Birdadette's Birthing

Good Morning all!

I am a little revived and have a little story for you.

All it took was one call from my Mama, and her request that I write about it... and bam!

Now if you are not up to speed on Mama and her hobby, check out my earlier post. Charmingly and alluringly entitled Mama and the Poultry Palace, it will get you up to speed.

Ready? OK.

The moment Mom heard we would be coming back for a longer visit, she started speculating about her hens, and whether or not they were tending their nests, and whether or not the kids might get to enjoy guinea babies during our visit. And this morning I got the call.

Mom is a proud parent of 10 newborn guinea chicks, that she has rescued from the jaws of death!

She awoke this morning to much squawking and screeching from Birdadette, who had been nesting in a nearby ditch. Daring to hope the chickadees had hatched, Mom hurried over to check on them and get them incubated. She saw the freshly-hatched chicks, and the irate mother hen and hurriedly gathered the babies into a basket. As she set them up under a heat lamp, she heard the mother still squawking and making a scene. Mom hurried back to the ditch, only to come nose to nose with a large copperhead making its way into the nest!

Guineas are known to attack snakes to protect their nests, and Birdadette had been doing her best to keep the snake away from her babies. There was one hatchling left, hidden, and it was rescued before the snake could get it.

Mom kept a gimlet eye on the snake while my brother Jeremy got his shotgun. I can attest to the size of that bugger, since he just sent me a pic - yowza!

At last sighting, Birdadette was flaring her wings back and screeching at the snake carcass, and all the male guineas had gathered around and were pecking it. Vengeance is mine, squawked the fowl.

And that's your Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom tale of the week.

On a lighter note - yay! Baby guineas! The kids are so excited...