Guinea Appreciation thread, tell us about why you love your guineas :)

[prepperchickens]

So I don't notice as much discussion about what amazing pets guineas make here or anywhere else on the web very often.
I am brand new to guineas (and poultry in general) but have raised a couple so far, very tragically lost one to a stray cat (he sacrificed himself for the hens and they all made it without a scratch), my eldest is female, about 3 mos old (just now turning into Demonic Space Turkey) and I also have a 1 week old male keet to give her a new companion among the chickens. Haven't named my keet yet, can't decide, but my girl is named Ducky.
I was told guineas are wild, impossible to tame etc etc but that was never my experience at all. I do spend lots of time with my birds but I didn't hold my keets for hours and hours a day everyday or anything crazy, I did hold them regularly to get them over their nerves but honestly not more than I held my chicks. I have extremely tame guineas, Ducky flies onto mine and my husband's shoulder if she sees us dare hold a bird other than her. She is clumsy and awkward and not sure footed but she cannot be deterred from flying onto my head even if another hen is on me. She considers us her territory, and she will land on our shoulder and immediately begin grooming herself and us which I take as affection as well as a way of showing dominance/ownership over us to the chickens. She also and tag, she runs up all goofy flapping those huge wings around in a circle until right beside me, makes eye contact then darts off playfully flapping and stops a few feet away to look back and make sure I'm chasing. Once I tag her she gets super excited and makes a big show flapping and clucking and darting around. I've never seen anything like it.
She will follow me anywhere, and she is very obedient, my giuneas have learned signals and commands almost automatically. She knows her name for sure also.
She used to be a very timid standoffish keet, her late brother was more affectionate from the start, but all that changed when I began taking everyone outside to dig earthworms. My nervous, shy but sweet keets transformed into loyal puppy dogs after the first day. Handling them didn't have the effect this did, handling they learned to like but playing and eating worms in the dirt they naturally loved and because I made it possible everyday, I was their whole world right away. Mealworms have the same effect but only if you still spend time playing with them and letting them explore new things while you protect them....I feel like they learned to trust me completely by trusting my lead in the yard. Ducky will walk through a walk of my 6 cats if I'm calling to her to come to me.
Guineas pick up very fast on things you teach them with treat rewards, and if they associate you with a) fun b) worms c) trust they will amaze you with how tame they become. Mine were already 2 mos old just about, maybe 6 weeks, before they tamed fully.
But they have the chickens beat for most affectionate and attentive. My Ducky is my shadow, and it's so obvious with her expressions and behavior that she worships her people. My chickens more expect to be worshipped (and they are, I spoil them) and in return they grace me with the chance to pet them and pick them up. My guineas are like eager puppy dogs who would be wagging their tails if they could everytime they see me. Ducky let me hug her today and nuzzled under my chin. She treats me like another bird, and my guineas have all 3 been remarkable loving to their flockmates.
When I lost Ducky's brother Little Foot it really, really messed me up. I failed him, he was my sweetest baby and I failed to protect him and Ducky lost her best friend. She had been lukewarm toward me up until then so it made me so sad to imagine my surviving giunea being aloof when Luttle Foot had been a teddy bear. Miraculously as though she knew I needed her support, Ducky overnight began being even more loving than her brother. That meant so much to me and ever since then we get closer and closer each day. She is very excited about her new little friend, the baby keet. I wasn't sure if she'd be interested but of all my chickens she's the one who doesn't take her eyes off him. I keep him in a desperate playpen in the garage so she can see him and she's started to lay down next to him and stay right beside him the whole time like her chickens are invisible! I promised here I would give her someone to sing with again like she did with Little Foot, I think she appreciates it, she gives me the sweetest most bashful look like "aww shucks thanks mommy" lol.
I've had tons of animals my whole life, I've rescued and rehabilitated countless wildlife professionally and as a volunteer, I've grown up with parrots and ferrets and everything in between. I find guineas to be very special, similar to my ferrets actually. Their joie de vivre is infectious and when they love their person, they really love their person. I could sit with my guineas and chickens for hours, it's so relaxing, but of all my birds my guineas especially show everytime that they are so happy I'm there with them, in their goofy, clumsy, heartwarming little way. Work with your keets like I explained, vs just tons of handling which I've heard doesn't always work well, and I promise you will be glad you did. If you've never had a guinea tamer than eve a chicken, or at least as tame, you're missing out on a very rewarding and entertaining bond. They are the most doglike birds I've ever seen!

I would love to hear about your guinea(s), plus I think these goofy birds deserve a little more fawning and fanfare than they currently seem to get

 

[GitaBooks]

Sounds like you have some really happy, awesome pets!
I hope to get Guineas soon, as I've heard a lot of good things about them. I'll try taming them the way you suggested.

 

[prepperchickens]

Thanks! Yeah I just really like to get the word out about how easy and awesome it can be to have super friendly, doting guineas. Most people tell me it's almost unheard of just about but that can't be. What have you heard about them? I had no idea what a guinwa was ubt I got them, but I've raised all kinda of wild birds and guineas are so unique, almost too naturally comical to be real vs a cartoon. They remind me of dodo birds or something. Their curiously and playfulness must soon them in the wild, I guess it helps build strong social groups though. In guessing a lot if people just have very large flocks and when guineas start out as nervous and avoidant they don't have time to work with them, imagining it's more involved than it really is because once your guinea knows it can get worms, fun, protection while exploring, and, for the males, forehead rubs, your giuneas will be even happier to see you each morning than your chickens. Taming via handling alone probably just teaches them to submit rather than totally adore you, you have to speak their language and their language has like four words: fun, treats, love, and trust. My keet talks to me, if he hears me make his goofy we-jip noise he makes it back to me In response and we go back and forth. I live chicks but keets, oh man, they're like a baby bird and a puppy in one.

