Galahad goes to bed

It’s the last day of July, and I’m noticing the day drift already.  Bedtime is slightly earlier at night.

Before dark, I have to go out and open a door of the greenhouse to let Galahad the guinea in.  The sweet spot is the time the chickens are still milling around but have lost their curiosity and have turned their chickpea sized brains toward their own going to bed, so that they don’t also dart in (because they dream of it all day).

If I’m on time, he’ll be watching for me to open the door and be ready to run right in.  If I’m late, he’ll be up in the walnut tree (always the same place). 

He’ll look at me, look at the door, and then fly down, and scuttle in. 

He prefers if I stand back a little distance and especially if I look away, but in a pinch I can just hold the door open for him.

Then he’ll walk over and jump up on his perching rail.  

He’ll usually look in at the broody hens on his way by, too.  He’ll notice if something is different; new broodies, or chicks peeping.   I love this little routine and I adore him.

We’ve done this since the birds all came out of the greenhouse in favour of crops on the 1st of May.  It’s keeping him safe from owls every night.  I thought we had it all sorted with the guineas, and then three of them dropped dead of mysterious causes, alas, and now I’m down to this one. I have to get him a girlfriend he can teach to go in the GH at night.

In the morning he pops out and goes up on the peak of the GH to supervise or sits on top of the Alpha coop waiting for me to let his chicken friends out.  Let my people go!