Guinea hens are *impossible* to take photos of. They are incredibly skittish and never stand still, not even for one moment.
This is the best picture I got of our two Guinea hens today.
Yeah, I know not the greatest. My photo was supposed to look something more like this:
I just couldn’t get those two to stay still.
Let’s face it, guinea hens are strange looking birds, they’re like a cross between a vulture, a chicken, a football, and a lizard. They don’t care about human interaction and do their own thing only when they choose. Our Guineas don’t have the slightest interest in being held, or even having a person near them. They don’t come when called and run to back corners when you try to get near them. A little anti-social, these birds are, let’s just hope they earn their keep this summer by eating our ticks.
Of course, the discussion on how strange Guinea hens look and act has prompted Marc, our resident chicken man (who freely admits that he can live a very full life without ever having another Guinea hen) to tell me that in his book, he thinks our birds look like the freaky Skekis from Jim Henson’s film: The Dark Crystal.
I see the resemblance. Poor little misfits of ours, definitely a face only a mother could love.
As an added bonus, here’s a youtube video of Skekis having dinner. See what Marc means?