If you're planning to get keets (and you should! They're so incredible!) and you want some tips on sexing them let me know, I have found my method to be accurate each time this far and I'm surprised more people online dnr do the same thing. It's not like vent sexing scientific but it's very reliable and easy and works at any age.

 

[GitaBooks]

I think I originally heard about them through Backyard Poultry magazine, though I saw that they were for sale at McMurrays. I was always interested in them, learning that they were great with keeping away ticks (we have lots of ticks where we live) and loved to run around the property and were bold and funny and friendly.
The people we got our silkies from had guineas, but other then that I've never seen one in real life.

I would definitely like some tips! Thanks so much!

 

[prepperchickens]

I think I originally heard about them through Backyard Poultry magazine, though I saw that they were for sale at McMurrays. I was always interested in them, learning that they were great with keeping away ticks (we have lots of ticks where we live) and loved to run around the property and were bold and funny and friendly.
The people we got our silkies from had guineas, but other then that I've never seen one in real life.

I would definitely like some tips! Thanks so much!

Guineas have amazing vision an are so quick on the draw it's not even fair to the chickens fighting for worms, I'm sure they would be good at getting ticks and stuff, they see bugs faster than I do. I have to separate my chickens from guineas for all of them to get their fair share of mealworms lol. Guineas will grab3 worms before the chicken gets 1.
Just make sure to perfect your guineas, they are naive from what I can tell unless it's a "snake" (extension cord, piece if string lol) the they're on top of it but otherwise they are too busy pigging out and being happy little birds to be as alert as they need to be. At last when young. But I hear in general their survival skills suck regarding predators they're very innocent.
As for sexing, ok here's what works for me:
I'm gonna tell you how to pick a boy because that will help you identify both. Boys make the best pets usually I'm told, but I think it's just that they start off less timid automatically. When you look into the pen of keets, keep an eye out for the smaller babies who are stretching their winglets out as the scurry to the feeder, the ones making the most noise, the ones whose behavior catches your eye because it's more extroverted. Those are your boys. When you pick them up it's possible to calm them down by talking softly and rubbing their forehead (for some reason boys like that a lot lot lot and girls don't seem to as readily)... The girls normally will have none of it and no amount of soft coos or head rubs will easily shut them up. If it's the first week, maybe the first 10 days, you can go by wing feathers. The boys tend to be at least a whole day behind the girls, when the girls first sprout quills on those precious winglets, the boys will have none and it may take up to 2 days for them to sprout. Many if these traits I'm mentioning seem to be very hard wired for some reason, even the personality. The girls are bigger at fest and they fill out faster. When Ducky was already becoming very round and voluminous at 6 weeks, Little Foot looked puny in comparison and her smooth feathers stood in stark contrast to his crackheaded almost curly/crooked feathers. He had Farrah hair for feathers. I think that was a quirk of his though, but the girls definitely seem to feather out faster and smoother. Week old keets are especially easy to sex for this reason, it's clear as day. I'm sure some boys and girls are on the bigger or smaller end if the spectrum, so if you don't see a huge difference between your top picks refer to behavior and noises. They both make the same noises but the boys never ever shut up, they're like overexcited puppies. Ducky makes a subdued, infrequent version of the same sounds Little Foot seemed to make every moment he was awake lol. They're cute noises, the "we-jips" kinda sound like a 2 syllable honk and it appears to mean "I'm happy, I love you, give me worms and attention, everything is awesome"...they both make the sound when they find treats (so cute) but the boys will be incessant and the girls will be more like once or twice. The girls are just nowhere near as high strung and ADD, that's the biggest tell. If you look closely, the male keets have visibly narrower faces, the girls have rounder faces. As Ducky and Little Foot grew the difference became increasingly more apparent, it was kind of freaky because they began looking so different having been twins until then.
Also there is a weird thing I've noticed so far but only tested on the 3 I took home vs other keets in general, but both of my boys have gone absolutely crazy when placed near my hair or my husbands beard. They both honked maniacally and tried to bury themselves in the hair. Little Foot nuzzled and honked frantically for several minutes into his beard before falling asleep standing up with his little orange feet on tippy toes and his face buried in beard. At first we thought he was like attacking the beard but now I realize with my current boy keet, something about hair makes them feel very safe and secure and overjoyed. Ducky had a very minor version of this reaction but was not nearly as frantic and got over it after a minute or 2. The boys are just bigger extroverts so their quirky behavior is just much more exaggerated and frenetic. The girls are more reserved and timid, introverted.
That may sound complicated but I swear it isn't, it's usually very noticeable. It's kinda the same with chicks, I can always spot the roosters, they carry themselves like little boys playing dress up as big tough guys. I also find the baby Roos are more sensitive, lol, my baby silver sebright roo thinks he's very tough when he picks on my doofy oblivious keet but when he hears a scary noise he hides his head under his sisters body and leaves his butt up in the air. They also have different head shapes, tend to be smaller, strut around and stand taller, etc. The hens are more reserved and less needy, just like guinea females. I know people like to have more concrete sexing methodology but so far for me these differences are observable and reliable, perhaps even moreso with guineas. If the keet seems like he needs Ritalin in the worst way, he's a he, basically. if you get some let me know, I wish I could get 10 more!!!