Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-06-20

if ever change their mates. In fact,
my young friend tells me that If one of
pair dies it is a waste of time and
money to attempt to find the lone
guinea another mate. He assures me
it is much better plan to sell the odd
fowl and buy another mated pair.
Guineas-that is, common guineas-
weigh from to 31s or even 4 pounds
and sell for any sum between 35 and
SO cents. There is a larger more
snowy variety, known as the Austria
liam guinea, which sometimes acquires
the weight of 5 or even pounds, but
they are not as hardy and easily reared
as are the common fowls
guinea will lay from eighteen to
twenty one eggs before she decides to
sit upon them, and if she is allowed
to have her own way will bring up
the one brood in the season.
My young friend watches her daily
until he finds where she has hidden her
nest and steals her eggs, carefully dip
ding them out of the nest with a big
spoon, for he believes that if his hands
were to come in contact with the nest
Madame Guinea would know it and
either entirely give UP the idea OF rails
| ing a family or at least find another
nest.
These first eggs he entrusts tn the
care of one of his fathers Plymouth
Rocks, and when the guinea begins to
| sit he destroys her nest the first time
| she leaves it. In a few weeks when
she begins to mysteriously disappear
again, he tells me she is off his mind
| for the season.
He does not always attempt to find
her new nest, for he is quite sure that
she can attend to her own affairs.
| He knows that she will turn up later
in the season with eighteen or twenty
chicks, cunning little creatures, resem-
bling quails and about the size OF
prairie chickens of that age.
| The young chicks are very hardy and
begin to shift for themselves early in
life. They do not struggle away from
the mother, but move in a well-be-
haved, orderly little company like a
flock of cartridges.
Do not attempt to drive them into
a henhouse for shelter at night. Fa.
Their Guinea will do his part toward
i lowering them at the foot of some tree
or under some bush that happens tc
strike their fancy, in perfect safety, and
4 ~ VIII NC iidIy lIloOIlS uflUll Lne
chicks will be roosting alongside the
'old folks" on the ridgepole of the
barn, or in the highest tree on the
place.
They are very fond of cracked corn
but they apparently thrive on anC
relish any kind of food thrown out t.
the other fowls. They really require bu
little feed, as they are splendid forag.
ers.
GuIneas are fearless little creatures
/ I have seen a small spunlly guinea her
drive hungry, determined cat from
the poultry yard more than once The,
! certainly sleep with an ear and an ey,
open, for from their perch in the tree
top they will note the approach of
soft-footed weasel or mink to tn,
chicken house at any hour in the nigh
and will "potrack" so fiercely that tn,
intruders stink away or the family ar,
/ aroused.
There is a steadily increasing marke
for guineas People who are fond o
prairie chickens and wild game Of tina
I. sort find the guinea an excellent sub
! stitute. The guinea ages rapidly an,
is apt to be rank, tough and uneatabl
after its second year, however,