an ice storm -- in Texas!
December 12 thru 14, 2000, near Dallas TX was ice & sleet -- a surprise to our fowl!
On most days, we let all the guineas & chickens out after lunch. Most of the chickens come charging out first, a flappin' and a squakin', with the guineas (mostly in flight) in hot pursuit. They fly 30 to 70 feet and land in the yard.
It didn't work that way on this day, though. It started out the same, but the chickens got outside and came to a screeching/sliding halt, and the guineas, after they were airborne and outside, discovered the world had changed for the whiter. They flew much longer than they usually do, some of them going in circles, trying for the life of them to use their little guinea brains to figure out what to do. Quite the site! They rarely go up in our trees, and they had never flown to the trees directly from their house, but this day we had 30 guineas in the trees -- I don't think even one of them touched the ground at all!
Of course, the tree branches were icy, too. So they were a slippin' and a slidin' and a flappin' trying to find a good spot. A few would loose their footing and end up on a lower branch or in one of the smaller eastern red cedars (like pine trees) underneath.
They sat up there almost all day. The chickens just sat around near the door of their house -- I guess they didn't like it very much either.
The next day, there was still ice on the ground, so some of the birds cautiously came out -- much different than their usual charge of the light brigade exit.
Such fun they are!!!
