she rarely even looks up at him and quite often tries to simply leave.  Alas for her, he is persistent and follows her everywhere, chasing off all others....literally all others--chickens, donkeys, sheep and pigs are not safe from him jumping on them in his efforts to keep his woman to himself.

And his former "mate"? Well, he just follows sadly at a distance.  He has not attempted to find his own mate or usurp that of his friend, but just follows the pair around.  Sometimes his buddy lets him get close but most of them he too is asked to stay far away.  It is rather heartbreaking to see him left all alone...especially since his best friend left him for another species.

It appears we will be in the market for a few more guineas because somebody has to play matchmaker for these wayward lovebirds.  (and how much you want to bet that we go buy two more and end up with a whole bachelor pad of boys? 🤨)