Mama and the Poultry Palace

Are you laughing yet?

Give it a minute.


So, I was looking for Mama this morning. I called her cell, since she's always on the move at crack thirty, and it went straight to voicemail. No answer at her house either, so next up was the shop. No answer, and in fact a peculiar recording on the voicemail.

"Ribbit, ribbit, this is Joan. I've been towed away from my pad..."

Ummm, this would be the recording of my recently deceased grandmother.

I actually hung up and redialed, thinking in some parallel phone world that I had accidentally dialed my grandmother's phone number.

But no, after a second I realized Mom had simply installed my grandmother's old phone at her shop, and had not changed the recording. That's got to be good for business, a frog recording in an interior design business... this would need some follow-up.

Sure enough, Mama called back right away, admitting that the frog recording should not be on. She admitted this from the midst of her newly named Poultry Palace, where she was tending her brood before walking to work.

Did any, or all, of this shock you? And which part - the frog answering, the poultry flock, or the walking to work? It gets better.

Mama has become enamored of guinea hens.

Her lead hen is named Guinea Lynn, and Guinea Lynn has 3 chicks. The Poultry Palace residents were loath to head out and forage for the day, because of some circling hawks. (Smart guineas - I think. Debatable.)

Guinea Lynn is a loud mama bugger. She squawks a lot, which I know from hearing her over the phone. She is particularly loud when broody, laying, and mothering. Which means she is always loud.

As her flock has grown, Mama has been reading up on guineas and their preferences. I know, what riveting material that must be! The latest tidbit, which she shared with me this morning, is about a guinea and a mirror. Some (fortunate? misbegotten? just plain kooky?) guinea farmer came to realize that guinea hens like to look at themselves in a mirror. So guess what is now propped in the Poultry Palace?

Yep.

Guinea Lynn has been mesmerized (and silenced!) by her own reflection.

Thank you, ye gods of bloggy fodder, for my Mama. She has gone and given her Guinea Lynn a mirror, and wonder of wonders it has shut Guinea Lynn up! Apparently, G.L. pecks at herself and generally enjoys her own company, rather than squawking all the time. We can only hope her 3 chickies (keets, if we care to know) become so vain. And quiet. The quiet part is good.
This mirror-aculous (har-de-har) feat is so entertaining, that my family watches it, enthralled.
The Poultry Palace of Mirrors, coming to a farm near you!
You can bet I'm going to need pictures of this, and I promise to share.

Let's just call this Mama and the Poultry Palace, Part One.

(This one goes out to my Gig, because my word she would have hooted!)