I can't find the guinea

I asked my oldest son to go make sure the birds were in the coop tonight.  He's done this all week since I've been really sick.

This is a simple job.  He goes out, peeks in the coop to count the chickens and roosters (5 total now that we've sold four of the cockerels) and counts the guinea that perch on a board in the chicken run (7 now that we've lost Poopers).  When he comes back in, I ask how many birds there were, and as long as he says 12, we're fine.  He always says 12.

Tonight, he comes back in and says "I can't find the guinea."

He's serious. I pull my boots on, grab a flashlight and head outside.

I grab each of us a long piece of wood to help shoo them once we find them and we start walking to the treeline.

I've read about guinea.  They will leave a coop.  They will fly up into the trees and roost if they need to.  If they don't think they are getting enough food at this home, they'll find another home (in the wild, in the woods, wherever).

Since all of the birds have been wandering further from the coop and actually going around the side of the house eating all of the bugs, I figured that maybe they went over near the tree that had fallen down and when it got dark they just went into that tree to roost.  But I didn't want them to think this was okay and I didn't want them outside of the goat pen at night where any creature could get them.

We started at the garden, worked our way around the driveway, and then made our way around the house to where I thought they would be.

They weren't there.

So we made our way around by the bonfire pit and our outhouse (I'll have to tell you about that later).  They weren't there.

We were about 100 feet away from the coop and I was worried.

How far would they have gone?  Do we need to go into the woods to look?  What if they went out onto the road?  Did one already get eaten by something?  Did I scare them too many times when I took food out to them today?  Did the lawn mower freak them out today?

Then Johnathon says, "I see them".

I look to where his flashlight is pointing and walk over to the chicken run.

There they were, the entire time.  Perched on top of the coop, where they have been before.

I turned around and went back in the house.