Do Guinea Fowls like people?

Hello! I've recently been interested in getting guinea fowls to add to my brood. I was wondering though...Do guinea fowls get along with people like chickens do? I know that guinea fowls are a lot different than chickens and I know that they will alarm at strangers on your property, but how long does it take for them to get used to their owner walking around? Does it depend a lot on if you raise them from when they're keets or get them as adults? Can you pick them up and love on them like you can chickens? Or are they not like that? Or are only some guineas like that?

MiBirds said:

Hello! I've recently been interested in getting guinea fowls to add to my brood. I was wondering though...Do guinea fowls get along with people like chickens do? I know that guinea fowls are a lot different than chickens and I know that they will alarm at strangers on your property, but how long does it take for them to get used to their owner walking around? Does it depend a lot on if you raise them from when they're keets or get them as adults? Can you pick them up and love on them like you can chickens? Or are they not like that? Or are only some guineas like that?

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I have had guinea's on and off for many years----and have raised many from the incubator---I never spent a lot time with them---so---I do not know if they could be trained to be friendly----Never had one that I could pick up if it knew it was about to be picked up. I have had them stay close when I was walking by.

I just started with guineas last summer with 5 chicks and no matter how much we loved on them as chicks they've never reciprocated. Of the 5, 1 was female she never stopped buckwheating unless there was a hen nearby for her to bully. The remaining males are great guards and let us know about everything that comes into the yard and are very nice to the chickens. I think they like me the most when I bring them scratch in the morning and put the night light in their coop in the evening, lol.

We have a male guinea that wandered into our yard two years ago and never left. He is very friendly to us and our 3 Neighbors. I put out game bird crumble and a fresh bowl of water on our back porch daily. Over the past two years he has become very friendly and has even let me pick him up. He follows us around and likes to visit in our garage. There are no other of his kind nearby so he may have taken us as his flock.

Sweet! Thank you for your reply.

We got two guineas in March of 2016. I had only seen one guinea before at a state fair so I wasn't real familiar with them. We've had chickens and ducks for years now so I started reading on the internet about them. They were brooded in a cage in our house in the hallway. Everyday I held one and my husband held the other one. We would hold them about 15 to twenty minutes a day. They soon enjoyed the holding and the petting and loved getting out of their cage. When they were about 4 or 5 weeks old I put them in the backyard in a little pen. It was in the 90s so it was plenty warm for them to be outside. I would bring them back in the house in the evening and put them in their cage. At about 8 weeks old I moved them to the chicken coop and put them in a cage. Then in about a week I let them out and they freeranged with the chickens and ducks. They ignore the chickens but sometimes chase the ducks. They still want to come in the house everyday and they love to be petted, held and Spiderman loves for you to hug him. I got lucky and they turned out to be a male and a female. They are not your ordinary guineas. They don't like to perch they stand on a table in the coop at night. They don't fly I have clipped their wings several times now tho. They don't like mealworms or mullet and I'm not even for sure if they like to eat bugs. They are much friendlier then my chickens or my ducks. They love people and enjoy spending time with us.

This is really helpful so thank you so much! So I think that raising them from birth and just spending as much time with them as you can would be better then getting them as adults. Your attached guineas are so cute!!

Here's my little guy enjoying a break from the rain

They like people. They are very inquisitive and will investigate anything new.

You don't have to tame them... they will just get tame if you go and feed them a couple times a day... they will recognize your face and not get scared of you.

Mine run / fly up to me when ever I leave the house.

I got mine when they were about half grown.. and they were really scared of me when I first got them,

Guinea fowl, however, will not like to be petted or held... they hate that! It's just their nature. But they will easily get very close to you and feeed from you hand.