BYC Guinea hen club

[cicilianb97]

this is a guinea hen club for anyone who likes guinea hens, members may post reviews, share ideas, tell about there own experiences, add polls , and just have fun So please be respectful, and have fun

 

[margaret8]

Here are my guinias:

 

[cicilianb97]

chickens are great to but i thought i would start a guinea hen club cause those are great to ... anyone can join

 

[margaret8]

I raised my guinias from the time they were a day old! After they were about 2 months I transferred them to a pen outside. When they 3-4 months old I let them out. I fed them in the evening and they always came back to their house. They learned early on what trees were for! When a neighbors dogs got after them I found them in the top of trees! I haven't lost a one of them. They follow me around the yard, and they come when I call them. I'm still working on the peafowl!

 

[OzoneGuinea]

We just ordered up 20 pearl guineas. They will be somewhat new to us, but we have chickens and ducks and hatch our own. The chickens have their coop, the ducks have their winter house and summer pen (for night time). I'm thinking once the ducks move out to their summer pen, the guineas once feathered out and old enough, can have the duck house, we will put a screen door on it so they can get acclimated, and also has a couple screened windows. I assume we need to put perches up, no problem, we have tons of nice skinny birch trees down from the winter. Any other advice you can give us? I assume they eat the starter feed, is it safe to feed them table scraps too and stale bread, or should we stay away from that? I know with ducks not to do that as it can swell up in their tummies, and we never had and they won't touch it anyway. Is there a particular treat I can train them to come to, peas work for the ducks, fresh or frozen corn for the chickens, what would the guineas like?

I hope to join into your little club here, sure I will be needing some advice. We have plenty of land, many acres for them, so no problem there, and lots of trees, but we have already pulled 2 ticks off the puppy, so we are very excited to have them join our family, as are the neighbors. Ticks are epidemic here after many years (Maine) of never seeing a one. Thank you all for any advice!

Hello!
I am glad to hear that you are getting some keets soon!
To answer some of your questions: Setting up some perches is a great idea but make sure they are not too high because a guinea's bones are not as strong as a chickens bones so not having enough room to fly down may cause them to accidentally hurt a leg. Turkey starter feed is best for Keets because of the hight concentrate of protein, but chicken starter feed will do just fine
I find that guinea's are very picky eaters and they tend to ignore the scraps I give to my chickens. I know that they LOVE tomatoes so is you have a garden with tomatoes, it is best to not feed them tomatoes when they are young. But the best treat to give to a guinea is WHITE MILLET. This is the best if you want to train a guineafowl. When I had a bunch of guineas I would call out "babeeees" and the would come running up from the barn :')

A few things to know about guineas: these birds know how to free range. This is good because they eat up annoying insects like June Bugs and Ticks but sometimes they wondering into neighbor yards plus they do love to roost in trees so it is important to train them while they are young to come into the coop at night. I find that putting a small feeder with food or millet near or in the coop will keep the birds within your property and make it easier for you to put them in at night.
Guineas are also very skittish. I highly recommend handling them a lot when they are growing up. This will help with putting them away at night and with the noise level. Guineafowl (especially the female) can be EXTREMELY loud. If the guineas were not use to me, they would make a loud "SQUAK" or the females would "BUCKWHEAT" constantly. I have had guineas for over 10 years and found that the more I spent time with the birds when they were young, the less annoying noise they made when I was around them. Instead of the annoying noise a mention before, I would hear a noise, which I call it their sweet noise.

Let me know if you have anymore questions!

Here is a link of the "sweet noise" and a female buckwheat-ing:

 

[gander007]

Day 15 if I am right and counting

 

[mystry]

Do you think guineas would be ok in a residential neighbourhood that does not allow chickens or other farm animals please suggest any other poultry that we could maybe have. I personally kinda want bobwhites

Guineas can be loud. If they do not allow chickens guineas would be out of the question also. (they would be considered farm animals) If a neighborhood doesn't allow poultry/farm animals you usually aren't going to be able to have any kind of animal except the usual dogs, cats, etc...

 

[gander007]

Howdy - don't post here much. Got a question - raided a broody hen nest last week - keets hatched and kept getting picked off by predators. Got 10 live keets and about a dozen eggs at various stages of development. All eggs in incubator that I got Friday nigh. Momma hen abandoned nest after raid.

I've got 3 eggs now showing cracks in shell (pushed up cracks) and 1 of them has a tiny piece of shell popped off but membrane not broken. Assuming these are attempting to hatch (and not something I did wrong putting them in incubator) how long should it be before keets start emerging?

The bator has an auto turner so I'm thinking that needs to be stopped before the completely hatch?

Or should I stop it now? What about early development eggs not being turned for a day or so?

Lost and wandering

When my eggs are at the hatch point I normally turn off the turner as the new born chicks can easily get crushed between the turning and the floor of the incubator now after the chicks hatch you will need to leave them in the incubator to recover as it hatch process took a lot of energy out of the little guys and the chicks have enough food stored inside them to last for three days ........

Any more questions ?

 

[YayasChooks]

I am new to having guineas.
There was an ad for them stuck on the note board of our post office.
I gotta tell you, I LOVE MY LITTLE PTERODACTYLS!!
I had no idea at all what I was doing, but they are most forgiving. And I love to watch them chase bugs & frogs for mid-day snacks. Anyone thinking about getting some, SHOULD!!
I live on a mountain in New Hampshire where ticks were a real problem. A few days after they were released (from house arrest after harassing the neighbors-what did I know!) they went to work cleaning up my yard & garden. The only thing they didn't seem to like were the cabbage worms.

Ah, well.....
They've gone broody a few times in the woods, and my white one, Caitlyn was apparently gone after (by a fox?). I found her in a neighbors yard & she is now on home confinement until
She can walk again. She's a tough one, so I'd like to see whatever tried to get her!!
A neighbor stopped by with their dog before she was hurt & was just standing there talking to me when out of the woods she came in full-out attack mode, sending a full grown man & his medium sized dog running back home!!
My other hen Bruce has become tame enough I can pet her & she even comes when I rattle the metal can I keep her food in. (Too Cool!! I was told that guineas are aloof & unsociable.)
My only word of advice is do NOT let them get hooked on Chook-Crack! It has become a bit costly. I do it, but if you're on a budget or don't want to start ordering 5# boxes of mealie worms from Amazon, don't let them start.

I really hope others will chime in with THEIR experiences, as I have a LOT to learn still!

 

[Ramblin Rooster]

this is a guinea hen club for anyone who likes guinea hens, members may post reviews, share ideas, tell about there own experiences, add polls , and just have fun                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         So please be respectful, and have fun                                                                                                                            

Yay finally a guinea fowl thread! e