Guinea Nest Moving Fiasco: Part One....

Oh. My. Some things are just way better in theory than they are in real life! The plan...I'll distract her, hubby will grab her from behind, I'll grab the eggs, and they'll immediately be reunited in the nice safe coop where life goes on safely. Simple, right? Keep in mind we have never done anything like this before.

We managed to somehow drop the ball on grabbing her off the nest. While Hubs chased her, I had no doubt in my mind that we'd catch her. Yes, that is the La La Land that I live in, where things go fine even when they don't go fine. Darn that optimism! So I went ahead and gathered the eggs and moved them. Only we didn't catch her! Between the roof, and the trees, and then it got dark...we didn't catch her. Crap! Plan B! Plan B! Oh hell! There was no plan B! And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is where we failed.

Hindsight being 20/20 and all, plan A SHOULD have been to secure the hen, THEN gather the eggs and move them all happily. Plan B SHOULD have been: if she could not be secured, then leave it alone and try again. That way she would have gone back to sitting on the nest, thus easier to catch (If there is such a thing as easier. Have you ever tried to catch a Guinea?!?!?!) and her eggs would not be too disturbed. Instead she ended up in the tree for the night. Once the eggs had been moved, and it was dark and chilly, and no hen to sit on them...this is what happened....

I didn't know what else to do! She had been sitting on them so wouldn't getting cold overnight kill them? I dunno. I dunno! I dunno!!! So I brought them in the house, kicking myself the whole time, and sprinkled water on the grass and put a heat pad on top to maintain 99ish degrees - with the intention of catching her sometime today and hopefully, HOPEFULLY getting them in the coop together where she'll happily shed a tear over the reunification with her littles-to-be and commence sitting until they hatch, which they will do, because I so ingeniously kept them warm in her absence. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh!

Crap. Crap! Crap!!! I feel horrible. Maybe it will all work out? Please, God, let it all work out!

So, tip of the day....When attempting to move a Guinea Hen and her nest to safety, secure the bird BEFORE going any further! I'll let you know how it turns out.